Homilies

The low-budget Christian horror-film Final: The Rapture was released late last year. Directed by Timothy Chey, it details the global chaos after all the best people are raptured up to heaven – as some evangelical Christians believe will happen – and follows the stories of four of those left behind. Professional footballer Colin Nelson (played by Jah Shams) is one left stranded when his good Christian wife is assumed into heaven (she’s played, appropriately enough, by an actress named Mary Grace).

The Incorruptibles could be a Marvel Comic or derivative Hollywood blockbuster about superheroes like The Fantastic Four, The Avengers or The X-Men. But in fact the title is a Catholic one, given to those Catholic superheroes, the saints, whose bodies remain substantially incorrupt after their death, people who were so holy in life that God has seen fit miraculously to preserve their bodies from decay, indefinitely or at least for many years after their deaths.

Recently, Disneyland in California, Florida, Paris and Hong Kong banned selfie-sticks. Not because they were troubled with the self-absorption of those who wish to take photos of themselves: selfies will still be allowed. But the Disneylands regard the long sticks as an OHS hazard: sticks that might protrude from their rides and interfere with the mechanisms, or might poke people in the eye or other parts, are no longer permitted.

The word ent has deep roots in the English language. It is Anglo-Saxon (Old English) for ‘giant’. Most people today know it from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and the films based on this. In the second volume, The Two Towers, we meet strong, giant, tree-like shepherds of the forest, most notably in the person of Treebeard.

The Princess Bride is a 1987 American fantasy adventure film which has become something of a ‘cult classic’. It is commonly rated amongst the top 100 comedy films of all time and has charmed audiences ever since. It is structured around a grandfather (played by Peter Falk a.k.a. Columbo) reading a book to his sick grandson.

Welcome to today’s happy occasion for the Our Lady of Victories Parish…

Your Excellency, Archbishop Adolfo Yllana, a very warm welcome to the mother Church of Australia so soon after taking up your mandate as Apostolic Nuncio to Australia.

Welcome all to this special Mass as we celebrate 50 years of the St Francis Xavier Parish, Lurnea. I am pleased to acknowledge Fr Thu Nguyen…

Welcome to today’s Solemn Mass at which we celebrate the Archdiocese of Sydney’s Annual Marriage Mass and Renewal of Vows.

Welcome dear friends to this happy day in the life of the Dominican Order and the wider Church in Australia…