It was written two thousand years ago to a small Phrygian city in Asia Minor. Yet our reading today from St Paul’s Letter to the Colossians might easily have been directed to the leaders, staff and students of Sydney Catholic Schools, as a reminder of what we could and should be.

Your Excellency, Most Rev. Adolfo Tito Yllana, Apostolic Nuncio to Australia; My Lords, Most Rev. Peter Comensoli, Bishop of Broken Bay and Most Rev. David Walker, Bishop Emeritus of Broken Bay…

In a speech in Doha billed as a critique of the foreign policy failures of the Bush and Obama eras, veteran New Yorker journalist Seymour Hersh alleged that the US military’s joint special operations command had been infiltrated by members of the Order of Malta and that these fanatics are modern-day crusaders who “aim to turn mosques into cathedrals”

Margaret Atwood is one of Canada’s most prolific and diverse authors. She has published 17 novels, 10 anthologies of short stories, 20 poetry collections, 7 children’s books, 10 non-fiction books, 3 television scripts, a graphic novel and 3 libretti – so far.

In 2013 the television series Breaking Bad was listed in the Guinness World Records as the most critically acclaimed TV series of all time. It has received numerous awards, including sixteen Emmys and two Golden Globes.

I don’t often quote the German philosopher, Frederick Nietzsche, as he was no friend of religion. He thought that all believers and especially Christians were weaklings for prizing mercy towards the poor, sick and ignorant, for talking of forgiving enemies, turning the other cheek, and so on, and for masking the nausea and disgust he believed we should feel about life.

Susan (not her real name), a young African woman in her early 30s, enjoyed her life as a housekeeper to an Australian family living in East Africa.