IF, as a result of the vagaries of the academic timetable at the theological college, I am unable to cycle back to the priory in time to attend the daily Conventual Mass, I instead stroll down the few blocks that separate our university campus from St Patrick’s Cathedral and attend Mass there. On certain days of the week, I am ... Read More »
ON my way to night lectures at the University of Queensland many years ago I often paused to read an inscription emblazoned on the wall above the entrance to the Forgan Smith Building: “Great is truth and mighty above all things”. A quotation from the First Book of Esdras in the Hebrew Scriptures (4:41), it is an appropriate proclamation of ... Read More »
YOU might have seen Sister Norma Pimentel around. Hoping to talk with President Donald Trump when he made his Texas-Mexico border visit in January; speaking at the United Nations; testifying before Congress; being part of an international satellite broadcast in 2015 with Pope Francis just before his US visit. But that’s not all. She has won a number of awards, ... Read More »
THE gifts of the Holy Spirit have been neglected, says Dr Mary Healy, who has made it her mission to see his renewal in Christian hearts everywhere. Dr Healy is a professor of Sacred Scripture at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit and an international speaker on topics related to Scripture, evangelization, healing, and the spiritual life. Prof Healy, who ... Read More »
LEADER, teacher, village ambulance driver – Christian Brother Frank Hennessy has laboured for the best in people from Ballarat to East Timor. Br Hennessy was recently in Brisbane for the final thanksgiving at St Joseph’s Gregory Terrace as the Christian Brothers withdrew from East Timor. He worked in East Timor for five years as ministry leader where he changed the ... Read More »
“BLESS yourself before you go”, my mother often said to me as I left for St Anthony’s School in the Brisbane suburb of Kedron. It was a perfectly natural thing to do; for, as Catholic primary-level pupils in those days, we lived in a world of blessings. Before school business began we chanted a long, drawn-out greeting to our teacher: ... Read More »
“Life’s all about learning from new experiences,” says Gerard Lai, third-year seminarian at Holy Spirit Seminary, Banyo, who grew up in Logan, and was among those pilgrims making the trek to WYD Panama 2019. He spoke to Mark Bowling. Was this your first experience with WYD? My first WYD was Poland 2016 and I went with the St Vincent de ... Read More »
“CHURCH widow” is an identity Jacinta Coman has lived. She recalled being the “sole driving force for faith” within her immediate family, but has long dusted off the tag, as today the mother-of-three- teenager’s reality is quite the contrary. Earlier this month, Jacinta’s husband of 22 years, Mark, and their children, Zac, 19, Abbey, 18, and Georgia, 15, together attended ... Read More »
ACCORDING to the Psalmist: “The days of our life are seventy years, or perhaps eighty, if we are strong” (Psalm 90:10). From that point of view, if from no other, I share these reflections from a position of strength. They are prompted by a question that was put to me recently: “What religion are you?” As my reply, “I am ... Read More »
The Catholic Leader Keeping Faith with You
