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18th Sunday in Ordinary Time – 4 August 2024
Recently, a friend told me that on average he receives on his mobile phone 120 social media messages a day. Facebook, Instagram, X, Whatsapp – all wonderful means by which we keep connected with one another. We enter a short message, like, “I am enjoying a walk in the park” and immediately all those on our contact list are made aware of this significance! As someone who struggles to keep on top of any number of daily emails, the thought of receiving over a hundred social media messages astounds me. However, we seem to live increasingly in a cultural climate where many feel an extraordinary need to let the world…
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“The Person of the Preacher – Authenticity” – Keynote Presentation ACU Xavier School of Preaching 3 August 2024
One of the delights of a speaker of being given a topic without too much commentary – but what might fill the sponsors with a certain nervousness – is that the speaker may develop the topic given in their own way. This morning, we are exploring the person of the preacher, and the question of their authenticity – presumably how their authenticity, or otherwise, might inform their preaching. How do the words of the preacher become truly authentic? In some ways, the answer has already been given in the readings, and I refer particularly to the article by Darrell W Johnson, “The Person of the Preacher.”[1] He cites the 19th…
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Homily for ACU Xavier School for Preaching – 3 August 2024 Feast Day of St Dominic
The American writer, Robert Fulgham once told of a story of Frank Marshall, an international chess player. During a competition many years ago, Marshall made what is often called the most beautiful move ever made on a chessboard. In a crucial game in which he was evenly matched with a Russian master player, Marshall found his queen under serious attack. There were several avenues of escape, and since the queen is the most important offensive player, spectators assumed Marshall would observe convention and move his queen to safety. Deep in thought, Marshall used all the time available to him to consider the board options. He picked up his queen –…
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17th Sunday in Ordinary Time – 28 July 2024
I’m sure many of us have at some time enjoyed the English television comedy, “The Vicar of Dibley.” You may recall at the end of each episode, the vicar tells Alice, the church warden, a joke. The joke is often quite funny but Alice never quite gets it. She applies a literal logic to the joke, and she tries to reason the joke out, all of course to the frustration of the vicar. I often think that before many of the stories of the gospel and before the parables of Jesus we are a bit like Alice in the “Vicar of Dibley.” We apply to what we have heard a logic that is quite foreign…
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16th Sunday in Ordinary Time – 21 July 2024
We all probably feel from time to time the need to get away from it all. Most often this is a result of life getting out of hand for us, and it all becoming a little too much. We long for a freedom from all the pressures that seem to impinge upon our time and energy. Space and freedom is a luxury few of us have, but we long for it often enough. Though most often this longing comes about as simply the felt need to be free of the stress we might be experiencing, the spiritual tradition has long recognized the need for us to withdraw from time to…
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15th Sunday in Ordinary Time – 14 July 2024
It is often lamented today that the rites of initiation into adulthood have been lost. We no longer have those rituals which mark the passage from childhood or adolescence into maturity. However, it has been suggested, not without merit, that perhaps one of the principal rites of passage today is overseas travel. We often hear of young people taking time away. With few resources they head off to distant places where for six months, twelve months or more, they move from country to country, culture to culture, working and touring. Often enough they return home then with a new sense of identity and ready for a commitment to work, or…
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Catholic Education Today – Episode 1 – An exciting and challenging time
Catholic Education Today – Episode 1 – An exciting and challenging time https://media.blubrry.com/davidranson/davidranson.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/EPISODE-1-An-Exciting-Age-a-Challenging-Culture.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSS
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Catholic Education Today – Episode 2 – The Catholic School at the Intersection of Two Worlds
Catholic Education Today – Episode 2 – The Catholic School at the Intersection of Two Worlds https://media.blubrry.com/davidranson/davidranson.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/EPISODE-2-The-Catholic-School-at-the-intersection-of-two-worlds.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSS
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Catholic Education Today – Episode 3 – Developing a Strategy of Navigation
Catholic Education Today – Episode 3 – Developing a Strategy of Navigation https://media.blubrry.com/davidranson/davidranson.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/EPISODE-3-Developing-a-Strategy-of-Navigation.mp3
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Catholic Education Today – Episode 4 – Towards a New Pedagogy of Evangelisation
Catholic Education Today – Episode 4 – Towards a New Pedagogy of Evangelisation https://media.blubrry.com/davidranson/davidranson.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/EPISODE-4-Towards-a-new-Pedagogy-of-Evangelisation.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSS
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