Homilies

ST MARY’S CATHEDRAL, SYDNEY, 22 JUNE 2025 There was great joy last week when Pope Leo announced that the first ‘millennial’ saint, Carlo Acutis, will be canonised on 7th September. Born in London to Italian parents in 1991, he grew up as children do. He loved soccer, pets, video games and Spiderman. As we oldies […]

ST MARTHA’S CHAPEL, LEICHHARDT, 17 JUNE 2025 ‘Demanding,’ ‘a perfectionist,’ ‘hard to work for’—these were the descriptions recently given by those who work for Jensen Huang, the Taiwanese-American CEO of tech giant Nvidia. Huang co-founded Nvidia in 1993, as a niche producer of computer chips for graphics and gaming. Now it’s a $3.5 trillion behemoth, […]

ST ANTHONY OF PADUA CATHOLIC CHURCH, AUSTRAL, 15 JUNE 2025 Some years ago, a friend of mine was discussing the Holy Trinity with his Jehovah’s Witness sister and others who were strongly opposed to this Catholic doctrine. His interlocuters insisted that Catholics don’t really believe in the Trinity, because whenever someone asks about it, they […]

ST MARY’S CATHEDRAL, SYDNEY, MEMORIAL OF ST ANTHONY OF PADUA, 13 JUNE 2025 Human beings have been described as ‘rational animals’, ‘joking animals’, ‘linguistic animals’ and ‘religious animals’. But we are also ‘musical animals’, with compositions more diverse and complex than any bird, cricket or whale. We use music to express, entertain, educate, connect, heal. […]

THE BASILICA OF THE NATIONAL SHRINE OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, WASHINGTON D.C. FEAST OF ST BONIFACE, JUNE 5, 2025 Unparalleled in wisdom about our origins, lives and destinies, about the perennial battle between good and evil, and about the possibility of redemption… I am speaking, of course, not of the Bible or the Summa but […]

ST MARY’S CATHEDRAL, SYDNEY, 1 JUNE 2025 There are many stories from the Middle Ages about court jesters teaching their masters a thing or two. In one, a king is so amused by his jester, he hands him a staff and says, “Keep this staff till you find someone more foolish than yourself—then give it […]

ST MARY’S BASILICA SYDNEY, 31 MAY 2025 Unparalleled in wisdom about our origins, lives and destinies, about the perennial battle between good and evil, and about the possibility of redemption… I am speaking, of course, not of the Bible or the Summa but the Marvel comics and films. Connecting the stories told there is the […]

CATHEDRAL OF STS MARY AND JOSEPH, ARMIDALE, FEAST OF OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY OF POMPEI, 8 MAY 2025 Patrick White’s 1955 novel, The Tree of Man, chronicles the lives and fortunes of an Australian family and their society.[1] Stan Parker inherits an untamed patch of bushland, clears it by hand, builds a shack, and […]

ST MARY’S CATHEDRAL, SYDNEY, 2 MAY 2025 Alexander, the fourth century Bishop of Alexandria, once saw some kids playing by the sea, mimicking the ritual of Baptism. He asked who they were and discovered that the one playing bishop was called Athanasius. After questioning the boy-bishop, Alexander told him his baptisms seemed to be valid […]

ST MARY’S BASILICA, SYDNEY, 1 MAY 2025 “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding these things from the wise and learned, and revealing them to mere children” (Mt 11:25-26). Jesus’ words of thanksgiving tonight upend conventional wisdom: God’s revelation, He makes clear, is not first and foremost for the clever or […]