The blind leading the blind. The disciple disregarding the teacher. The hypocrite taking splinters from people’s eyes while there’s a plank in his own. Today Jesus convicts Israel and the Church of these failings (Lk 6:39-45).
 
			 
			The blind leading the blind. The disciple disregarding the teacher. The hypocrite taking splinters from people’s eyes while there’s a plank in his own. Today Jesus convicts Israel and the Church of these failings (Lk 6:39-45).
 
			What’s different about priests? Strange clothes and even stranger personalities? A super commitment to God and the Church? Being professionally religious? Well, in the face of a radical treat to the priesthood
 
			“You’re a mongrel dog!” – a friend said to me once, surprised to learn I had ancestors and relatives from all continents. Only in Australia could that be said affectionately!
 
			The 18th century Scots philosopher David Hume had some strange ideas. Taking a boldly skeptical approach to almost everything, he doubted that there is a permanent self that continues through time or that there was real cause and effect in the external world.
 
			Welcome to St Mary’s Cathedral Hall to this Anti-Slavery Ethical Sourcing Seminar and Expo. As we honour past and present elders of the Gadigal People and the Eora Nation, we acknowledge that our history as a nation includes a shameful chapter in which many Indigenous people
 
			The story of the Good Samaritan (Lk 10:25-37) is surely one of the most beloved of all Jesus’ parables. But the risk with stories we’ve all heard before is that we switch off when they are retold.
 
			There are in religion two contrary tendencies. The first focuses on the spiritual dimension of human beings. It regards the physical universe as confining and distracting, and emphasises God the pure spirit, the angels also, and the dead now released from bodily life.
 
			Google “how to be a great lover” and you get some interesting answers. Some offer advice to men who are all at sea when it comes to women: world-shattering insights as “Make time for her”, “Listen to her” and “Compliment her”.
 
			‘I’m a servant.’ Such talk sticks a bit in our throats, makes us more than a bit uncomfortable, doesn’t it? A waiter or waitress OK. An airline steward, maybe, as long as I don’t have to look after a plane full of Aussies going to WYD. A nurse, sure.
 
			Wow young Australia! What an awesome Aussie gathering this has been to introduce our World Youth Day week! We come together this week, young people with their lay leaders, pastors, and pope as a living-breathing, singing-dancing, praying-acting proof that the Catholic Church is alive and well.