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God speaks: For my thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways not your ways – it is the Lord who speaks (Isaiah 55). Thank God, God’s ways are not our ways: Obviously, God does not have our faults of selfishness, laziness, malice, lust and greed (Henry Wansborough, Universalis). The Parable of the Vineyard Workers reinforces the point: The landless poor would gather in the town square hoping to be hired as day labourers. As today in many Third-World countries, the poor do not sa

Recently, a mate of mine asked my age. When I told him I was 63 he asked: ‘Have you celebrated your third 21st birthday yet?’ Clever. I said, ‘I haven’t but will.’ My parents were not party animals, but knew how to have a good time – God rest their souls. Pope Leo XIV celebrated the birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary recently. He asked the question: ‘What must the birth of a baby girl have meant in the time of Joachim and Anne?’ We could start with Giotto's fresco in the Scr

What could be worse than drug addiction? The denial of it. There is forgiveness for both drug-pusher and drug-addict when they embrace the truth. Unfortunately, however, the damage – both physical and mental – is lasting. The mantra applies: God forgives, but nature doesn’t. How to get this message across? Pope Leo XIV speaks the truth in love: The Church does not intervene in the issue of drugs with the intention of competing with or taking the place of neuroscience, psychia

Jesus tells a parable about forgiveness: A man is forgiven 10,000 talents but fails to forgive 100 denarii. It is a classic case of hyperbole, employed by Jesus to wake us up. God forgives so generously, but do we? The mathematics is fun: 1 Denarius is the Daily Wage 1 Talent is 6,000 Denarius. Let’s say the daily wage in Australia is $350. So, 10,000 talents in today’s terms would be: $350 x 6,000 = $2,100,000 10,000 x $2,100,000 = $21Billion. There is no love without forgiv

There are five great discourses in Matthew’s Gospel: Sermon on the Mount (5-7) Missionary Instruction (10) Parables Plentiful (13) Community Life (18) End Times (22-24). Matthew develops the first ever rule of life for a Christian community in chapter 18. He does this using a symmetrical technique. Think of an arc, with two foundation stones, one on the left and one on the right, and a keystone at the top, stopping the structure from collapsing. The foundation stone on the le

The Vatican News Service recently reported a fascinating fact. Pope Leo XIV will travel to France 25 September to 28 September. It is the first papal visit to France in 18 years. Pope Benedict XVI visited in 2008. The papal visit will include a gathering with young people in a sports stadium, with a capacity of approximately 80,000. When tickets became available they sold out in just one hour – in the blink of an eye. What is happening with young people? Why a renewed interes