Category: Fr John’s Weekly
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Theology: Questions And Challenges
It was fascinating. Two good priests, both teachers at the Lateran University in Rome, showed us different approaches to the same questions. The one helped us judge as clearly as we could what is right or wrong in any given situation; the other helped us to see that if we started with the person or…
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Social Encyclical – “Fratelli tutti”
Pope Francis’ beautiful encyclical was promulgated last week. He addresses it to his sisters and brothers throughout the world, reminding us we are the human family of this generation, have received a wonderful world from God, inherited a history of blessings and horrors from the past, and should be aware of everyone’s needs, passing on…
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Loneliness
I have never been lonely. We were a happy large family when I was growing up, I had good Rosminian brethren when I became a member of the Institute of Charity and inspiring priests as my friends through 53 years of priesthood. I was very happy in 13 years of teaching (am still in contact…
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Our Extra-terrestrial Beings
Did you ever give thought to extra-terrestrial beings (ET’s) and the possibility that other parts of our wonderful mysterious Creation are known and loved by God? Given how little we know of the evolution of our creation did you ever consider that maybe we are descendants from ET’s who made their way and home here?…
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My Rosary
Each of the beads on my rosary is prayed for someone or something. Sometimes I just let the people come into my mind from my memory (amazing jumps and associations my mind and memory make!); other times I imagine myself walking the streets of the parish and praying for the people who live there; and…
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Living Home-Church Communities
The lovely basilica of St Mary Major in Rome is the setting for a beautiful custom. In the Blessed Sacrament Chapel every thirty minutes there is a Holy Communion service. People gather quietly and prayerfully. One of the priests comes. A simple service (“Lord have Mercy/Our Father/This is the Lamb of God”) and those who…
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Our Church – God Will Guide Us
You can imagine my joy at being able to celebrate mass with you again. God has blessed me to come home. In the darkness of my sleepless nights at the hospital I had to face the question of whether my life was complete. “I have had 85 wonderful years,” I said to the Lord, “and…
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Be A Volunteer
Some years ago a city-centre church, open all day for prayer, suffered some thefts and vandalism. The insurance company said it would not pay out unless there were people on watch during the day. The parish priest asked for volunteers. No one volunteered. He closed the church except at times of mass. People protested loudly…
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Suffering People Of Lebanon
When I was studying in Rome I was friendly with a student from Lebanon. He told me of his beautiful country, of his lovely people, and how he was looking forward to going home to serve them as God’s priest. A beautiful country in the 1960’s but now a country devastated by civil war, injustice…