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First Sunday of Lent – 22 February 2026
A number of years ago, Sean Penn directed one of the most extraordinary films I have seen: Into the Wild. The film tells the true story of Christopher McCandless, a 22-year-old who leaves behind his family and possessions to wander across the United States, eventually seeking the vast solitude of the Alaskan wilderness. Many reviewers saw the story as a celebration of the American pioneering spirit. But the deeper journey is not geographical — it is spiritual and psychological. The physical isolation McCandless chooses mirrors an inner isolation that has already taken hold of his life. For Christopher, that isolation becomes toxic. Yet just before his death — alone in…
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Ash Wednesday – 18 February 2026
Nearly 1500 years ago, the great Christian writer, Augustine penned in his memoirs, The Confessions “Too late have I loved you, O Beauty so ancient, O Beauty so new. Too late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside myself, and there I sought you! In my weakness I ran after the beauty of the things you have made. You were with me, and I was not with you. The things you have made kept me from you – the things which would have no being unless they existed in you! You have called, you have cried, and you have pierced my deafness. You have radiated…
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6th Sunday in Ordinary Time – The Celebration of Lunar New Year – 15 February 2026
At the beginning of every year, it is good to ask ourselves, “What motivates us?” Why do we do what we do? As I shared last Sunday, perhaps another way of considering this is to ask, “What am I in love with?” As I shared, the late Jesuit Superior General, Pedro Arrupe (1907-1991) would say, “What we are in love with, what seizes our imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get us out of bed in the morning, what we do with our evenings, how we spend your weekends, what we read, whom we know, what breaks our heart, and what amazes us with joy and gratitude.” And so,…
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Opening School Mass for Pius X College Chatswood – 11 February 2026
In 1986, an extraordinary film was released, Babette’s Feast. Babette, a French Catholic, is a Parisian chef who gets caught up in the riots in the French capital in 1871. Her husband and son are killed in the fighting. Babette is assisted to escape to Denmark where members of a strict Protestant sect take her into their remote village. The founder of the community has died, but his two daughters engage Babette as their cook. The mysterious woman assumes the nature of a servant. They have no idea who she is, or what has bought her to their home. Having been in the village for 14 years, Babette wins 10,000…
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5th Sunday in Ordinary Time – 8 February 2026
The late Jesuit Superior General, Pedro Arrupe, once commented beautifully: “What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, whom you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in Love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.”[1] Where is my passion? It is the question to which Jesus constantly invites us. At the very outset of the Gospel, in his very first encounter with the disciples, the conversation begins with, “What…
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