It’s one of the harshest lines in the Gospels, certainly one of the harshest to come from Jesus’ lips, and it’s addressed to the very man Jesus is preparing to lead after He has gone.

Today we celebrate the Spring Ember Day in the Catholic Church. Ember days in the Church roughly correspond to the four seasons, though in general in Australia we only celebrate the Autumn and Spring ones

“Hey you guys: don’t you realise you are God’s temple, with the Spirit of God within you?” so St. Paul says to us today (1 Cor 3:9-17).

Cynthia Voigt is a prolific author of novels for young adults. Homecoming, the first of seven books in her Tillerman series, was nominated for several international prizes and adapted for film.

So runs the chorus of an old English folk song that compares human life to that of a leaf, changing with the seasons. At first glance the song seems rather fatalistic, focusing as it does on our inevitable ageing and afflictions – the ‘frost’

In the realm of music, a ‘counterpoint’ is created when someone adds a different melody on top of or underneath another melody, so that the two work together, in harmony, interdependently.

“We gather today to offer this Funeral Mass for the late Monsignor Meagher, a priest of Jesus Christ who served God and the people of Sydney faithfully for nearly 60 years, and died last week aged 91.

When people complained to Picasso that his portrait of Gertrude Stein did not look like her he famously replied, ‘No matter – it will.’ Picasso’s point was not merely that as Stein aged she would become more likely the unflattering face he had painted