As the Aotearoa New Zealand school year begins for 2022 here’s a thought on the purpose of education, and a reflection on prayer in schools.
education
what star?
Teachers in all New Zealand schools have a tough vocation. Their passion for education of the young has led them to the classroom where they often find themselves...
schools follow-up
Earlier this year I wrote a piece in response to a Christchurch Press advertising feature page in which several city colleges promoted their schools. Included on the...
treaty & culture
Today we mark 176 years since the first signatures were put to the Treaty of Waitangi on Thursday 6 February 1840. Rightly this day is a public holiday in New Zealand,...
back to the books
Here in New Zealand thousands of school students are in the last week of their summer vacation. In a few weeks University students will return to their studies. No...
totality of reality
In our southern part of the world this week sees return to school for primary and high school students. Some young people will be excited at the prospect and others...
one foot outside?
You have heard me comment about Fr. Robert Barron’s wordonfire.com website, and his inspiring Youtube clips on a variety of contemporary topics. A few weeks ago I was...
on our knees
A few weeks ago I had a couple of hours' session with a dozen teachers in one of our Catholic High Schools. My brief was to present something of the beauty of the...
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the teenagers
A few years ago I discovered the wonderful way that God uses my imagination in my prayer.
Such openness to imagination when seeking God does not take us away from reality into fantasy but instead brings me into what is most real and inescapably personal and intimate.
Annunciation
A couple of thousand years ago, a young Jewish woman was going about her normal morning routines, perhaps with a mixture of house and garden work, chatting with parents and neighbours, aware of the local drought, the sickness of a neighbour and annoyed by the neighbourhood’s lack of sleep caused by the Romans’ noisy party the night before, when God broke into her routine and entered her life in a new and powerful way.
the real centre
Over the last month I have had the opportunity to work with many people across Aotearoa and further afield. In every retreat and seminar I have been with committed and faith-filled people who often feel as though they are on the periphery of the Church
the adventure
It’s easy to make the mistake of seeing life as a treadmill, day after day ups and downs, a movement through time from youth to old age, then death and beyond.
Too often if feels as if we are helplessly captive carried along by the momentum of all that is expected of us and demanded from us, and we risk falling into an existence mode, a daily rhythm of survival, enduring, coping and so the treadmill rolls on.
the bigger picture
Over the years, and even in recent months, weeks and days, I’ve prayed many prayers which have not been answered as I had hoped.
You’ve probably had the same experience: praying and wondering if and when or how your prayer will be answered.