N’oublions jamais l’Australie – Let us never forget the Australians. The instruction is written above every blackboard in the Elementary School in the French town of Villers-Bretonneux. In a campaign using the slogan “By Diggers defended, by Victorians mended” children from the state of Victoria each donated at least one penny to rebuild the school …

The 2001 film Behind Enemy Lines is described on the DVD cover as “an adrenaline-pumping action ride”. It tells the true-ish story of a U.S. Naval Pilot, Chris Burnett (played by Owen Wilson). During a routine reconnaissance mission during the Bosnian Genocide of 1995 he obtained photographic evidence …

“Blind faith” is the name of an English blues band whose only album was also called Blind Faith (1969). There was also an album of that name by British rock band Walk on Fire (1989), and a third album of the same name by the Christian rock band Legend Seven (1993). Songs of that name were recorded …

Quinoa and kale, açai powder and green tea, a FitBit and a personal trainer – these are our culture’s secrets to living forever or till it feels like forever. There are even more ‘out there’ strategies: cosmetic, genetic or cybernetic treatments; getting yourself cloned or frozen till they have a cure; mind-to-computer …

Quinoa and kale, açai powder and green tea, a FitBit and a personal trainer – these are our culture’s secrets to living forever or till it feels like forever. There are even more ‘out there’ strategies: cosmetic, genetic or cybernetic treatments; getting yourself cloned or frozen till they have a cure; mind-to-computer uploading; and reincarnation into a younger body.

How are we to connect with the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ that we just chanted (Jn chs 18 & 19) and make the story our own? This Holy Week I want to suggest the crucial link is the sacraments. It’s in the sacraments that Christ’s Paschal mystery is remembered; in the sacraments that its fruits …

The first thing we do as we enter the world, we do through our mouths: we scream our lungs out. The next thing we do is breathe through them. Soon after we suckle with them. It’s said that infants think of the universe as an enormous teat just for them, and only gradually come to terms with the fact that …

We’ve heard the Holy Week story so many times before. How do we connect with it, make the story ours? What does it mean to say Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection saves, heals and elevates us? This Holy Week I want to suggest that the crucial link is the sacraments. It’s in the sacraments that Christ’s …

The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to Mark is a powerful, no-nonsense telling of the story of Jesus’ last day (Mk chs 14 & 15). Though it might have just seemed long to you, it’s actually the shortest of the four versions and it has some unique features. One is its stark realism. Mark tells it like it is. His Jesus is no demigod, no superhero.

Belinda and Shaun Stafford spent six years in an IVF programme after discovering they could not conceive in any other way – an experience Belinda described as “painful, tormenting, a strain on our marriage and just plain hard.”1 So, after having three children they decided enough was enough.

The Sydney Church in which I grew up was still a rather Irish one. Already by then my parents and schoolmates, like many Sydney Catholics, were not: they represented the much more culturally diverse Australia that emerged after the Second World War in places like Fairfield.