MY six months of “pastoral placement” at a university in Sydney last year were something of a mitigated disappointment. I had been looking forward to daily engagements with students, lively discussions and a healthy dose of pub-related socialization. COVID put an end to most of those dreams. Students studied online, social engagements were almost non-existent, and the university forbade us ... Read More »
A SEMINARIAN I know recently sent me a message that ended with the words – “Don’t lose optimism!” Being a Dominican, the innate “sed contra” that dwells within me could not help but respond – “Optimism is the belief that things will keep getting better and better; it is not the same thing as the infused Christian virtue of hope”. ... Read More »
“The last will be first and the first will be last.” Now there’s a phrase that we’ve all heard (misused) before. It is scriptural, of course: it occurs in one of the gospel passages that will be proclaimed this month. It is spoken by Jesus during his attempt to explain the Kingdom of Heaven to the disciples. As is often ... 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 »
“I HAVE learned that I have a deep fondness for the road,” Dominican Brother Reginald Chua said towards the end of a road trip from his Melbourne priory around the western half of Australia. “There was something almost ethereal about driving along the Nullarbor, in the moments when my brothers were sleeping and there was nothing but silence, the endless flat road, ... 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 »
The Catholic Leader Keeping Faith with You
