Reflect Veronica Lawson rsm23 February 2012 Lent comes around each year and presents us with its usual challenge to take stock of our lives, to see more clearly what is in our hearts, and to discover what might be calling us out of our comfort zones. It is a time for personal as well as […]
Palmerston North 15 February 2012 Those of us worried that young people are struggling to grasp the treasure that is faith amid the challenges of our secular and church environment, can be cheered by the response to the first ever young Catholic leaders’ programme in Palmerston North diocese. The programme was run in the Pohangina […]
Fr Kevin Neal15 February 2012 I was brought up in the south. I still have two sisters in Blenheim and a brother in Christchurch. So once a year I set out to spend some time in Blenheim and then drive south. I’ve been doing this for years. I’ve come to know Christchurch like the back […]
Reflect Veronica Lawson rsm14 February 2012 Today’s gospel reading is the first in a series of five conflict stories. The series culminates in a plot to assassinate Jesus-so we are not talking about minor conflict! What could so antagonise the religious leaders of the time that they would engage in strategies to get rid of […]
Archbishop John DewFebruary 2012 It’s hard to believe that we are now into the second month of the year 2012 – more than 11 years since we celebrated the beginning of the Third Christian Millennium, the year 2000. As was said many times as we prepared for December 31, 1999 – this was not just […]
NEWS 3 February 2012 Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand has a new director. From a background in organisational and business management, including government policy advice and implementation, Julianne Hickey has spent the last 14 years as a consultant with UK-based, global consulting company PA Consulting, delivering projects in the health, social care, criminal justice and community […]
Reflect Veronica Lawson rsm2 February 2012 We all seek to be part of family and community. We are social beings who like to choose the extent of our engagement with others. Some are deprived of choice in this respect, in our times as in ancient times. To be a leper in the world of early […]
Palmerston North Cecily McNeill3 February 2012 Bishop Peter Cullinane of Palmerston North celebrated 50 years of priesthood on December 23. In his homily Cardinal Tom Williams who ordained Bishop Peter in 1980, just four months after his own episcopal ordination, told the congregation that ‘in the ordination ceremony the priest commits himself ‘to exercise the […]
Reflect Veronica Lawson rsm27 January 2012 Today’s gospel reading recounts the first episode in a section of Mark’s gospel that focuses on a typical day in the ministry of Jesus as authoritative teacher and prophetic healer (1:21-38). The setting is the Capernaum synagogue on the Sabbath, a thoroughly Jewish setting. The verbal forms in the […]
Reflect Veronica Lawson rsm27 January 2012 One of my regular global intelligence sources, STRATFOR (www.stratfor.com) featured in its January 11 edition an annual forecast for 2012. STRATFOR says 2012 is unique as a year in which the forecasts point to ‘a redefinition of the way the world works’. It seems to me that Mark evaluated […]