Year C
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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…
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First Sunday of Advent – 1 December 2024
There used to be a Chinese curse which went, “May you live in interesting times!” It is hard to know whether we live under this curse at this time, but we certainly live in a time of great change. As Pope Francis himself remarked recently, it is not even that we live in an era of change, but that we live in a change of era. And it is this that make the times even more interesting. Because of the uncertainty of change and the insecurity that pervasive change engenders in most of us, it is easy to resist change and to defend ourselves from its demands in different ways. We can develop a…
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33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time – 13 November 2022
There can be little doubt that we are living through a dramatic epoch. Pope Francis himself has observed on a number of occasions that the world is at war. It is at war, he has said, because there is no peace. Ours is a time of dislocation. So much seems to be shifting from under us. Something new is developing but what it might be we do not know. When the rate of change is intense and everything of the past is perceived to be falling apart, it is understandable that people feel insecure, they become afraid. They look for security. Some look for security by trying to restore the…
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32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time – 6 November 2022
One of my small claims to fame is that I was in correspondence with the late Princess of Wales. I should hasten to add that the full extent of the correspondence between us was a mass produced card of gratitude from Kensington Palace in response to my rather lengthy epistle to Diana in which I had expressed gratitude for a comment she made during her famous – or infamous – 1995 BBC television interview with Martin Bashir.[1] In that much publicized exchange I had been remarkably struck by the explanation of her struggle with royal politics which had rendered her particularly vulnerable. Diana put forward, “there’s no better way to…
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30th Sunday in Ordinary Time – 23 October 2022
Sebastian Moore, the English Benedictine writer, once wrote that we need conversion not so much from sin, as from innocence.[1] It was a curious declaration: we need conversion not so much from sin, as from innocence. What may he have meant by this enigmatic pronouncement? Perhaps, he was alluding to the aspect of us that wants to have everything and everyone perfect, the part of us that that expects everything about us and around us to be ideal. We demand that our relationships, our marriages and our families be ideal even as we struggle in the recognition that they are far from so. We demand that our jobs and professions…
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28th Sunday in Ordinary Time – 9 October 2022
In his book, “Beyond Belief,” Hugh McKay, the Australian social researcher outlines the deep vein of ambivalence about religion that runs through Australian society: on the one hand many Australians do not actively worship, yet they still like to see local churches operating, and we still turn to churches to baptise our children and to educate them.[1] Around two thirds of Australians say we believe in God or some ‘higher power’, but fewer than one in ten of us attend church weekly. So those of us gathered here for Mass are an extraordinary minority no matter how mainstream we might consider ourselves to be. And all of his means 90%…