Many Catholics aged over 65 can still recite word-for-word catechism answers they learnt at school. However the tragic down-side
Peter
he tāngata
He aha te mea nui o te ao. He tāngata, he tāngata, he tāngata
abundance
There's nothing like good conversation to refocus the mind and the heart. Yesterday I had one such conversation which focussed me again on what is real. A couple of...
what next ?
Yesterday we met Peter. Today we meet Judas. It may be that these two men were similar in many ways. Certainly they had both said yes to Christ and spent three years as...
meet Peter
I have a deep affection for St. Peter. I think I understand him well and I have a strong sense that he gets me too. This is why as a teenager I chose Peter as my...
walking on water
I landed in Rome early last Monday afternoon and early Tuesday morning arrived at St. Peter's basilica just before it opened at 7. It's a great time to visit the...
just give all !
Thinking about Peter and Paul, and martyrs, and getting ready for this Sunday when we will hear Jesus saying that no-one who prefers another to me is worthy of me. The...
you raise me up
During the week I met a young priest new to New Zealand and on loan to the Christchurch diocese. On of his tasks of that morning had been to write the reflection for...
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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.
moving waters
Bible questions still pop up regularly in quiz shows and they often cost otherwise sharp players much needed points.
I’m ready for a question asking for the two names for the last book of the Bible. The book often known as Apocalypse is perhaps more often referred to as the Book of Revelation.
It’s common (thanks to movies) to think of an apocalypse as a devastating and unwelcome time of destruction.