Hope begins in the personal meeting with a divine presence-made-flesh, and encountered in the messy and imperfect reality of our daily experience…(Read More)
The experiences that feel like death are very often more like a birth offering different opportunities and invitations…(Read More)
…not the restoration of a familiar world order, but a new world where human achievements, personal successes and health are signs that point us beyond…(Read More)
“All will be well”, clinging to the beauty of our humanity and allowing words of encouragement to rise up from our hearts…(Read More)
The games we play with projects and goals, success, ambition and achievement are powerless to deliver the stability and happiness that they promise…(Read More)
While the visible present fear is a biological virus, the fact is that we humans face fear every day…(Read More)
The fact of our limited time on earth brings a clarity to our vision helping us to keep the struggles of earthly existence in a broader, deeper, eternal and loving divine perspective…(Read More)
The first readings of the liturgy this week give daily segments of the 42 chapters of the Old Testament Book of Job, well-chosen to convey the message of the entire book. Job is a good man who has everything then loses everything: wives, children, land, livestock and health. This leaves Job in the depths…(Read More)
While some people might compulsively look on the bright side of any situation, such power of positive thinking is not the same as Christian hope. Positive thinking can be hard work and often ignores reality. Christian hope faces fear and understands that no situation, however difficult, is without hope. Hope is a decision based on…(Read More)
Take a moment to read the opening verses of today’s gospel reading : Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they…(Read More)
Grief is the price we pay for love, and this week the many family and friends who love and are loved by Fr. Graeme Blackburn have been gripped by grief at his tragic road accident death on Monday. We were united in speechless shock at the news. Memories began to be shared. Tears flowed and…(Read More)
If you are following the daily liturgy gospel readings this week you will notice a bit of a potentially depressing theme. It’s the last week of the Church year before the new beginning of Advent on Sunday, so in these days the liturgy leads us to focus on the fact that all that surrounds…(Read More)
I am grateful to the Christchurch Press for taking the initiative to present a feature this morning on the recent Christchurch ordinations. A brief interview can do little more than convey an idea or two slanted with a personal, populist and often negative bias. However a personal participation in the gathering itself has the power…(Read More)
Yesterday I had the privilege of taking part in the Funeral Mass and burial rites of a much-loved Christchurch woman. Wendy died early last week decades too young at 47. For her husband and seven children this past week since their wife and mother’s sudden death has been an eternity of pain as…(Read More)
Today I’m at one of the many very beautiful cemeteries of the Hurunui. We the family and friends of one who has died, have gathered here in Waikari to bury him. When we gather for a funeral, we are confronted with the reality of death. The one we have known and loved in life…(Read More)
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