Addresses
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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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Euthanasia, Dying and the Dignity of the Human Person – Keynote Address – 2 August 2021
Good evening everyone and thank you for joining us this evening as we reflect together on such an important issue which, in fact, touches us at that moment at which we are most vulnerable – the moment of death itself. Or course, my priestly life has made me no stranger to death. As a young monk, one of my first responsibilities was nursing the older, sick members of the community through to their death. It was one of the most formative experiences of my life. Then, later, as chaplain at St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne in the late 90s, I recall in the space of one week alone attending 24…
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Farewell Letter to the Parish of Holy Name Wahroonga
Dear friends, The last week or so has been spent packing in anticipation of my move to the Parish of Chatswood. As many of you will have experienced, it is a strange experience to pack one’s life into boxes: it’s a time during which many memories are relived, and an occasion to appreciate the many different phases of one’s journey. Endings and beginnings. It is, of course the nature of life itself. As one of our parishioners, Dan Candotti remarked to me just the other day, a rhythm of setting out and intersecting. For the past ten years our own journeys have intersected. It has been an intersection of so…
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Launch of Bernadette T Wallis, Dear Mother Dear Father: Letters Home from John Corcoran Wallis 1927-1949 (Coventry Press, 2019)
The great storyteller, Tolkien in Lord of the Rings records a wonderful dialogue between the characters of Frodo and Sam: “‘But so our path is laid,’ said Frodo. ‘Yes, that’s so,’ said Sam. ‘And we shouldn’t be here at all, if we’d known more about it before we started. But I suppose it’s often that way. The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo: adventures, as I used to call them. I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of sport, as…
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Holy Spirit, Discernment and Discipleship – Twilight Reflection with Catholic Youth Broken Bay, Pennant Hills
The Holy Spirit: Who exactly is it? “The wind blows wherever it pleases,” says Jesus. “You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8) Jesus speaks of the Spirit has something transparent but something also as something that is experienced. The Spirit is transparent like the wind or like a breath. There are the two images of the Spirit, in fact, with which we are presented at the Festival of Pentecost: a forceful wind which shook the house, fire to enflame cold hearts and enable the disciples with courage and confidence. Yet, in the…
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Educating for Relationship – Insights from the Benedictine Tradition for Contemporary Catholic Education – BENet 2019 International Conference, Glebe
The ancient text of the Rule of St Benedict has endured because of its insight into the importance of relationship as a pedagogy of formation and leadership. The workshop will explore that insight in dialogue with the document on Catholic Education, Educating Together in Catholic Schools (2007) and through the lens of the significance of ‘listening’ as a key Benedictine value and proposed by the French writer, Simone Weil as the key to education. The workshop will invite participants to consider how this might achieve expression both as leaders in their communities and in the culture of the educational community itself particularly in a socially diverse context The Context: Relationship under…
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Christ Lives! Christ Awakens! Christ Transforms! – Keynote presentation to the Clergy Conference of the Archdiocese of Melbourne – 17 September 2019
I have been asked to provide a Christological foundation to a renewed sense of mission. This sounds rather daunting, but as I am not a systematic theologian rather a pastoral one, I have thought to do this in a relatively creative manner and to share with you the choice of three themes important in my own journey and reflection: Christ Lives; Christ Awakens; Christ Transforms. Christ Lives In the light of current challenges before us, I wish to start with good news: Christ lives! “That life was made visible: we saw it and we are giving our testimony, telling you of the eternal life which was the Father and has been…