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...
Philippines
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
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
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…
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
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
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
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
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
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
stormy weather
I often hear people comment that their faith is weak, or that they have little faith. I often feel the same way.
Ignatius of Loyola
We ignore our feelings at our peril. However the feelings that are uppermost in human consciousness are simply a starting point for discernment.
those dead days
There are moments many days, and minutes and even hours and sometimes days every week when we feel a bit dead.
face to face
Jesus is not God-far-from-us-up-in-the-heavens, but Jesus is God WITH us.
grandparents
You might like to share this post with grandparents who will appreciate some encouragement on this their feast day.
remembering
I was privileged to be asked to give the homily at the Mass of Thanksgiving of Fr. Isaac Fransen