PREACHING Practice – the weekly highlight of our semesters here in St Dominic’s Priory in Melbourne – affords the student body the opportunity to hone much more than simply our skills in the art of rhetoric. Our collective sense of humility and charity is also fostered by this salutary practice. Being able to receive criticism and offer some healthy fraternal ... Read More »
‘YOU dug up the wrong pipe.’ These portentous words were uttered by the student master on the occasion of a recent student meeting. It was during our ‘break’ from formal studies and the students in the priory had each been assigned a variety of fascinating and engaging tasks, in keeping with the prevailing philosophical disposition of the student master – ... Read More »
WHENEVER the genealogy of Jesus Christ was part of the scriptures proclaimed at Mass – as it will be for the Vigil Mass of Christmas – my Grandfather would come home rather underwhelmed. “Jeconiah was the father a Salathiel, and Salathiel the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel the father of Abuid, and Abiud the father of Eliakim …” (Matthew 1:12) ... Read More »
November is a spectacular month for the Church. We begin by venerating all the saints – the Church Triumphant. We immediately follow that celebration by beginning to pray for all departed souls – the Church Penitent. Given that these feasts follow immediately after one another, it might be an idea for those of us who are here in the Church ... Read More »
OUR society seems to be going through an identity crisis. When it comes to the questions that shape our lives – “Who am I?”, “What am I doing here?” – many people have come to the conclusion that the answer is either too difficult to discover or too hard to accept. And so, instead, we have started making it up. ... Read More »
OUR society seems to be going through an identity crisis. When it comes to the questions that shape our lives – “Who am I?” “What am I doing here?” – many people have come to the conclusion that the answer is either too difficult to discover or too hard to accept. And so, instead, we have started making it up. Children ... Read More »
I HAVE recently had a number of conversations with various people on the subject of the cultural composition of the presbyterate in Australia. In light of the increasing number of priests from overseas that are ministering in this country, the whole notion of what it means to serve a particular community seems to have been highlighted in many minds. ... Read More »
IN the final novel written by Leo Tolstoy – entitled Resurrection – there is a striking description of one of the central characters. ‘In Nekhlyudov, as in all of us, there were two men. One was the spiritual being, seeking for himself only the kind of happiness that meant happiness for other people too; but there was also the animal ... Read More »
“DO you ever get bored?” It is a common question posed by the young men who occasionally come to visit the priory, as part of the process they undertake to help discern their vocation in life. My response is often simply to pass on a great piece of advice that a very wise friar once gave me. “The great secret, ... Read More »
The Catholic Leader Keeping Faith with You
