Worship
Body and Nephesh
25 June 2023
Play MP3 This year the last few Sundays seem to have been inviting us to reflect upon the very essence of who God is, how we stand in the presence of God, how we make sense of the nature, the quality of God. Last week, the Apostles were first named as such: they were sent…
Temptation Training
26 February 2023
Lent Sunday 1, Year A Remember the last big meal. How did you feel after? Food coma. Not clear thinking. Sleepy. Suggestible. Jesus goes into the wilderness. 40 days and nights. He fasts, so he’s not in a food coma. Open to God. 40 – highly symbolic. Israel in the wilderness 3 testings – very…
Called to Worship
7 January 2023
The Epiphany of the Lord First Reading ‡ Isaiah 60:1-6The glory of the Lord shines upon you. Responsorial ‡ Psalm 71:1-2.7-8.10-13Lord, every nation on earth will adore you. Second Reading ‡ Ephesians 3:2-3.5-6The revelation means that pagans now share the same inheritance, that they are parts of the same body. Gospel ‡ Matthew 2:1-12We have…
Proclamation, Worship and Compassion as the heart of the Church
26 October 2014
Radio Program, Season of Growth, Teaching, Year A
Sometimes it can be helpful to return to first principles and ponder more deeply about the purpose and deepest nature of things like the Church. Thankfully our readings today provide us with this opportunity. After the Second Vatican Council, reflection upon the nature of the church has revealed that the reality of the church can…
Every nation may come and worship
5 January 2014
In the Gospel of Luke, it is the lowly and outcast shepherds who are the first to visit the child Jesus in the stable in Bethlehem; in the Gospel of Matthew, it is foreign magi who have journeyed for weeks, if not months, to come and seek the new-born king of the Jews. What is…
Delight Connect Worship
1 December 2013
The first image that we are presented with on this first Sunday in the season of Advent and the new Year of Matthew is from chapter 2 of the Prophet Isaiah. All the nations are streaming up to Mount Zion – but rather than the historical reality of the armies of the surrounding nations laying…
New exodus worship
6 May 2013
One of the challenges of anyone attempting to read through the Bible are the encounters with the chapters that contain bizarre laws or content that seems to offer no significant spiritual content. For example, if you start with the book of Genesis, the pace and scope of the narrative will carry you through the book…
Service and worship
31 March 2013
What an amazing night it must have been! Already the Lord had demonstrated his incredible power in the nine plagues that Pharoah and the Egyptian people had suffered because they had still not let the people of God go free, so that they may go into the wilderness to worship the Lord their God. But…
Worship and Temptation
17 February 2013
On the first Sunday of Lent each year, we remember why we journey through the wilderness for forty days when we hear about the journey of Jesus – driven by the holy Spirit into the desert – for forty days of prayer and encounter with God. We must first note that temptation should not only…
Levitical cleaning
12 February 2012
Bible, Season of Growth, Teaching, Year B
Reading the bible is a wonderful gift. But for many people, who with great zeal and commitment begin to read the bible in the book of Genesis, everything goes well for a while. The book of Genesis is interesting, and it is full of familiar stories beginning with creation and then the ‘myths’ of pre-history,…
Learning to love
22 October 2011
There is nothing unusual in the question that Jesus is asked in our Gospel today (Matthew 22:34-40) – students would regularly ask visiting Rabbis this question – which is the greatest commandment. When there are 613 mitzva (commandments) to choose from in the books of Moses (the Torah or Pentateuch) it is no wonder that…
But I say to you
12 February 2011
Often we imagine – to tell you the truth – that the teaching of Jesus was much softer that the hard edges of the laws of Moses. Yet – to be honest with you – what we discover in today’s Gospel (Matthew 5:17-37) is the very opposite of this. In the face of an ages’…
Mount Zion and the heavenly Jerusalem
29 August 2010
In the liturgy of this 22nd Sunday (Year C), we are given an insight into exactly what is really happening when we gather for the Eucharist, with this magnificent reading from the book of Hebrews. All that we see around us, as rich and as beautiful as it usually is, is only a glimpse of…
Every nation, tribe, people and tongue
25 April 2010
Easter, New Creation, Seasons, Teaching
Fourth Sunday in Easter (Year C) – Commemoration of Anzac Day. In the reading from the book of Revelation, John the Divine has this vision of an immense crowd – impossible to count – of people from every nation, tribe, people and language who have all been through the persecution / tribulation and have had…
Leaping and dancing for joy
20 December 2009
4th Sunday of Advent – Year C. (Luke 1: 39-44; Micah 5:1-4) In a survey published in the Sydney Morning Herald this weekend it seems that around 68% of Australians still believe in God, but only 27% believe that the Bible is literally true. Which may not be a bad thing, if by literally true…