Fr Greg Boyle SJ, Homeboy Industries Fr Greg Joseph Boyle, SJ, is an American Roman Catholic Jesuit priest who is founder and Director of Homeboy Industries, the world's largest gang-intervention and rehabilitation program, and former Parish Priest of Dolores Mission Church in Los Angeles.  Inflamed by my experience of the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises and Arrupe Programme, I desired an even deeper knowledge of St Ignatius. While surfing the Net, I fortuitously discovered a Jesuit who, as...

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 2 Tim 4:7   Stephen Shanthakumar Kathirkamu is a Tamil Asylum Seeker who escaped persecution to seek refuge in Australia. His story is one of innocence, through torture, marriage, refuge, conversion, cancer and death.   This is Stephen’s eulogy, written and spoken by Ms Pam Nair at his funeral on 28 May 2020 in Brisbane, Australia.   EARLY LIFE Shanthakumar was born...

Kerry Holland shares an experience of Imaginative Contemplation.. . All of us can probably recall a moment in a fair amount of detail when we were hurt or touched by good fortune. Mostly we can recall how we were affected and the overall atmosphere of the moment. Our imagination is linked to this kind of recollection. Ignatius, while an energetic young man confined to bed in his convalescence, was left alone with God and his imagination...

… when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst, (saying), Peace be unto you. Jn 20:19   LOCKDOWN Images of the Disciples cowering in lockdown resonate with the Covid-19 experience of isolation. In an instant old certainty had disintegrated into confusion. Fearing detection both them and us construed elaborate schemes to ensure self-preservation. Interestingly, ‘Have no fear’ ‘Do not be afraid’ and...

In the age of covid-19, ‘what is truth?’ Jn 18:38 I am the way and truth and life. …   If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. Jn 14:6-7   GRIEF CYCLE Shock – Denial – Anger – Bargaining – Depression – Acceptance. In the grief cycle of Australian infamy March 2020 will be remembered as the month of shock! Friday 13 th morning TV was riveting. Will they – Wont they...

 " For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."  Jeremiah 29:11     Because Plan A is the ‘go to’ option. Plan A suggests ‘know how’: Plan B smells of suffering and failure. Any sports tragic will tell you why they lost: we had no Plan B! ‘You have to lose one to win one,’ is the truism...

Going beyond the information given - Jerome Bruner 1957.   Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him … Lk 24:31.   Sputnik’s 1957 launch into space by the Russians had shattered USA’s technological confidence. Earth’s first artificial satellite not only raised ‘Cold War’ tensions it also triggered the ‘space race.’  John F Kennedy’s response was to invite cognitive psychologist Jerome Bruner, to head a presidential scientific advisory board to explore ways of raising USA’s...

"And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white."  Mt 17:2   Family time is precious! When shared in the beauty of New Zealand’s Fiordland, my heart skips upon recalling the joyful presence of our five enraptured children, some 23 years past, on that ‘mystical’ cruise through the stunning Milford Sounds.  As we sailed those blue waters edged by mountainous outcrops soaring into cloud enshrouded peaks,...

They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts . Acts 2:46 And where there is change, there is the letting go of the old and the giving birth to the new. Sr. Ilia Delio “Essential:” the escalation / transformation of this word’s significance all but equals that of the unheralded and scene stealing acronym - ‘COVID-19’!! Global Illusions of needs / wants have been shattered. No longer do CEO’s, entrepreneurs,...

  The risen Christ is mistaken as a gardener, a fellow traveller, a fisherman offering advice – the risen Christ seems to look like everyone after the resurrection. Richard Rohr.   As bushfires ravaged the NSW coast last New Year’s Eve, an emergency call beckoned the Bawley Point Rural Fire Service crew and their captain, Charlie Magnusen, to attend a life / death situation on a bush enclosed property. Unbeknown to them, a ‘mini inferno’ like...

As a result of the courageous and radical way he lived his life, and the saving love he embodied for all humanity, he threatened the political, social and religious authorities of his day so much that they executed him.   Fr. Richard Leonard SJ. Uncertainty is the new normal. As for the poor, the blind, the lame, the crippled, the lepers … the ones to whom Jesus sought to help and serve, so to for population...

"Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"   John 9:2  "Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him.”  9:3 “My disabled daughter’s premature death was not karmic. Let me clarify: in no way did morality contribute to her genetic disease nor death. This funeral celebrates the loving and well lived life of a daughter whose example of compassion enriched...

    I'm just a soul whose intentions are good...   Nina Simone 1964     One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God .   Mt 4:4   ‘Oh, baby - don't you know I'm human,’ sings Nina Simone in her 1964 plea to not be 'misunderstood' .  Surely Nina speaks for us all when she acknowledges that, ‘ sometimes (she) feels a little...

To walk contemplatively in nature, is not to hike, not to be in a rush to reach the end, but to be receptive to the present moment, to be open to wonder.   The experience of ‘awe’ is a touch deep within, an overwhelming feeling of reverence, of something that transcends understanding, that expands human consciousness.   Awe can be experienced in listening to a sublime piece of music, in standing before a fine work of art, in...

But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you; Mt 5: 44 Yeah right – you cannot be serious! ‘Because this may be the hardest commandment,’ according to Fr James Martin SJ, one cannot but help emit shock / horror upon each reading of Jesus’ new commandment. Rowan Baxter’s recent incineration of his wife and three children in the family car begs the question of love and compassion towards one whose heinous...

We know that the whole of creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right through to the present time . Romans 8:22   Louis Pasteur once postulated, “it is in the power of (people) to eradicate infection from earth.” The probability, however, is minuscule. Smallpox (1979) and Rinderpest (2011) are the only two infectious diseases to be eradicated reports Clark Russell in his online 2011 article, “Eradicating Infectious Disease. Can we, and should...

Aunty Joan Hendriks: Lest we forget. 8.1.1936 – 26.1.2020 Blessed are you, when people insult you and persecute you and speak all kinds of evil against you because of me. Mt. 5:11 Tributes, eulogies and commendations have greeted the passing of Aunty Joan Hendriks, a wise and revered Ngugi woman and Quandamooka Elder.  First Nations, religious, political and community leaders of all persuasions have acknowledged her commitment to culture and reconciliation as well as being a friend, teacher...

The first weeks of my year have been spent recharging my physical and spiritual batteries. It has been a time spent relaxing and in prayer committing to some new ways of proceeding in my life. These ways re-imagined by my coming to know my true feelings as to my life and allowing those feelings to draw me closer to the Father God who transforms me.     This time spent similarly to the time spent at the end...

St. Francis Xavier – 3 December Francis Xavier was born on 7 April, 1506 at Javier, Kingdom of Navarre. He died on 3 December, 1552 aged 46 at on Shangchuan Island.  He met Ignatius of Loyola at the University of Paris where he was studying. Ignatius convinced Francis to do the  Spiritual Exercises . He subsequently became one of the first seven Jesuits who took vows of poverty and chastity at Montmartre, Paris in 1534. He was ordained a priest in 24 June, 1537.  In 1541, at the request of...

"  Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Luke’s scriptural quote goes beyond the familiar ‘prayers and thoughts’ refrain because it necessitates actions of seeking and knocking.  St Therese of Avila, a Spanish 16 th  century mystic put it this way: - “Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body...