There is something slightly uncomfortable in admitting it, but if we are honest, the disciples on the road to Emmaus in today’s Gospel are not simply walking away from Jerusalem. They are walking away from hope. They are not merely sad; they are disoriented. Their expectations have collapsed. And so they do what we instinctively do in such moments: they talk. Yet, the conversation they enjoy is not the curated, self-controlled exchange of the digital age. It is not efficient, nor is it optimised. It is searching, confused, even contradictory. “They were talking with each other about all that had happened.” Their conversation is an act of grappling with reality.…

At the beginning of every year, it is good to ask ourselves, “What motivates us?” Why do we do what we do?  As I shared last Sunday, perhaps another way of considering this is to ask, “What am I in love with?” As I shared, the late Jesuit Superior General, Pedro Arrupe (1907-1991) would say, “What we are in love with, what seizes our imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get us out of bed in the morning, what we do with our evenings, how we spend your weekends, what we read, whom we know, what breaks our heart, and what amazes us with joy and gratitude.” And so,…

As we continue our Advent journey, the sense of expectation increases! This can fill us with a sense of dismay because of all that we consider needs to be achieved beforehand year’s end. But it can also fill us with a sense of wonder and anticipation. The outcome of wonder is joy. And so, we light the third candle of our Advent wreath – the rose-coloured candle – designated for the gift of joy that is given to us as people of both hope and faith. As those who watch for the birth of the Lord’s life in the world, we are people of joy! Like hope and faith, joy…

I was recently doing what we all do at the end of the day, but what we all should do less of – mindlessly scrolling through social media.  It can be mindless, but it can also be quite fascinating. And one of the things that fascinated me just the other day was alighting upon a TikTok clip of a speech by Pope Leo XIV, in fact not just one but a number of them given that the algorithms had already begun to engage my interests. The clips had the pope give a rather edifying speech about something quite constructive. The content was in fact quite spiritual. The only problem was,…

Some time ago, I had the delight of coming across a wonderful essay by Marianne Dorman reflecting on an aspect of our Christian spiritual tradition which has particular significance for what we are celebrating today.[1]   As Dorman relates, at the time of the Black Death sweeping England in 1373, an unknown woman, aged about 30, wrote one of the most remarkable essays in the tradition of Christian spirituality.  The text was known as the Shewings of Divine Love.  The woman writing this little book lived in a small room attached to the church of St Julian, Norwich, which belonged to the Benedictine community at Carrow.  Subsequently, she has been…

Over each Sunday in the Season of Lent in this Year of Jubilee we have reflecting on the nature of Hope which is the focal theme for the celebration. We began our reflection thinking about how hope rises in our hearts from our hungers, from our needs. Last week, we spoke of how our sense of hope is premised on our belief that there is a future.  We only have hope in our hearts if we believe there is a future; no future no hope. And so, hope opens spaces for us to move into the future. In this third reflection, we come to ask in whom can we place our…

Over the last four weeks we have been decorating our Christmas trees. So as we sit in front of our Christmas tree let me tell you the tale of three trees.[1] Three little trees stood high upon a mountain discussing their dreams for the future.  The first little tree looked up at the dazzling night sky and said, “I want to carry the treasure of kings and queens. I want to be beautiful. I want to be filled with the riches of the world. The second little tree saw a nearby stream, and said, “I want to be a mighty sailing vessel. I want to sail in the roaring oceans,…

I think from every account we would say that the past year has been eventful in our world. The events that have played out on different levels continue to suggest that we are not only in an era of change but a change of era. Changing moments evoke the paradox of fear and hope deep within us. We glimpse the enormity of time and our fragility and insignificance before it whilst at the same time we wonder about new beginnings, about something new emerging.  We have the sense that something is passing, we are leaving behind something.  We sense that we are crossing over into something unknown and new.  We…

Christmas is associated with family for us, and often enough with family reunion.  Maybe family members who have been away for awhile are coming back home. Christmas is often a time, too, when we re-unite with friends with whom we have not been able to enjoy a great deal of contact over the year. Christmas is an expectant time, and as the time towards Christmas becomes shorter we are full of expectancy about it – even if this expectancy from time to time becomes a kind of dread! This kind of expectancy is, in different ways, at the heart of the Christmas mystery, and today’s gospel takes us to this…