Jesus was a great story-teller.  He delighted in telling stories.  The stories he told painted wonderful pictures in the minds of his hearers.  And as he painted these extraordinary pictures in the minds of his hearers Jesus taught us about both ourselves and God.  He told stories because he knew people would remember them, and therefore they would remember what he wanted to teach them about God and our relationship with God.  So, he was constantly alert to all the ordinary experiences of people’s lives and he would use these experiences, weave them together in a story.  Thus the parable is the primary means by which Jesus teaches.  He does…

I recall once being with a workman in my previous parish attending to a very active, and very concerning infestation of termites.  I was standing there, looking down at the boards hollowed out by the voracious termites, admittedly feeling rather crestfallen at the implications, when the technician, explaining in great detail the procedures he was implementing, suddenly sparked, “I just love my job!” His exclamation, which was clearly sincerely felt, was like a real ray of light into my anxiety.  His enthusiasm for the technology that is behind the system, and his obvious joy at what he was accomplishing in the termination of the termites, was like of bolt of…

One of the most influential texts in the spiritual life of the Church is actually one of the smallest.  It is the Rule of St Benedict written at the dawn of the 6th century, and is the guide of life followed by Benedictine monks and nuns and which I followed, myself, for the twenty years I lived in the monastery.  It is still at the centre of my own spiritual perspective on life. The Rule of St. Benedict is divided up into 73 small chapters, many so small in fact to be only paragraphs.  However, one of the longest chapters is the 7th.  It is here that Benedict sets out the heart of his vision,…

Let me share with you words of a woman from the former Yugoslavia: I am thirty-five years old.  To my second son just born I gave the name, Jihad.  So, he would not forget the testament of his mother – revenge.  The first time I put my baby at my breast and told him, “May this milk choke you if you forget.”  So be it.  They have taught me to hate.  For the last two months there was nothing in me.  No pain, no bitterness.  Only hatred.  I taught these children to love.  I did.  I am a teacher of literature.  But my students have become my persecutors.  They have…

With fondness, I recall being at the First Profession of Sr Sophie Boffa as a member of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth.  As signs of her consecration, Sophie was presented with the Constitutions of her Religious Order, her Religious Veil as a sign of her dedication, and also the small cross that she wears as a member of her Religious Congregation. In giving her this cross, her Religious Superior declared to Sophie, “Receive this cross. May it remind you of your weakness and brokenness and that you live by the Father’s strength within you.” The words struck me especially, because what Sophie undertook on…

Every now and then you come across someone expressing an idea that says it exactly the way you see it yourself.  This happened to me reading an interview with a young Australian champion surfer.  When asked whether he was a spiritual person, he replied, “I don’t particularly like the word spiritual.  I prefer to see myself as a spirited person.  I try to live my life with awareness and deliberation.” Given that I had written about spirituality in a similar way I thought that this was a good description of what it really means to lead a spiritual life.  Being authentically spiritual is to be attentive to life – especially to the awakening moments that…

Over the last week or so we have once again been struck by the enormous power of nature and the destruction that it can create. Our hearts have gone out to the people of Tonga in their experience of the volcanic eruption and the subsequent tsunami. We think too of the people of Afghanistan, of Myanmar, of Ukraine – in so many places, people live with violence and fear. The stories of the world’s grief can be overwhelming for us. There is every instinct for us to close off, to close down, to retreat into what Pope Francis calls the ‘globalisation of indifference’, to become as unaffected as possible.  Perhaps…