Easter

Silence and Space

28 May 2023

Easter, Solemnity

I grew up in the country. I don’t think I really noticed a couple of key things until much later – because often you only notice things when they’re not there anymore. But there were two things. When you would go outside, particularly on a night like this, pretty chilly kind of night. The night…

Silence and Word

28 May 2023

Easter, Solemnity

I grew up in the country. I don’t think I really noticed a couple of key things until much later – because often you only notice things when they’re not there anymore. But there were two things. When you would go outside, particularly on a night like this, pretty chilly kind of night. The night…

Doubting faith

21 May 2023

Easter

Ascension Sunday When I was 21, I was living in a formation house as my first year of attempting to follow this desire to be a priest. Towards the end of the first year I got sick. But before I realised that I was getting sick, I had come down with Chicken pox and as…

Advocate

14 May 2023

Easter

The Sixth Sunday in Easter, Year A Play MP3 | Watch video When I was a kid, I kind of grew up with a lot of science fiction as part of my diet, both in reading and and watching TV. And one of the wonderful things about sci-fi is you can kind of imagine almost…

Called and Chosen

12 May 2023

Easter

Mass from St John the Evangelist Catholic Church, Campbelltown with Fr Richard Healey Friday in the Fifth Week of Easter (Friday 12 May 2023) First Reading ‡ Acts 15:22-31 It has been decided by the Holy Spirit and ourselves not to burden you beyond what is essential. Responsorial ‡ Psalm 56:8-12 I will praise you…

Chosen

7 May 2023

Easter, Seasons

Easter – Sunday 5 Play MP3 Watch video Resources 00:00:00 Sometimes it can be really difficult to accept the simple claims that the gospel makes to know that we are indeed loved with this amazing intimacy of life and goodness to trust. 00:00:21 That God actually wants us to have that experience of this intimacy,…

More than enough life

30 April 2023

Easter, Seasons

Easter, Sunday 4, Year A. One of my pet peeves are the shallow stereotypes that abound around ideas of “What does it mean to be a Christian?” Tight-laced, Straight. Goody 2 shoes. Narrow. Conservative. Anti-Environment. Homophobic. Backward. It is really hard to live well against this. I’m sure you faced this often enough when you…

Hope along the road

23 April 2023

Easter, Seasons

Sunday 3 in Easter, Year A In this Catholic Mass, we celebrate the 3rd Sunday of Easter with a focus on the Gospel of the road to Emmaus (Luke 24). Join us in exploring the theme of Hope along the road as we reflect on the journey of the disciples on their way to Emmaus….

Breathing Mercy

16 April 2023

Easter, Seasons

Sunday 2 in Easter – Sunday of Divine Mercy This year, during this season of Easter, we will be working our way through this first letter of Saint Peter. We don’t really know when it was written, there were no markers to kind of indicate when that happened. Peter used a secretary called Sylvanas to…

Resurrection Bodies

9 April 2023

Easter, New Creation, Seasons, Teaching

First Reading ‡ Acts 10:34.36-43We have eaten and drunk with him after his resurrection from the dead. Responsorial ‡ Psalm 117:1-2.16-17.22-23This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad. Second Reading (option 1) ‡ Colossians 3:1-4Look for the things that are in heaven, where Christ is. Gospel ‡ John 20:1-9The…

Why did Jesus die?

8 April 2023

Easter, Seasons, Triduum

A reflection on the Passion of Jesus in the Gospel of John. Play MP3 When I was a kid, the only thing that I seemed to want to do was to be older and bigger, you know, big enough that I was able to go out the back with my older brothers, with Dad on…

Pentecost – Reception

5 June 2022

Easter, Season of Growth, Seasons, Solemnity, Year C

More than 30 years ago while in pre-seminary formation, I was told a quote from a Russian Orthodox monk, who died in the nineteenth century, St Seraphim of Sarov (1754/1759-1833). The quote is – “the goal of the Christian life is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit.” Seraphim goes on to say that like many…

Ascension Presence

29 May 2022

Easter, Seasons, Solemnity

Ascension day can be a very confusing experience. For many people the imagery and artwork that accompany this feast does not help to clear the confusion. Picturing the feet of Jesus beneath a cloud that is taking him away from us does not help. Whenever an image is encountered in the scriptures, our first question…

Gracious New Jerusalem

21 May 2022

Easter, Season of Growth, Seasons, Year C

Sixth Sunday in Easter, Year C. We arrive at almost the very ending of the bible with our reading from Revelation 21 today. We are given the vision of the new Jerusalem as it descends and heaven and earth are fully reunited once again. The city is enormous – 12,000 stadia (2,400km) in each direction…

New Creation People

15 May 2022

Easter, Season of Growth, Seasons, Year C

Fifth Sunday in Easter, Year C. You shall be my people – and I will be your God. The Gospel passage that we hear today is sandwiched between two awful moments. Immediately before Judas is outed as the betrayer of Jesus. He takes the bread from the dish of Jesus and leaves the upper room….

Follow the True Shepherd

8 May 2022

Easter, Season of Growth, Seasons, Year C

John 10 – festival of Dedication/Lights – the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, occurring during the Jewish month of Chislev 25 (during our December – Hanukkah often occurs near Christmas). The second half of John 10 happens two months after feast of Tabernacles (John 7: 1 – 10:21). Same place (temple area in Jerusalem) but a different…

Transformed by love

1 May 2022

Easter, Season of Growth, Seasons, Year C

Easter 3C Last week the disciples were locked away – together in fear, distress, grief and anxiety. Jesus came and stood among them. Shalom! Peace be with you. He showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. He breathes the breathe of new life, the gift of the Holy Spirit upon them. He…

Rich in Divine Mercy

24 April 2022

Easter, Season of Growth, Seasons, Year C

Second Sunday in Easter, Year C. First Reading ‡ Acts 5:12-16The numbers of men and women who came to believe in the Lord increased steadily. Responsorial ‡ Psalm 117:2-4.22-27Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his love is everlasting. Second Reading ‡ Revelation 1:9-13.17-19I was dead and now I am to live for…

Resurrection Life

17 April 2022

Easter, Seasons

When you set out and walk east from the old city of Jerusalem through the Lion Gate, you move first through the shallow Kidron Valley before beginning to climb up the lower sections of the Mount of Olives. You pass first through the Garden of Gethsemene, complete with its old olive groves and the Christian…

New Creation Hope

16 April 2022

Easter, Seasons, Triduum

Easter Vigil 2022 When you set out and walk east from the old city of Jerusalem through the Lion Gate, you move first through the shallow Kidron Valley before beginning to climb up the lower sections of the Mount of Olives. You pass first through the Garden of Gethsemene, complete with its old olive groves…

Truly Loved

15 April 2022

Easter, Seasons, Triduum

Good Friday – Solemn Commemoration of the Lord’s Passion First Reading ‡ Isaiah 52:13-53:12 He surrendered himself to death, while bearing the faults of many. Responsorial ‡ Psalm 30:2.6.12-13.15-17.25 Father, I put my life in your hands. Second Reading ‡ Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9 He learned obedience and became the source of eternal salvation for all who…

Called to be Beloved Disciples

14 April 2022

Easter, Seasons, Triduum

Holy Thursday reflection Something amazing happened in the life of the beloved disciple. Tradition holds that John, the author of the fourth gospel, was the youngest of the 12 apostles. He is the only apostle who died in old age. The others were all martyred. The gospel that carries his name is an extraordinary achievement,…

The Chosen

9 May 2021

Easter, Seasons

One of the truly wonderful aspects of the TV series called The Chosen. It’s a multi season series on the Life of Jesus and his disciples. But one of the wonderful things about this series is it’s very biblical but it tries to look at the different characters in the life and ministry of Jesus and develop some of their…

Called into fruitful intimacy

1 May 2021

Easter, Seasons

Easter 5BJohn 15:1-8Play MP3Watch video (Generated Transcript from Vigil Mass) Whenever we read any passage in Scripture, but especially one of the Gospels, an important thing is to know: Where are we in the story? What’s happening? Here, we’re essentially in the middle of this long section of the Last Supper. The final discourse that Jesus gives to his disciples begins…

Lavishing Shepherd Love

25 April 2021

Easter, Seasons

The image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd has been one of those images that has captured something in our hearts and lives, and we know that it’s from the earliest days of Christianity.  But one of the favorite images of the ways to portray Jesus has been exactly as this.  Jesus there with the…

Resurrection Reconciliation

17 April 2021

Easter, Seasons

The Road to Emmaus: Jesus shared with the two disciples along the road. “Didn’t our hearts burn within us?” They recognised Jesus in the breaking of the bread. Now, as they gather together in Jerusalem, Jesus himself stands among them: “Peace be with you!” The meal that the two disciples shared at Emmaus was about…

Holy Breath

11 April 2021

Easter, Season of Growth, Seasons, Year B

There are 3 kinds of seasons in the church year: Seasons of Preparation, Seasons of Celebrations, and the Season of Life. The main and longest season is prosaically called Ordinary – yet this is such an ordinary name for the period of time which is all about growing as disciples and followers of Jesus. ⇒…

Risen and Transformed

4 April 2021

Easter, Seasons, Triduum

Happy Easter! “Until this moment, they failed to understand.”  I think we are on the side of the disciples in this. People who die and then rise from the dead, is not part of our ordinary human experience. You know, that’s not the kind of thing that we’re used to happening. It is not as though that we are now in our 21st century…

Personal Resurrection

3 April 2021

Easter, Seasons, Triduum

The gospel proclaims that there is no place for triumphalism in the Christian community, for it is a gospel of “little ones,” of women who were considered so insignificant that their witness had no social or religious validity. By the end of the day of crucifixion, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses had…

Central Story

2 April 2021

Easter, Seasons, Triduum

Every one of us have a central story that has shaped us and fashioned us; something that continues to define us and help us to understand who we are and how we have become that person. The Passover and the transformation of that ritual that Jesus enacted in the Last Supper is for us this…

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