“WELL that was a waste of time!” I recently overhead these emphatically exclaimed words. I am reluctant to provide further details as to the circumstances that gave rise to that utterance, lest some individuals reading this be able to name the culprit. It suffices to say that a deceptively pedestrian phrase set me thinking. For a Christian, can anything ever ... Read More »
LORETTA Bennett has a strategy for gathering her four teenage children. The child and family therapist and husband of 20 years, Col, “turn the Internet off”. “It brings our teenagers out of their rooms,” Loretta, known as Letty to family and friends, said. “It’s one of the times of the day I enjoy the most. We have a wonderful verandah, ... Read More »
By Sr Melissa Dwyer “Your emptiness is but your preparation for being filled.” – Charles Spurgeon OFTEN we view the notion of emptiness as something negative. There can be a tendency to be uncomfortable with silence, and try to fill it with noise. We fill our free time with activity to avoid sitting with ourselves as we are. And ... Read More »
WHEN he’s not in church or busy around his parish, there’s every chance you might find Fr Ron Mollison tinkering with a car, or just going for a drive. He loves cars. More specifically, he loves design – looking at how things are designed, and designing things himself. He finds it so engrossing, he says he may have become an ... Read More »
By Br Brian Grenier FOR 32 years Hugo Gabriel Gryn (1930-96) was a greatly respected rabbi at the West London Synagogue. In his memoirs he relates how in 1944, at the risk of their lives, he and his resourceful father Geza celebrated Chanukah (the Jewish eight-day winter Festival of Lights) amid the unspeakable horrors of Auschwitz. Having fashioned a candlestick ... Read More »
FOR those of you who have visited Salisbury Cathedral, I need not relate the fact that the thirteenth-century spire of the building towers over the surrounding countryside. It is readily visible from the local train station, making it a helpful guiding landmark for any visitor who – like myself – is unable to catch the bus due to budgetary ... Read More »
THERE’S one hour of every week that Annabel Palmer could “do over and over again” – Mass on Sundays. That special hour for Annabel, a Year 12 student from Mary MacKillop College, Nundah, is no doubt the highlight of her week. “Even though it’s an hour of my time, I think it’s the one hour of the week that ... Read More »
PETER Kindness finds beauty and quiet pleasure in birdwatching by Moreton Bay. It’s a cherished pastime for the 80-year-old former union leader, who has known the rough and tumble of politics, has faced death and found God’s renewal, and stands up for his beliefs. He’s been a staunch Labor supporter, was arrested for demonstrating during the Joh Bjelke-Petersen era, and ... Read More »
I REMEMBER the Prague metro as being a rather impressive series of tunnels and spectacularly steep escalators. The descent is so precipitous that, upon first experiencing the swift and seemingly vertiginous journey into the earth, I could not help but think that I was entering into the opening chapters of a Jules Verne novel. The graffiti on the metro walls ... Read More »
The Catholic Leader Keeping Faith with You
