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Installation of Fr Vincent Nguyen as Parish Priest of Parish of Lower North Shore – 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Parish Multicultural Festival – St Leonards Naremburn – 16 August 2026
During my monastic years, I was involved for some time in the work of interreligious dialogue. It was a fascinating experience because, in dialogue with people of other religious traditions, we often discovered remarkable similarities and parallels. Sometimes we found ourselves using different language to speak about experiences that seemed surprisingly close. Yet just as importantly, we encountered striking differences. And one of the dangers in interreligious dialogue, particularly when we are anxious to establish a universal sense of fraternity, is to minimise those differences, to pretend that ultimately we are all saying much the same thing. But we are not. The differences are real, and my own experience taught…
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20th Sunday in Ordinary Time – 16 August 2026
In his novel, The Great World, the Australian writer, David Malouf talks of ‘the little sacraments of daily existence – “all those unique and repeatable events, . . . movements of the heart and intimations of the close but inexpressible grandeur and terror of things, that is our other history, the one that goes on, in a quiet way, under the noise and chatter of events and is the major part of what happens each day in the life of the planet, and has been from the beginning.”[1] Malouf is alluding to the flow of life that goes on underneath the façade of life, under all the things that occur through the exercise of…
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Solemnity of Assumption of BVM – 15 August 2026
In these middle weeks of August, we may have begun to notice something changing around us. The days are stretching out just a little longer. Darkness comes a little later in the afternoon. There is still plenty of winter chill in the mornings, but occasionally there is that hint of warmth in the air. In our gardens and along our roads, the wattles are beginning to blaze with yellow. Bare branches are showing the first signs of buds. There is a sense that winter, though not quite finished with us, is beginning to loosen its grip. We are standing on the threshold of a new season. The Assumption of Mary…
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Silver Anniversary of Ordination of Fr Stephen Wayoyi AJ – Vigil of Assumption – 14 August 2026 – St Leonards Naremburn
Tonight we stand at the intersection of two great songs of thanksgiving. The first is the song of the Church as we begin the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We rejoice in what God has accomplished in Mary: that the woman who gave herself entirely to God’s purpose, who received the Word, carried Christ within her and gave him to the world, is gathered at last, body and soul, into the fullness of God’s life. Within that great song of the Church, tonight we hear another song of thanksgiving as we celebrate twenty-five years of priestly ministry in the life of Fr Stephen. We give thanks for…
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19th Sunday in Ordinary Time – 9 August 2026
For the people of the Scriptures, the sea was much more than simply a body of water. Israel was not essentially a seafaring people. The sea represented something much deeper: chaos. It was the place of darkness and uncertainty, the place of hidden monsters, the place where the familiar disappeared and where human beings discovered how little control they really possessed. And Matthew deliberately places Jesus there. Jesus does not wait for the storm to finish. He does not wait on the shore until the disciples have navigated themselves safely home. He comes to them across the water. It is Matthew’s dramatic way of saying: Jesus is Lord even here. Jesus is Lord…
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18th Sunday in Ordinary Time – 2 August 2026
There was a time, only a few years ago, when the word “unprecedented” seemed to dominate every news bulletin. It described drought, devastating bushfires, a global pandemic, floods, and the upheaval that followed. Today that word has largely disappeared. Not because life has become easier, but because uncertainty itself has become normal. We have almost grown accustomed to living in a world where stability can no longer be taken for granted. Our uncertainties are different now, but they are no less real. Many wonder what the future will hold for their children. Within the Church, too, recent events have left many feeling unsettled and disappointed. Trust has been wounded. Questions about our…
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17th Sunday in Ordinary Time – 26 July 2026
These weeks will not be easy for us as the Church in Australia. Last week the trial of the former Bishop of Broome commenced in Perth. On Monday morning an ICAC inquiry will commence involving a number of Catholic entities. We do not know how wide the scope of the inquiry may be caste. At such a time, there can be a temptation to lose heart. The scrutiny directed towards our communities can so dominate our vision that we begin to believe there is little else to see. It is understandable. Wounds demand our attention. Yet if we look only at the wounds, we can miss the quiet work of…
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16th Sunday in Ordinary Time – 19 July 2026
We do not have to look very far to recognise that evil is a real presence in our world. It confronts us every day. We see it in the continuing wars that devastate nations and uproot families; in acts of terrorism and violence; in the growing disregard for human life; in the exploitation of the vulnerable through human trafficking and modern slavery; in the loneliness that silently claims so many lives; in the deep polarisation that fractures communities; and increasingly in a digital world where misinformation, manipulation, anonymous cruelty and the distortion of truth can spread around the globe in moments. Yet if we are honest, we know that evil…
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15th Sunday in Ordinary Time – 12 July 2026
The Australian social researcher, Hugh Mackay once gave a reflection on how difficult it is to get other people to hear what we are trying to say.[1] As he observed, how many times have we said in frustration, “If I’ve told them once, I’ve told them a hundred times. It just seems to go in one ear and out the other!” As Mackay says, what we may be really saying, of course, is, “Guess what, I know a message that never works. It doesn’t seem to matter how often I say it; it never has any effect on the people I’m talking to. But I don’t give up easily. It’s…
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14th Sunday in Ordinary Time – 5 July 2026
Today, the Church in Australia celebrates National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday. We give thanks for the oldest continuing culture on earth and for the profound gift that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples offer to the whole Church. Their witness reminds us that God was already at work in this land long before the Gospel was first proclaimed here. And in their own tradition we are given a way to enter Jesus’ message today. Jesus says: “Come to me, all you who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest . . . Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest…
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