Year: 2017

Our epistle this morning (1Thess 1:1-5) may have seemed little more than a formal g’day and list of acknowledgments like my greeting at the start of Mass. Yet these were in fact the very first words ever written for the New Testament.

Jesuits make great martyrs and Martin Scorsese’s long-awaited and recently-released film, Silence, is a confronting glimpse of one period of Jesuit heroism and betrayal.

Most of what we know about St Luke comes from the New Testament. He was a Greek-speaking disciple of St Paul and his companion in mission: in fact, he was one of the few people who could long abide Paul’s rather difficult personality.

My favourite film this year has been Mel Gibson’s Hacksaw Ridge. Andrew Garfield brilliantly plays Desmond Doss, a medic who was the first conscientious objector to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Every great religion has had its sacred sites where people felt closest to God. Our Jewish ancestors counted the Jerusalem Temple their holiest place, where God’s shalom dwelt, and the prayers and sacrifices of the cult were offered.

In 1802 an orphan boy was placed in the care of his uncle, Father Bede Brewer, leader of the English Benedictine Congregation.

“I pull a Kleenex from its box and hand it to Stevie Nicks. She wipes a tear as it slides down her cheek. She cries… when she speaks of the babies she might have had.”

Origins: ‘From Nazareth?’ asked Nathanael, ‘Can anything good come from Nazareth?’ (Jn 1:45-51) It’s one of the most famous and sardonic questions in the New Testament.

Monica Riley once wanted to be the world’s fattest woman. Each day she would consume over 10,000 calories, often being fed through a funnel.

“It is shameful and inhuman to treat men like chattels to make money from, or to regard them merely as so much muscle power… To the rich I say… once the demands of necessity and propriety have been met, the rest that one owns belongs to the poor.”

The website MyFreeImplants.com started in 2005 as a way to crowd-fund women who want breast implants. They create a profile and would-be donors can scroll through, access photos of them, even talk to them through live streaming, before making a donation.

The phrase “walking on water” is often used, understandably, to indicate an impossible task; so, when we are told to do something we think too hard, we might respond that “you might as well tell me to walk on water”.