Sunday
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Easter Morning – 20 April 2025
One of my favourite lines out of the Church Fathers writing nearly 2000 years ago is from the 3rd century Clement of Alexandria. He wrote simply: “Christ our Lord turns all our sunsets into dawns.” It is Christ our Lord who turns all our sunsets into dawns. This day we proclaim that dead ends have given rise to new possibilities. Where diminishment and decay might be expected, there a new invitation is always available. A new possibility has dawned into the world. The future is given to us as a pure gift. And by how more powerful a way does the Christian Tradition express this than situating the Resurrection on the first day of the week at…
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Good Friday – 18 April 2025
Some years ago, I was introduced to the thought of the psychotherapist Ernesto Spinelli. Spinelli had a keen sense of the inter-relatedness of human life – that our relationships with one another are the very stuff of existence. He understood very well that we are our relationships, that we exist in relationship or not at all, and that we see everything in the world, especially ourselves, in light of those relationships. It is our relationships that fashion our very sense of the world, and how we exist in the world. However, if this be the case, then an inevitable uncertainty about life begins to emerge because I can never fully know with complete…
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Palm Sunday – 13 April 2025
Today, throughout the world, marches for peace are held. Palm Sunday has become a day on which rallies for peace are staged in many of the cities of the world. It leads us to ask what is it about this day that speaks of peace, of the hope for peace? Though many who march for peace today may not even be Christian, and though perhaps a number of people take part in the walks do so for quite a mixture of motivation, nonetheless it would seem that the story of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem that we commemorate on this day has something that speaks of the possibility of peace. How is this so? It…
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Fifth Sunday of Lent – 6 April 2025 – Fifth Reflection on Hope in the Year of Jubilee – Becoming Agents of Hope
Through this season of Lent, we have been exploring the theme of Hope, the focus of our current Year of Jubilee. We have reflected on how hope arises from our needs, on how hope opens us to the future, how it is guaranteed by our faith in Christ Jesus and in his Resurrection, and how it is our Christian answer to the encounter of evil because it is a pronouncement that the evil is never the final word, that something bigger is at work. And now we come to the final reflection in our series: how each of us is called to become an agent of hope. Do I offer…
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Second Sunday of Lent – 16 March 2025 – Second Reflection on Hope in the Year of Jubilee: Hope – doorway into the future
Through each Sunday of Lent in this Year of Jubilee, I have invited us to go on journey of reflection on the nature of Hope. Pope Francis has put to us the theme of Hope for this year of celebration with the scriptural verse, “Hope will not disappoint” (Rom 5:5), and so it seems opportune for us to reflect on this systematically. And what better time to do this than through Lent, the period of renewal and hope? Last Sunday, we explored how the experience of hope arises from our needs, of how it is connected to the hungers in our hearts, and we touched upon the power when we…
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First Sunday of Lent – 9 March 2025 – First Reflection on Hope in the Year of Jubilee: Hope born from our Hunger
This year we celebrate our Season of Lent in a Year of Jubilee. And the theme of this Year of Jubilee is that of Hope. “Hope does not disappoint” (Rom 5:5) is the scriptural verse chosen to highlight this. Therefore, this particular Lent seems an opportune time for us to explore together the nature of Hope. Over each Sunday of Lent this year, therefore, I would like to focus on Hope, and to invite us into a journey of reflection on Hope. What is hope? From where does it arise? Why is it so important in our life of faith? What is its connection to faith and charity? How can…
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8th Sunday in Ordinary Time – 2 March 2025
The German writer, Deitrich Bonheoffer gave us the distinction between what he called, on the one hand, ‘cheap grace’ and, on the other, ‘costly grace.’ Writing in Germany in the 1930s he lamented the way in which the Christian Churches had so accommodated themselves to the prevailing currents as to have lost their genuine sense of discipleship of the Risen Lord. And this could equally be a possibility in our own time in which we can be swayed by political forces that use the term Christian to describe their aspirations, but which, in their conduct, are in no way Christian. Of course, this is always a tendency for us. we…
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3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time – 26 January 2025
Every day the images of people who suffer are put before us – whether it be in Gaza, or Ukraine, or even in our own country. In some ways we become inoculated against what we see. We turn over the channel, and go back to what we were doing. We look for something more entertaining, not perhaps alluding to the fact that news broadcasts on television and social media are edited in such a way to keep us entertained in the first place. The problems are too big for us to think about, the places of which they speak too far away, too foreign. And even though we shake our heads by the…
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Christmas 2024
It is often remarked that it is children who make Christmas. Often, they are at the centre of our thoughts and practices when we come to celebrate Christmas – whether it be our own children, or grandchildren, nieces or nephews. Christmas is an enchanting time for children – they are full of expectation and excitement. Their sense of wonder at the decorations, the music, the family customs, Santa Claus, and our gift-giving are all infectious. We lead them to the crib, and we bend down to their level and see the scene through their eyes. The characters of Mary and Joseph, the baby Jesus, the shepherds, the wise men and…
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Fourth Sunday of Advent – 22 December 2024
The season of Advent that we have been celebrating in the time leading up to the celebration of Christmas this week is a season characterized by hope – the theme of the Year of Jubilee which Pope Francis will open on 24 December, Christmas Eve. It has often struck me that in Australia we have our own particular experience of hope. From penal settlement and convict experience, through to the mythology of the pioneer farmer, and to the shores of Gallipoli, the experience of so many migrants beginning life anew here, and extending even to our fascination with sport, Australians, historically, have defined themselves as those who often find themselves…