Reflections

Homily  What’s a confirmation? Next Sunday Bishop Garry will be here to confirm 4 marvellous candidates and then we will retire off to the hall for a yummy ‘Bring and share’ lunch. Confirmation is not something that happens every day, so I thought I would offer up a few reflections about the sacrament before next...Continue reading→

This word ‘Awesome’ Our language is not a static thing. In my lifetime a whole new lexicon has come hurtling into our vocabulary. Words like email, algorithm, iPad and cybercrime are just a few examples. Words have also been consigned to the dustbin of inappropriateness and you can probably think of a few examples. But...Continue reading→

Meet my friend Rembrandt Rembrandt entered the world on 15 July 1606. He was a highly skilled painter, printmaker, and draughtsman. It is estimated that he produced a total of about three hundred paintings, three hundred etchings, and two thousand drawings. He became famous in his lifetime and he is well known 4 centuries later. He...Continue reading→

The dress code for the wedding Today’s parable falls easily into two parts. The first part goes like this. The King has a son who is getting married and this is going to be a cause for serious celebration. Many oxen, cattle and turkeys are understandably nervous when they hear the news of the wedding....Continue reading→

Bottles of show wine The classic interpretation of this parable goes like this. It is the history story of our salvation in four, easy to understand, any idiot priest could get it. First, it looks back at Creation and the choosing of the land of Israel: “There was a landowner who planted a vineyard… put...Continue reading→

And so we came to Adventure Bay True story. There really is a delightful place on Bruny Island called Adventure Bay. The tourist spiel goes as follows. ‘There are many things to do in Adventure Bay Bruny Island such as water sports, fishing, bushwalking, scenic boat cruises and visiting the delicious raspberry farm. The caravan,...Continue reading→

Pay attention… we are connected It’s around this time of year that pet blessings abound and that we reflect, and give thanks for the life, work and witness of St. Francis. St. Francis is associated with pet blessings because he understood the connectivity of all nature which includes our relationship with every other human being....Continue reading→

The Cook and the Painter. It was one of these smulchy TV cooking shows with exotic recipes against splendid vista of an exotic country. Our master chef was chatting to a painter who did spectacular landscapes. Towards the end, when the meal had sumptuously been prepared and probably devoured by the film crew, there was...Continue reading→

Today's parable of the workers in the vineyard has much to teach us and the first thing that I want to offer is that God’s grace is not a business. It’s not transactional. I’m terribly sorry to say that God does not have an EFTPOS machine, nor does he take MasterCard, Visa or Amex. He...Continue reading→

I was prattling on about a recollection I have of the isle of Skye and the flavour of the memory was as potent and palatable as the here and now. After all my words were expended, the patient, sage gentleman eyed me carefully and completely unrehearsed and without any premeditation, offered the wise titbit for...Continue reading→

Peter’s nemesis / Our nemesis There is a curious little Q and A session at the start of today’s gospel. Peter goes to Jesus and asks ‘Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Not seven times, but, I tell...Continue reading→

Pin the tail on the donkey An early childhood memory came bubbling to the surface the other day. It was a child's birthday party and we were playing the classic game of pin the tail on the donkey. You know the one where you take it in turns to be blindfolded and are then given...Continue reading→

Words and music - vehicles of resurrection. It was a simple line tucked snugly away in the middle of a paragraph, in the middle of a novel. It went something like this. ‘Words and music are instruments of resurrection.’ What the author was adroitly and succinctly saying was that there are some words and some...Continue reading→

Of Frank and Fr. Oulton Most of you will know that I once had a go at being a school chaplain. I was a spectacular disaster and after 4 long tortuous years, by very mutual consent, I wrote a pleading letter to the then Bishop of Ballarat asking if it might be possible to return...Continue reading→

Vocation = Anticipation I have always enjoyed the story of Moses and the burning bush. Moses had killed a man back in Egypt and escaped before Pharaoh and his henchmen could track him down and put him in solitary confinement. Moses gets a cruisy job with his father-in-law Jethro looking after the sheep in the...Continue reading→

Whats App? One of the new words in our vocabulary is the word ‘App’. Once upon a time, these things did not exist. They were just a twinkle in some millionaire's eye. Now these little blighters are all over my phone and my iPad. They have come a long way and a friend of mine...Continue reading→

On Being Flawsome Church Street today is brought to you by the word ‘flawsome’ and by the number 40. Jeanine and I are not with you on Sunday, August 27th. It was always part of our crafty, cunning plan to elope on this particular weekend and escape to be by ourselves. While you are reading...Continue reading→

A double shot of holy water It was a giggly conversation. ‘Oh! Father … It’s been a stinker of a day. I think I better have a double shot of Holy Water.’ I think I replied ‘Great! Will there be chips with that?’ But for all the frivolity it did get me thinking. What would...Continue reading→

Of Scraps There are several characters for the budding preacher to play with today. There is of course Jesus himself who has chosen to go to the region of Tyre and Sidon. This area is traditionally thought of as the land of the Gentiles. The community outside the realm of salvation. There are the disciples...Continue reading→

My Grandmother’s Tears It was one of those podcast things that I was listening to in the car. The interview was called  ‘The Bookbinder's Luck’ and it was with Dominic Riley. Part of the interview went like this. A woman brought her bible in to be repaired and Dominic patiently explained the process of reparation. “We...Continue reading→