Fr John’s reflection for Sunday 21 Sept 2025

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How do we spend our time? How do we spend our money?

When we spend time in prayer and reflection, do we consider what God may be guiding us towards? So often, we can focus on how much money we have and how little time we have in which to spend it. The pressure can cause us to spend more of our time seeking greater wealth so that we can relax and take it easy! Yet there are only 24 hours in a day!! This calls us to consider what is most important to us and what actually brings us life.

In an age where we face the reality of being able to afford the necessities of life, it is easy to see how our focus can be on earning a decent wage. People need to have the security to make good choices. Yet when we stake everything on money, we can start to lose a sense of our own worth. If we measure our success or our status on something that is here today and gone tomorrow, we can start to feel like we are victims of circumstances beyond our control.

What we value and treasure can more easily direct our choices. This will allow us to become wise and good stewards of the gifts that we have been entrusted. Such an approach enables us to recognise the value and worth of each life and person. When this is at the heart of our living, we can start to be people who transform the community in which we live.

In Coventry Cathedral in England, they pray the following Litany of Reconciliation each day at noon.

Litany of Reconciliation

All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

The hatred which divides nation from nation, race from race, class from class,

Father forgive.

The covetous desires of people and nations to possess what is not their own,

Father, forgive.

The greed which exploits the work of human hands and lays waste the earth,

Father, forgive.

Our envy of the welfare and happiness of others,

Father, forgive.

Our indifference to the plight of the imprisoned, the homeless, the refugee,

Father, forgive.

The lust which dishonours the bodies of men, women and children,

Father, forgive.

The pride which leads us to trust in ourselves and not in God,

Father, forgive.

Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

(https://www.coventrycathedral.org.uk/reconciliation/reconciliation-ministry/litany-of-reconciliation)

 

DE COLORES!

Fr. John Armstrong

 

“The intellectual quest is exquisite, like pearls and coral. But it is not the same as the spiritual quest. The spiritual quest is on another level altogether. Spiritual wine has a subtler taste. The intellect and the senses investigate cause and effect. The spiritual seeker surrenders to wonder.” (Rumi Wisdom; trans. Timothy Freke)

Fr John’s reflection for Sunday 14 Sept 2025

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Encountering the Cross

 

Each of us will face challenges in life. This can often confront us with the reality of suffering and sin. We can start to ponder what has caused these events to occur and what remedies will lift this cross from our shoulders. Sometimes what we struggle with is the bad choices that we make in life, and how we tend to believe that the world revolves around us. This can especially narrow our perspective on things to what influences those choices and how we need to change our lives. It can tend to shut out other people and even shut out God. How can I be transformed in these moments?

 

Part of the mystery of the Cross is how we seek to live it out in the midst of our own suffering and sin. We often see the cause of our suffering as something to be eliminated from life. This can be especially prevalent when we seek out a priest for confession. We can often notice what burdens our hearts and what seems like a deadweight in our lives. We seek to confess our sin and change our lives, but we are usually drawn back to those short-term fixes that take away some of the pain. Yet we also notice how we can become addicted to these remedies that often seem hollow and counterfeit. We are called to confess our sins, not to create extra burdens, but to discover how God meets us in our struggles. This is also linked to our celebration of the anointing of the sick; God meets us in that suffering, not to condemn us but to share our burden. Thus, our lives are not called to be lived in frustration and despair but to discover how God meets us even in our darkest night.

 

I believe this is where the feast of the Triumph of the Cross helps us to encounter God. In the midst of the suffering, we discover a God who is willing to give everything for our good. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus notices this meeting of what it means to be fully human and fully divine. It is not by walking away from suffering, but instead by allowing us to meet God in a rawness that reveals the reality of how deeply we are loved. This is not just calling us to a stoic resolve or a fatalistic resignation to the truth of sin and suffering. Rather, it seeks to notice how God does not abandon us at these moments. He became incarnate for us not because of us. This helps us to acknowledge that we are accompanied, especially at times of our greatest need.

As a Church community, we acknowledge how we seek to be people of justice and mercy. This is especially true when we seek to become communities that safeguard our most vulnerable, who can be so burdened by the reality of the sins of others and the suffering that they continue to endure. The fact that this feast is also commemorated as Safeguarding Sunday acknowledges that we can not take the Cross for granted. We learn ways not only to build communities that care for the sick and suffering but also seek to be places that heal and reconcile the darkness that can so easily affect our lives. In entering into the mystery of the Cross, we strive to be people who discover that our lives meet a God who sacrifices everything for our good so that we can find the reality of compassion. A God who does not abandon us to suffer or feel powerless against the cause of the suffering. We can be seen even when we feel lost, resurrected even when we feel close to death, and to discover that it is in our wounds that we are healed by Christ.

DE COLORES!

Fr. John Armstrong

 

“The intellectual quest is exquisite, like pearls and coral. But it is not the same as the spiritual quest. The spiritual quest is on another level altogether. Spiritual wine has a subtler taste. The intellect and the senses investigate cause and effect. The spiritual seeker surrenders to wonder.” (Rumi Wisdom; trans. Timothy Freke)

Fr John’s reflection for Sunday 7 Sept 2025

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Knowing the mind of God

I remember hearing an interview with Paul Davies, an English Physicist who had just written a book called “The Mind of God.” I remember the interviewer being enthralled by the discussion so much so that at the end of the hour that he apologised for going through the usual interludes for time checks, the news headlines and the usual announcements. What struck me in listening to the interview and later in reading the book was the author’s belief that mathematics was the language with which God wrote the universe. I hear the audible groans and memories that people may have had in learning mathematics as abstract and an arcane discipline. Yet I sense that God speaks in a language that can be understood and helps us to discover more about our universe. In fact, it may well be that quantum physicists may be helping us to deepen our understanding of how the mystery of God touches every aspect of our lives.

This wisdom helps us to understand how God is our refuge. We discover that this is not as a security blanket but a discovery of how God touches our hearts and our minds. It helps to allow us insight into the work of God that is ever creative and ever new. It transforms how we view ourselves as part of the unfolding of creation and builds on foundations that are eternal. It helps us appreciate how we can participate in that unfolding. This allows us the possibility to notice how we can have a positive influence on those around us and how we can be instruments of peace.

It also notices how everyday acts of compassion, justice and kindness can shape our lives. In Paul’s letter to Philemon, he focuses on his relationship with Onesimus. This is a practical story of forgiveness and reconciliation where a person is no longer considered as the property of another but rather as a brother in Christ. Thus, we see Paul encouraging Philemon to welcome Onesimus as though he was Paul. This shapes each of our encounters because it helps us to notice how we can meet Christ in the people with whom we share our lives. If we see the other person as Christ this realigns our everyday relationships that allows us Christ to be at the centre of our universe. In this we discover a new language that helps us to know the mind of God.

DE COLORES!

Fr. John Armstrong

 

“The intellectual quest is exquisite, like pearls and coral. But it is not the same as the spiritual quest. The spiritual quest is on another level altogether. Spiritual wine has a subtler taste. The intellect and the senses investigate cause and effect. The spiritual seeker surrenders to wonder.” (Rumi Wisdom; trans. Timothy Freke)

 

Fr John’s Reflection for Sunday 3 August 2025

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Giving Thanks for what we have

We live in an age where our success can be measured by how much we consume, how much we produce, or by the influence we have on others in our lives. The appeal of being useful can influence how we make decisions and how we allocate our time. We want someone to notice that we are making a contribution that rewards our efforts. Yet in Ecclesiastes, we are called to labour wisely and to see where our hearts are present to the task at hand. In the end, someone else will inherit all our hard work, over which we have stressed and worried. As Pope John XXIII once had the response in prayer when he wondered how he would resolve all the problems that the Church faced in the modern age, he received the answer in prayer that it was Christ’s Church and that he should get a good night’s rest!

Similarly, we can begin to plan for a future that has not yet occurred based on what we know in the present. But how will we discern the heart of God rather than our own desire for bigger, brighter, and better? We often want to outshine and outdo what has gone before. The danger with this is that we can be driven by external forces beyond our control into a return to a golden age that we have created in our imagination. This does not mean that we don’t try to improve the human condition, but we need to see what our treasure is and what makes us rich.

God seeks to bring us to live a life that is formed by a relationship that overflows with God’s love and kindness. We need to examine what brings life and hope to our age more than just fulfilling our own passions and indulgences. We are called to be renewed in the image of the creator, who does not look for artificial distinctions between people. Instead, it places on our hearts and minds to see Christ in everything and in everyone.

Fr. John Armstrong

DE COLORES!

“The intellectual quest is exquisite, like pearls and coral. But it is not the same as the spiritual quest. The spiritual quest is on another level altogether. Spiritual wine has a subtler taste. The intellect and the senses investigate cause and effect. The spiritual seeker surrenders to wonder.” (Rumi Wisdom; trans. Timothy Freke)

Fr John’s Reflection for Sunday 27 July 2025

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Unconditional Love

We live in a world where we are accustomed to making contracts with one another for specific goods and services. They have three essential elements: an agreement on what is to be exchanged, the time when it will be exchanged, and the method in which it will be exchanged. The difficulty with this way of living is that we can focus more on the exchange rather than the person we are called to be in relationship with. The utility of the transaction can overflow into the way we relate to each other.

When Jesus teaches his disciples the Our Father, he emphasises the personal nature of holiness, which draws us towards prioritising relationship —that is, to desire God’s realm to be at the heart of our lives. This notices how we are called to be people who are nourished, forgiven and healed daily in our relationships with each other. Often, it seems that there are things that pull us away from being present to the needs of others and focus solely on our own wants.

This is where, in seeking good things, there is a persistence to ask, to seek and to desire the goods of God. At the heart of our prayer is the seeking not just a particular good or outcome but a relationship that can discern what is good. This moves us toward the heart of God, which seeks to be in an unconditional relationship with us, shaping how we reach out to God and to each other.

Fr. John Armstrong

DE COLORES!

“The intellectual quest is exquisite, like pearls and coral. But it is not the same as the spiritual quest. The spiritual quest is on another level altogether. Spiritual wine has a subtler taste. The intellect and the senses investigate cause and effect. The spiritual seeker surrenders to wonder.” (Rumi Wisdom; trans. Timothy Freke)

 

Fr John’s Reflection for Sunday 20 July 2025

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What draws us to the table

 “Martha, Martha you worry and fret over so many things when only one thing is necessary!” We can easily imagine the scene. An important guest has come to our house and we are doing our best to impress them. We want to not only provide a good meal but want to be known as good hosts. Martha is justifiably considered with the preparations. We can even sense her growing annoyance that Mary is focussed totally on the guest who is at the heart of the reason for all the preparations. We can sense the tension in this scene because it unfolds in our own daily activity. Whether it is travelling to work, preparing a meal, or making plans for the future. All are done with good intent but somehow we start to notice that we are no longer centred on the reason for the activity but on the activity itself. This loss of focus robs us of a sense of being present to the moment.

This practice of the present moment can even be seen in contrast by Abraham preparing to welcome the three visitors at the Oak of Mamre. Once again Abraham along with Sarah make all the preparations to welcome their guest. But then he stands under the tree and waits. It is this sense of being present to the three divine persons that transforms the situation. It is not that we should not make preparations but that we need to be present to who is at the heart of the celebrations. In days where many intrusive thoughts and activities can tend to swamp us demanding attention we are called to recentre ourselves over and over again. This is not to stop us from doing important things but so that we can be aware of who we are becoming in the midst of all our doing!

As we journey through life we should not be in a rush just to achieve results but attend to what brings us life. This pausing at table allows us to notice how God dwells with us in the midst of everyday activities. He allows us to gather at table with a sense of being in the presence of God. In this we discover what Paul reveals to the Colossians. “That the mystery is Christ among you, your hope of glory: this is the wisdom in which we thoroughly train everyone and instruct everyone, to make them all perfect in Christ.”

Fr. John Armstrong

DE COLORES!

“The intellectual quest is exquisite, like pearls and coral. But it is not the same as the spiritual quest. The spiritual quest is on another level altogether. Spiritual wine has a subtler taste. The intellect and the senses investigate cause and effect. The spiritual seeker surrenders to wonder.” (Rumi Wisdom; trans. Timothy Freke)

Fr John’s Reflection – Sunday 18th May 2025

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Pruning

 The seasons seem to be out of order. We have skipped winter and gone straight into Spring. Daffodils are starting to put forward their new growth at least two months early. Those who are more attentive to their gardens would also notice subtle changes in the climate and how this can confuse plants, no less than ourselves. Yet this weekend we talk about the importance of pruning and tidying up the garden of our lives. There is a need to be aware of where new growth is starting to emerge and what impedes it.

Unlike Lent, this is not just a time to focus on the adverse effects of sin but to notice how we resist meeting the risen Christ in this new springtime of our lives, even as we prepare for winter. This is where we no longer focus on what causes death but on what brings life. This takes a willingness to work in harmony with the Holy Spirit and find ways to share the gifts entrusted to us for the good of others. We start to notice how we are called to resist the temptation to hoard what we have been given for a rainy day or become like bears who hibernate in winter. There can be a secret fear that we will become less if we give anything away. We can start to measure our lives by what we own rather than what we are worth.

This is the gentle encouragement of Easter when we discover the risen Christ in the reality of daily life. God does not wait until we have it, but meets us where we most need to be met. We are not called to wait for the perfect opportunity for this to happen, but to be embraced by God’s love that enriches and emboldens us to be present to the whole of God’s creation. We are Easter people who proclaim that our mission is to meet Jesus each day, as we are not as we think we should be.

Fr John’s Reflection – Sunday 11th May 2025

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Listen to my voice

 Good Shepherd Sunday is an appropriate time when the Cardinals in Conclave consider a Pope to succeed Pope Francis. It allows us to reflect on our journey of faith, where we are called to listen, follow and seek the Kingdom of God. This is at the heart of a person in leadership. They need to be people who listen to the voice of God and discern what gathers us into one flock. This way of being present does not assume authority equates with power. Their office is at the service of others so that they can be people of Faith who proclaim the Gospel to our current age. They call us to a wholeness and holiness of life.

They then lead us by witnessing what is central to the Christian life. They teach not just in the words that they preach but in the life that they live. In our own age, they need to proclaim who they follow and how that encourages us to walk beside them on the journey. They walk amid the flock. This approach allows them to be more than a sheep dog yapping at our heels or a figurehead who appears remote from daily life. By being in our midst, we discover how the Good News of Jesus Christ transforms our way of living. We become people of Hope.

By seeking ways to be present to others, we start to discover that this is not simply about making plans or setting agendas, but rather a way of being present. This allows the opportunity to have a God’s eye view on how we order our lives to live the Gospel more easily. We become people motivated by the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy to manifest the grace of God. We become people of Charity.

This threefold office of Sanctifying, Teaching, and Governance is at the heart of the Good Shepherd. Our new Pope must be a person of Prayer who embodies the Sacred Heart of Jesus. We hope he will be a living witness to the teaching of our faith that can be understood in our own time. We seek ways that lead us to be charitable with our whole lives.

Fr John’s Reflection – Sunday 4th May 2025

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Do you Love Me!

 The three questions that Jesus asks Peter illustrate the distinction between conditional and unconditional love. They help us understand the mission of God, which is to love each of us unconditionally and to respond to that call. This availability to engage in conversation daily lies at the heart of our prayer. It echoes the words that Jesus says, when he says that we need to love with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, and all our strength, and to love our neighbour as ourselves. This golden rule is called the core of the Easter journey. This is where we encounter the risen Christ in our daily lives and act accordingly, guided by our beliefs.

This is poignant as we gather to consider who will be our next Pope and reflect on the legacy of Pope Francis. We are called to be people of faith, hope and love. This is about entering into a dialogue that witnesses to how our prayer overflows into our daily activities. The prayer touches the heart of Jesus as we sit down and gaze upon him. The ability to take a long, loving look at the real world emboldens us to be people who are not passive recipients of grace, but fellow travellers. We are all pilgrims on the journey who seek to embody the life of God for others in all that we do.

Over the last nine days of mourning for Pope Francis we are challenged by many of the Saints that we have celebrated over the previous week: Saint Peter Chanel who carried the Word of God to Oceania; St Catherine of Siena who sought to depth the wells of salvation and challenged the Popes of her time to be faithful to their office; Pope Pius V who sought to bring unity in the Church, St Joseph the Worker who sought people to find their dignity in their work and St Athanasius who sought people to be united in the expression of their beliefs. As we pray for the Cardinals who enter the Conclave next Wednesday, 7th May, we hold them before God that they may be inspired to choose a person who, like Peter, listens to the Unconditional Love of Christ to serve and look after the flock.

Fr John’s reflection for Sunday 29 Dec 2024

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Review of Life

As we approach a new year, we can start to reflect on how we want to enter into 2025. There seem to be many things that can grab our attention about becoming our best self.  When we seek to make intentions, we can focus on things that will produce that best self whether it is exercising more, seeking to lose weight, studying a new language, or focusing on a particular project. This can cause us to set goals that may be achieved. However, the question is who will we become as we seek the benefits of these activities? I think what motivates us to achieve these goals is probably more fundamental to whom we become.

The Holy Family helps us to reflect on the importance of how we build relationships with each other. This helps us to notice how we build up a community that can be sustained against the uncertainties of life. We seek to notice how we are called to become people who act justly, love tenderly and walk humbly with our God. The gifts that we produce in each relationship allows us to give praise to God and bring hope to others.

As we enter into the new year, we seek to live in a way that daily reviews how we become a people who seek God together. This is by seeking what builds each other up rather than tear each other down. We can witness too easily how easy it is to destroy life rather than seeking to build that which builds life. We are called to be people who seek the good of God in which every person is considered as a child of God.

DE COLORES!

Fr. John Armstrong

 

“The intellectual quest is exquisite, like pearls and coral. But it is not the same as the spiritual quest. The spiritual quest is on another level altogether. Spiritual wine has a subtler taste. The intellect and the senses investigate cause and effect. The spiritual seeker surrenders to wonder.” (Rumi Wisdom; trans. Timothy Freke)