Liturgical Dance

Reality TV shows like MasterChef have reminded us of the art involved in preparing a meal - you need the right equipment, the right techniques and especially the right ingredients in the correct balance to prepare the culinary masterpiece. The feast of the Body and Blood of Christ provides an opportunity to reflect on the interplay between the essential ingredients in the celebration of the Eucharist - the priest, the people and the ritual - especially in the light of the introduction of the new translation of the Third edition of the Roman Missal in Australia. Over the history of the church we have seen that too often one of these essential ingredients have been overly emphasised - to the detriment of the others and of the life of the church community.

Does the new translation offer a way forward to finding the correct balance between all three elements in a new spiritual liturgical movement?

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Recorded at St Francis Xavier Cathedral, 9'55".
Corpus Christi.

God is love

When you read through the scriptures, one thing that modern readers might expect are passages that point to proofs for the existence of God. And yet there is not a single place that we can turn to to find something even remotely close to a De Deo Uno (Concerning One God) treatise that you find in classical and medieval theology. In fact the closest that you get is the statement that begins Psalm 14 and 53 - 'The fool says in his heart, "There is no God".' The bible - like all of the ancient near east, simply takes for granted the existence of God.

So what does the bible tell us about the nature of God? What are the images that you find that can help to illuminate the profession of faith of the early Church that God is three in one?

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Recorded at St Brigid, Gwynneville, 9am (10'49")
Trinity Sunday | John 3:16-18

Come Holy Spirit

This feast is a demonstration of the unique Christian understanding of grace and salvation. Before this day, although the disciples knew of the reality of the resurrection of Jesus and the fulfillment of the many prophecies from the Hebrew Scriptures, they were still huddled together in fear - until the Spirit comes - then they become the Church.

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Recorded at Mater Dolorosa, 10am (9'45")
Pentecost Sunday, Year A.

Heaven and earth together

The feast of the Ascension can be one of those feast days that seems utterly bizarre and irrelevant - it is so mythological and pre-scientific to border of pointless. Or if we can reclaim it somehow in our understanding of its place in the life of Jesus, we can still be left wondering what this means for us. One bridge that we first have to cross is the acknowledgment that much of our thinking is not biblical - we are more formed by the systems of thought that the western world has taken from the ancient Greek philosophers like Plato and Aristotle than they are by the rich eastern and Hebrew spirituality of the Bible. We tend to think of the world in a dualistic way - divisions between spirit and matter, between good and bad, here and there, now and then. When we think of heaven and earth, we try to fit them into one or several of these dichotomies. But this doesn't help us to approach the Ascension and its meaning - to do this we must dive into the original biblical vision.

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Recorded at Mater Dolorosa, 8.30am (11'15")
Ascension Sunday. Acts 1:1-11; Matthew 28:16-20.

Renovations at SJV - Stage 2

Photo gallery showing some of the recent works in the renovations...
View the album for the whole set of photos.

https://picasaweb.google.com/richard.healey/RenovationsAtSJVStage2

Signs of the Spirit

As we move through the Easter season, the liturgy today moves in its focus from looking back to the events of Easter, to looking forward in anticipation of the gift of the Holy Spirit poured out upon the Church at Pentecost. All the readings today provide insights and guidance concerning the life in the Spirit and how this can be recognised and discerned. We are given a range of different hints across the readings today about what it means to live in the Spirit and to long for the Spirit to work in our lives.

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Easter 6A. 8'21".

Chosen race and royal priesthood

During Easter we have been reading from the first letter of St Peter, and we come today to what must be one of the most extraordinary declarations in scripture. Peter addresses a mixed community - young and old, men and women, gentiles and Jews, leaders and members - and to each person he reminds us that Jesus has drawn very near to us and wants to make us into living stones to form a spiritual house. Then, using words that were once addressed to the tribes of Israel gathered with Moses around the mountain of Sinai, he then declares that we share in this same dignity and more - of being a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. Strangely the liturgy omits verse 10, which declares, 'You were once no people, but now you are God's people; once you had no mercy, but now you have received mercy.'

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Recorded at Mater Dolorosa, 12noon (Mass with Disciples of Jesus Community, 8'54")
Sunday 5A in Easter. 1 Peter 2:4-10.
Post #150!

The road from Emmaus

This powerful resurrection story is well known and often repeated. It shows the creative power of Luke's narrative and has intrigued saints and scholars over the centuries. One saint who has a wonderful commentary on the story is St Bede the Venerable, the famous 8th century English historian and doctor of the Church. He brings his analytical insights to the narrative to provide us with the power of this story for our own lives.

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Easter Sunday 3A. Luke 24. 9'36"

Peace be with you

'Peace be with you' - this is the greeting that Jesus proclaims to the disciples when he appears to them - even if they are locked behind closed doors for fear of the same fate falling on them as has just happened to Jesus. But the peace that Jesus promised, and the peace that he now gives to them is much more than the absence of fear, conflict, violence or noise. This peace, the true 'shalom' of the Lord, is infinitely creative and becomes one of the true signs of the new creation that happens in the resurrection. This is the peace that we are invited to share in and to be ambassadors of the peace that is only known in the wounds of Jesus.

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Recorded at St Brigid's, 9am (9'43")
Easter Sunday 2A - Octave Day (John 20)
Divine Mercy Sunday, Beatification of Pope John Paul the Great

Living on the third day

Welcome to the third day - the day when everything is different because of that day - which John calls the first day of the new week, when the tomb was empty. On Friday we waited in silence and we mourned and lamented. We so often live our whole lives on Friday. We are shocked by the latest scandal, disaster, war or sin. We live in quiet despair, in anxiety and fear. We imagine that the darkness that we see around us is all that there is. But that is not the end of the story. Jesus didn't stay on the cross and his body is no longer in the tomb. Everything is different now because we live on the third day. The day when we remember that resurrection changes the game. Resurrection shows us that God has not finished with the world yet - the world that he loved into creation. This world that we call home is slowly being changed and transformed, renewed and restored. God has not abandoned our world and God will not abandon our world, because this is the world that he loves. But it is only when we leave Friday behind that we have the eyes to see how and why everything is different on the third day - on Resurrection Sunday. But the choice is ours. We can choose to stay and live on Friday. Or we can believe in the one who left Friday behind and begin to live with him on the third day - to be children of the resurrection.

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Recorded at St John Vianney (8'49")
Easter Sunday morning.