I know a few people, including several Food For Faith followers, who are nearing death. Some of these are elderly and accepting that their life on earth is naturally coming to an end. Others, well before their time, are struggling with poor health and living with diagnoses of terminal illness.
light in the dark
A feeling of darkness often serves to highlight the limitations of our pre-packaged ideas
light in darkness
Faith is not a light which scatters all our darkness, but a lamp which guides our steps in the night and suffices for the journey.
lighting darkness
Returning to the way things were is the “recession” of which we should have the most fear.
moments of light
You might have clicked to the fact that Good Friday this year was marked on March 25 which would normally have been the feast of the Annunciation celebrating the...
the light gets in
These have been days of feasting with the feasts of Christmas, the Holy Family, Mary the Mother of God, and this weekend with the feast of the Epiphany. In secular...
Epiphany light
These have been days of festival as we have celebrated the feasts of Christmas, the Holy Family, Mary the Mother of God, now we celebrate the feast of the Epiphany....
homily studio 9/2
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time Readings this week at this link Fr. Robert Barron podcast reflection for this Sunday at this link. Heaps of commentaries and reflections...
holy cunning
I am sure that there are some people who saw this snake image and quickly decided to surf to another page. Many people don't like snakes. It can't be simply that they...
what Francis said
In my Epiphany homily on Sunday I took a guess at what Pope Francis might preach in his Epiphany homily. A few hours ago Pope Francis celebrated the Mass for the Feast...
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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.