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 22 Dec 2024

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Visitation

Travelling overseas I have witnessed how many families are travelling with young children. This mass movement of people reflects much of what we have seen at the first Christmas when Mary travelled with Joseph from Nazareth to Bethlehem. We know that travel brings its own difficulties and trials along the way. The same is true whether we travel vast distances or just next door. We need to be prepared for what we may encounter along the way. We need to look out for fellow travellers who may experience difficulty. Ultimately, we also need to practice patience to arrive in a way that benefits others.

As we celebrate this Holy Season, we ask that God may bless us with peace, hope and joy. Especially for those who cannot travel freely, those who find themselves homeless at this time and those who struggle to afford the necessities of life. Christmas calls upon us to refocus our lives on the person who seeks to bear poverty, rejection and isolation with an anticipation that every human life has dignity. Our hearts need to be open so that we can direct efforts that produce ways in which people can discover freedom of movement, shelter for their families and meaningful work that provides a living wage.

As we celebrate another Christmas may we remember the peace of Christ that disturbs us!

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 – 1st Sunday of Lent

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1st Sunday of Lent – 21st February

What do we thirst for?

 

Lent is a time when we are driven out into the desert to face our own demons. In the midst of the hustle and bustle of daily life, we often are drawn to events outside of us which seem to crowd out our inner lives. There are bills to pay, people to meet, appointments to be kept and items to be purchased. Our lives can become simply a to-do list which we mark off with an inevitability there will be more things to be done. There can seem to be a relentless pressure to perform and meet the expectations of others. That there never seem enough hours in a day to attend to what we consider important.

Yet Lent is really a time when we could consider a to-be list. How have we been present to our daily activities with a spirit of thanksgiving and gratitude? What has helped us to notice the graced moments where God draws our attention to beauty, creativity and wonder? They may only be simple things like a person who unexpectedly smiles and wishes us a good day. The person who recognises that we may need encouragement with a particularly difficult task or even a person who agrees to accompany us to a doctor appointment. These are all things that we can take for granted but they transform lives.

In a similar way, we can see what most easily allows us to review what is bringing us life and leading us to a more wholesome way of living. This can be as simple as seeking to notice what we truly hunger for and what satisfies us. It can also notice what seems to be a dead weight on us and which we endure rather than carry. There are situations in life where we will all encounter difficulties but how do we find ways in which we can bring a sense of joy and peace to what to many would seem a crushing weight. 

There can also be those times when we are distracted from the very good that we seek to do by things that have the appearance of being urgent rather than important. When we notice that we are spending time on things which do not help us or others we can start to make changes which open us to the more creative use of our day. We can also become aware of the direction in which our life is taking and make small course changes which direct us to a more prayerful way of living.

In the end, Lent is about preparing ourselves for the renewal which comes about through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Recognising those things which are obstacles to the way of life we seek to live, to discover the truth which will sustain us on the journey to becoming fully alive.

Fr. John Armstrong

Fr John’s Reflection – 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time

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6th Sunday in Ordinary Time – 14th February

Preparing for Lent

  Thinking back over the last year it seems as though we have had our longest Lent. When we first started to hear about COVID we thought that it would last for a relatively short time. But in many ways, it has been like a longer penitential season. We have been called upon to pay particular attention to personal hygiene, physical distancing and unnecessary travel. In many cases, the restrictions became mandatory and at short notice. People were called to adjust their plans at short notice and many of the things we took for granted were thrown awry. There was a sense in which the enforcement of this distancing brought with it much confusion, isolation and anger. It called us to reflect on what was important in our lives. I believe this is what Lent is truly about, it calls us to notice what we need to fast from which at times may be more than food. It is what can isolate us from God and from each other. Thus, our fasting helps us to notice the places where we put up barriers to God and to others in our lives. This is where our prayer is not just time which we set aside but rather listening to how God prompts us to discover who we are called to be in our daily lives. It is listening to the quiet voice which sustains us. As I have said to our seminarians we think at light speed, God speaks to us at walking pace. When we notice that we have time to slow down we can start to see that we are not the centre of the universe. We are called to notice those around us especially those in greatest need of God’s loving presence. This is not just about observing what needs to be done but actually participating in a way which puts that loving gaze into action. So, as you prepare for Lent this is a time where prayer, fasting and almsgiving call us not to be centred on ourselves but on God’s loving intent and what brings down the hard borders we discover around our hearts.

Fr. John Armstrong

Fr John’s Reflection – 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time

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5th Sunday in Ordinary Time – 7th February

The next obvious step

 Mary Mackillop was always looking for opportunities in which she could apply the teaching of the Gospel to the life of the community in which she lived. She saw an urgency which did not put the work of today in the hope of what might happen in the future. She was not one for rainy days in which action could be postponed when it was clear that she could make a difference at this moment.

As we read through the first reading from Job for this weekend, we can have an impression that it is just one thing after another. Yet I feel this misses the point he is making which is to be present to the situation we are in rather than seeing life as an endless progression of time in which we always anticipate something in the future but never experience it now. Paul takes this theme up when he talks about preaching the gospel not as a task to be fulfilled but a life to be lived. He saw himself as sharing his life with the people he met so that he could identify the graced action which was needed. In the same way, Jesus sees the immediate need and responds to it. When he discovers Simon Peter’s mother-in-law sick, he attends to her need for healing. She responds by showing her thanks by attending to his needs. It is this ability to see the need in the life of another which draws us to be people of healing and reconciliation.

The main thing in exercising these good works is not to draw attention to ourselves but to enable us to hear the Good News at work in our lives and the lives of ordinary people. It is by doing ordinary things extraordinarily well that we discover how God opens up our minds and hearts to the people in our square metre. To encounter them prayerfully and holistically. To see the person who is in need and to take the next obvious step.

Fr. John Armstrong