Three Challenges
Dear friends. This is a time of challenge for our Church. Whether it's debates over school funding or religious liberty or the sacraments of Confession and Matrimony, there's more than a bit of anti-Christian feeling in the air.
HOMILY FOR OPENING AND BLESSING OF DOWNSIDE HALL – Rosebank College, Five Dock
In 1802 an orphan boy was placed in the care of his uncle, Father Bede Brewer, leader of the English Benedictine Congregation.
HOMILY FOR MEMORIAL MASS FOR THE UNBORN – St. Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney
“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.”
HOMILY FOR MASS OF PRIESTLY ORDINATION OF REV. SEBASTIAN HEW & REV. GERARD WOO LING – Feast of St. Bartholomew, St. Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney
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.
HOMILY FOR 20TH SUNDAY ORDINARY TIME YEAR A + PREGNANT MOTHERS’ MASS – St. Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney
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.
HOMILY FOR STATE FUNERAL AND PONTIFICAL MASS OF CHRISTIAN BURIAL FOR JOHN RICHARD JOHNSON KCSG – St. Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney
“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.”
HOMILY FOR ASSUMPTION + ANNUAL ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE MASS – St. John’s College, University of Sydney
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.
HOMILY FOR 19TH SUNDAY ORDINARY TIME YEAR A – St. Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney
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”.
BOOK LAUNCH FOR ABOUT BIOETHICS: FAITH, SCIENE AND THE ENVIRONMENT BY NICHOLAS TONTI-FILIPPINI
Thank you for those kind words of introduction. Five years ago Nicholas Tonti-Filippini reviewed my book, Catholic Bioethics for a New Millennium, for which I was very grateful. It is a pleasure, therefore, to return the favour by launching his final work, the fifth in his About Bioethics series published by Connor Court, regrettably without Nick’s physical presence with us tonight.
BETWEEN IDEAL AND REALITY: WHAT FUTURE FOR MARRIAGE IN AUSTRALIA? Harman Lecture, John Paul II Institute for Marriage and the Family, Melbourne
The Harman Lecture was established to honour the late Rev. Dr Francis Harman, a charming and wise canonist, ethicist and parish priest who long hoped for a session of the John Paul II Institute in Australia, celebrated its conception, but died in 2000 just before it came to birth.
HOMILY FOR THE FEAST OF THE TRANSFIGURATION, MASS OF THANKSKGIVING FOR THE CENTENARY OF THE DIOCESE OF WILCANNIA-FORBES – Sacred Heart Cathedral, Broken Hill
Jesus’ life was often hard and He mostly eschewed the limelight, preferring to preach and heal through small gestures that encouraged and persuaded rather than big ones that wowed and overwhelmed.
HOMILY FOR MASS FOR 17TH SUNDAY ORDINARY TIME YEAR A
Our three parables this morning (Mt 13:44-52) compare the joy of finding the kingdom of heaven with the excitement people in Jesus’ world experienced on finding natural resources (like gold in a field), human inventions (like pearls set and retailed by merchants), or spiritual goods (like the ‘good fish’ sorted from the bad ones by the angels).