Homilies

ST MARY’S CATHEDRAL, SYDNEY, 13 APRIL 2025 In the fourth century AD a young Spanish woman named Egeria made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. She recorded that on the Sunday before Easter the faithful gathered on the Mount of Olives and read the Gospel account of Christ’s entry. Then they accompanied the bishop in […]

ST MARY’S CATHEDRAL, SYDNEY, 6 APRIL 2025 To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and […]

ST BENEDICT’S SHRINE, SMITHFIELD, 30 MARCH 2025 Reality TV is now the staple of Aussie television.[1] More than half the top-rating programmes are of this genre. Whether it’s the 21 series of the home restorations on The Block, the 14 cookoffs of My Kitchen Rules, the 15 rounds of housemates’ shenanigans on Big Brother, the […]

ST THERESE’S CHURCH, FAIRFIELD WEST, 28 MARCH 2025 Last week it was announced that the legendary Kenyan runner, Eliud Kipchoge, will compete in the Sydney Marathon this year. Kipchoge is a two-time Olympic gold medallist (2016 & 2021) and the only runner to have completed a marathon in under two hours, making him arguably the […]

ST MARY’S CATHEDRAL, SYDNEY, 16 MARCH 2025 When it comes to the nuts and bolts of learning, there’s no shortage of opinions. Beginning in the mid-20th century, educationalists began to theorise and test different approaches, some very traditional, others highly experimental, and there are people who swear by each. Some approaches are clearly effective, but […]

ST MARY’S CATHEDRAL, SYDNEY, 13 MARCH 2025 Recent research led by the University of Sydney, UCLA and other tertiary institutions found that human beings say Yes to requests for help up to seven times more than they say No.[1] Their study, based on video recordings of everyday social interactions in various cultural contexts, show that […]

GLADESVILLE, 9 MARCH 2025 Rob Parsons is an author, speaker and founder of Care for the Family, a UK-based charity that focuses on marriage, parenting and bereavement. His great contribution, however, might never have happened were it not for a remarkable encounter many years ago. One evening, he and his wife Dianne heard a knock […]

DOMUS AUSTRALIA, ROME, 5 MARCH 2025 Is the human attention span shrinking? The question is much discussed by psychologists, educators, tech gurus and social commentators.[i] Many students read only chapters or articles, not whole books. Newspapers prefer 400-word opinion pieces to the old 3,000-word essays. TV keeps news items short, with imagery changing every few […]

ST MARGARET’S AND ALL SAINTS LONDON, 18 FEBRUARY 2025 (FEAST OF BLESSED FRA ANGELICO) In December of last year, NASA telescopes in Chile identified a 100m wide asteroid, with the catchy name ‘2024 YR4’, that will come rather close to the earth in 2032.[1] While it’s not big enough to cause a mass extinction event […]

ST MARY’S CATHEDRAL, SYDNEY, FEAST OF OUR LADY OF LOURDES, 11 FEBRUARY 2025 Most of you will be familiar with that great classic of English literature, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Authored and illustrated by Eric Carle in 1969, it was on the bestsellers list for children’s picture books for around 19 years and has been […]