The opposite of faith is not doubt, but the closed mind. True faith can only grow and mature if it includes the elements of paradox and creative doubt. Such doubt is not the enemy of faith but an essential element of it. For faith in God does not bring the false peace of answered questions […]
Today is the last Sunday of Pentecost and a time to reflect on Christ the King as we prepare for Advent. Lots of wonderful music and familiar voices. “When the bloom of the jacaranda tree is here, Christmas time is near.” The jacaranda blossoms are displaying the full glory of their colour. As we’re not […]
I shall not understand unless I believe. Anselm The Masai people of Africa, speaking to Vincent Donovan said “to have faith is to be sought out by God. He has searched us out and found us. All the time we think we are the lion. In the end the lion is God”. Think about times, […]
Faith is not an opinion, it is an attitude. Brother Roger of Taizé. So I saw and understood that our faith is our light in our night, which light is God, our endless day. Julian of Norwich. Faith is a God-given way of imagining existence, not a cold truth, easily captured in concepts. Michael Paul Gallagher […]
To have faith in God is to revive what is concealed. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel Archbishop Jean Marie Lustiger speaks of discovering God by situating ourselves differently in relation to ourselves, the world and “the One [we] do not know”. This suggests a radical kind of openness, a new kind of appreciating – not seeing […]
What a beautiful time of year. It’s been grey the past couple of days but we are still seeing blossoms of spring. This photo was taken in the park at our recent parish picnic. Scroll down the page and you’ll find images of some of the saints from the parish enjoying the great outdoors in […]
the touching of a mystery Alexander Schmemann Faith is better understood as a verb than a noun, as a process than a possession. Frederick Beuchner Catherina de Hueck Doherty talks of the gift we bring when we listen a person’s soul into existence”. Jesus – in his “openness and availability to others” – aroused in […]
God’s kingdom is creation healed Hans Kung The Kingdom is an attractive ….. What you are in love withwhat seizes your imaginationwill affect everything. Pedro Aruppe SJ Jesus paints in bold brush strokes a picture of the reign or kingdom of God. It’s not a place – or a program: it comes as a surprise, […]
It is precisely this space, which we might say God clears for us, in which we find our inherent worth and dignity. God’s first gift for us is to be able to say, “l AM”. St Augustine When I was born all creation stood up and said, “God is!” Meister Eckhart Being seen: Malcolm X, […]
a ‘hidden wholeness’ Thomas Merton An Aboriginal woman said a few years ago: “We Aboriginal people are spiritual people struggling to be human. You white Australians are humans struggling to be spiritual”. If the Enlightenment focused on knowledge , and one of the marks of Post-Modernism is information (and more and more of it) – […]