Philippines
friendship’s sake

friendship’s sake

I have spent the weekend in the Philippines (Manila and Cebu) and today head home to NZ. The brief visit was an opportunity to meet with friends in both cities and to...

Filipino evangelists

Filipino evangelists

In the parish of the Good Shepherd, Hurunui, a significant number of our parishioners have arrived here in recent years from the Philippines. Their presence is a great...

present reality

present reality

Our gathering for the Spiritual Exercises continues today after a full Friday evening and Saturday. Late in April more than 25.000 people met in Rimini (on the Adriatic...

NZ speaks in Rome

NZ speaks in Rome

I picked up a copy of the Vatican Newspaper yesterday and was not surprised to see an interview with Cardinal John Dew. Pope Francis is attracted to peripheries and New...

a Saturday…

a Saturday…

The Catholic communities of the Hurunui district are small and spread around a large rural hinterland. Since my arrival in the parish just over three years ago the...

Filipino farewell

Filipino farewell

Yesterday the Philippines farewelled Pope Francis after three remarkable days of friendship. It is worth searching the visit online for some of the video clips and...

loss & hope

loss & hope

When I passed St. Joseph's Papanui yesterday morning there was very little remaining of the church building, just the doors through which so many have passed seeking...

Filipino faith

Filipino faith

Pope Francis is in the Philippines today and over the past couple of hours he has been celebrating the first Mass of his three-day visit in the Cathedral Basilica of...

pressing on

pressing on

Late last week I arrived in the Philippines for a series of retreats / spiritual exercises with communities in General Santos, Manila and Cebu. Yesterday I completed...

Philippines – light a candle

Philippines – light a candle

In the last few minutes news reports have estimated that the death toll in yesterday's Philippines Typhoon is in the vicinity of 10.000 people.   A number of readers of...

Latest Posts

in the field

in the field

Such wise people have reflected on their life experience enough to know that while a peaceful and perfect day is welcome, we are most connected with others and therefore with God (we could also say most connected with God and therefore with others), when we live a struggle together.

FFF the book

FFF the book

Every day I am with people who may have once been baptised but now feel a distance between themselves and the Church and God. We are these people, as are too many of our family, friends, neighbours and workmates. This book therefore is for us.

church beauty

church beauty

We call things beautiful when they reveal to us their inner essence, their reality as understood in the mind of God

All Souls

All Souls

By looking at the graves, before which countless memories return, we remember how they lived, what they loved

revolutionaries

revolutionaries

On this feast of All Saints in 1541 Michaelangelo‘s Last Judgement was unveiled on the rear wall of the Sistine Chapel.