Fr John’s Reflection – 2nd Sunday of Advent

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How do we judge things with integrity?

There can be an urgency in modern culture to have an opinion about everything. This calls us to make instant judgment based on limited information and marginal engagement with the people involved. Yet into this situation, Isaiah shows us how the Spirit of God is called to rest upon us. A spirit of wisdom and insight, a spirit of counsel and power, a spirit of knowledge and awe. This calls us to be people who seek justice with an integrity of heart that sees the person first and does not seek to make premature presumptions based on what others may say.

St Paul develops this theme when he says that we need to follow the example of Christ in giving glory to God with our lives. This is reflected in how we treat each other in the same friendly way that Christ treats us. This calls us to become people who seek to follow God in all things without making anything into God. John the Baptist wants to discover that the Kingdom of God is close at hand, inviting us to make our paths straight.

There, in the midst of car parks that are full to overflowing, we are called to become people who witness to the glory of God. The kind word, the consideration for people overwhelmed by the simple act of shopping, the person who needs to reverse out of a parking space into a line of traffic. There are numerous ways in which we can show this maturity of presence by seeking what is for the good of the person. We build a kingdom not made of stone but one that abides in the person of Jesus Christ.

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 – First Sunday of Advent

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Stay Alert

These words echo as we begin the season of Advent. The challenge of staying alert and awake to the reason for the season can often elude us amid the hustle and bustle of modern-day life. There can be many things that demand our attention and divert our attention. This does not just include preparing for Christmas, but it is also the act of remembering the people who are important to us.

There can be a sense, when we are drawing up Christmas card lists, about whether we will send a general email, an ecard, or trust our greetings to an actual card. How do we stay in contact? What do we say, will this sustain our connections, and who will we respond to? This is more than just an obligation; it is a way to notice and pray for those who have influence in our lives.

By way of suggestion, as you are drawing up the list, consider what our prayer intention for them may be this year. This will allow us to go beyond a generic greeting towards a heartfelt invitation to allow God to touch their lives.

This could address the environment in which they live and how they could make a difference. Then write the card. Hopefully, this should not take much time and will help make writing Christmas greetings not another task to be ticked off.

It helps us to notice what intentions we have for each day of Christmas. Make an intention list for each day and pin it on the fridge. These can serve as reminders of what we need to pray for each day.

It also allows us to see how we can touch people in our own square metre by making a conscious effort to act justly, walk humbly and love tenderly as we journey towards Christmas

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 23 Nov 2025

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Christ knocks at the door and waits

William Holman Hunt drew a picture of Christ the King knocking at the door. The door is overgrown by ivy, and Jesus stands outside in the garden with a lantern. This image invites a more profound reflection: when people viewed it, they noticed there was no handle on the outside of the door.

While Jesus knocks at the door, he gazes out into the world, inviting us in. This profound invitation lies at the heart of this solemnity. Christ looks out to us and seeks to enter. What holds us back?

The Gospel reading may hold some clues for us. Jesus presides over the people from the Cross. It is almost like the picture drawn by William Holman Hunt he is frozen in place. We witness people throwing scorn on Jesus. The leaders and the soldiers both misunderstanding this saving act. They understood salvation as a remedy for present ills rather than a divine embrace.

It is only the good thief who is able to perceive this embrace when he prays to be remembered in the Kingdom.

So our hearts and minds are pierced by this reality that seeks to transform how we see God entering into a relationship with us. This is not a salvation that overlooks suffering but one that seeks to transform it for the good of others and the whole of creation. The answer to the paradox of the Cross is not outside us but how we open our hearts to let Christ enter in.

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 16 Nov 2025

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The coming of the Lord

Having just started the thirty-day retreat, I am taken back to the experience that I had during my time as spiritual director at the Seminary. I was returning from a rest day in the exercises and as I drew closer to the retreat centre, I could see an ominous cloud of smoke on the horizon. As I drew closer, this only seemed to intensify the sense of danger.

When I pulled into the car park, there was a smell of ash and smoke in the air, and all the cars had disappeared. I then found the seminarians happily playing volleyball at the bottom of the hill. Yet the danger remained throughout the retreat; we had evacuation plans in place and times when we had to stay put, awaiting advice from the SES. In the midst of this, the seminarians maintained the silence and more deeply encountered the Lord.

The reality is that, in everyday tasks, we often become overwhelmed by real threats to our lives and livelihoods. Yet in the midst of these adversities, we are called to trust in the Lord who comes to rule the earth. This is so that rather than being distracted by whatever everyone else is doing, we are called to remain focused on what has been entrusted to us. In this way, we quietly go on working and earning the food we eat.

Jesus echoes this reality when doomsayers emerge in our midst. Calling us to fear the future based on the fact that we know at the moment. Yet we are called to build on firm foundations, knowing that it is in discovering Christ that we make a person who can sustain us against our deepest fear and our greatest peril. He seeks for us to endure even when we do not know what to say or do. He provides the courage to take the next obvious step.

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 9 Nov 2025

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Crossing the threshold of hope

Over this last year there has been a pilgrimage of hope that has seen millions of pilgrims pass through the Holy Doors that have been opened for this jubilee. In the city of Rome, there are four major basilicas each of which opened a holy door for the Jubilee of Hope.

These are the basilicas of St Mary Major, St Paul outside the walls, St Peter’s Basilica and Archbasilica Cathedral of the Most Holy Saviour of Saint John the Baptist and John the Evangelist, also called St John Lateran for short, it is oldest and is the mother Church of Rome and the whole world.

As we honour the mother Church of the whole world, we are called to ponder the importance of a Church building that is dedicated to the worship of God.

It is the Pope’s cathedral and was dedicated in 324. We are called to prayer for how these sacred places shape us into places where we encounter God in a profound way.

Yet it is the liminal space where we stand at the lintel of these holy places that we are called to notice the transition that takes place. We move from the outside to the inside and are often stunned by the beauty that has been preserved over the years. Yet do we notice the beauty that we encounter within ourselves.

Any pilgrimage is more than taking photos or recording experiences; it looks to what lasts rather than what is transitional. As people return home from entering these four buildings and praying there what remains of the experience that is foundational for our Christian life.

St Paul hints at this when he says, “you are God’s building”. Building on the foundation of Christ we are called to discover the sacredness not just of Churches but of people who gather in them.

The building in its essence helps us to discover how the Spirit of God is living among us. As he says the temple of God is sacred and you are that temple.

I think this is what provokes Jesus into a rage where he overturns tables, scatters coins and drives out animals. It is trying to block the person’s encounter with the sacred through trading in spiritual goods.

We should always have this in our consciousness of how we make it easier for people to develop the sacred space within them.

Ezekiel when he points to how a stream of water flows eastward from the temple. This water seeks to make the sea wholesome. It also allows fruit trees to flourish, produce fruit and leaves that are medicinal. The essence is that what flows into the temple also flows out into the world.

We are called to be people who have the mind of Christ and look at what helps people to thrive. To allow people space to discover holiness and listen to how God is moving in their lives.

This is a slow patient process that allows them to be nurtured and watered with life giving water. We are called to become people who proclaim a jubilee of hope.

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)

The Commemoration of all the Faithful Departed

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Called to Remember!

Unusually, we celebrate All Saints Day and All Souls Day over this weekend. We remember our call to be saints, as well as those who have died. This dual call embodies the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. The recognition that our external actions mirror our internal sense of who we are called to become. This call to be saints and to pray for others is at the heart of these two commemorations.

When I read CS Lewis’ book A Grief Observed, he noticed that in the midst of his sadness, whether it was directed to prayers for his deceased wife or towards himself. This can be our own experience of loss, where we feel like people standing in an empty cave, shouting into the dark. As we speak the person’s name, we start to hear the echo of our own voice. This echo can disturb us because we wonder how deeply the wound that we feel may be healed. We don’t want to just be people who become enveloped by the silence that can settle upon us. Yet the very act of remembering the person can lead to noticing that this same place of silence contains a wound of love. It is from this place of love that we feel the bittersweet taste of what it is to grieve the loss of someone we love and who has loved us.

As people are called to become saints, we also notice how we reach out to others with this emptiness. This is not just to fill our emptiness with activity but rather to offer our availability for the good of another. It is the paradox of our faith that we surrender everything so that people may discover a space in which they can become themselves. By offering even our poverty of emptiness we can discover a God who can meet us even at the time when we feel most bereft of answers.

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 25 October 2025

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What prayers are heard by God?

There is often a temptation to pray in a particular way for our prayers to be heard by God. This can cause us to put more effort into our time of worship, looking for the right words, the right actions and the right intention if it is to be “successful”.

The aim is simple: I need to receive from God the effort I put in. Yet often our prayers focus on who we think we should be rather than who we are. God listens to the heartfelt prayer that simply meets us in our poverty, neediness and dependence.

This is evident in the parable about the Pharisee and the publican. This is not just by an exterior display of piety but an inward conversion of heart. This involves a surrender of our whole self to God, recognising our deepest longing and our utter dependence on God.

We see it too in the reading from Ecclesiasticus, where it is in allowing our story to be heard that our hearts may be read. This listening heart of God is like an arrow that pierces the clouds with a pure intent. God listens to what is most heartfelt.

This is the race we are called to be part of, seeking God daily. This is a perseverance that sees our effort in prayer as an encounter with God standing by us in power. This is not just focusing on myself, but seeking God who runs with us in the race of life.  Stay in the race and pray as you can.

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 12 Oct 2025

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Australian Catholic Cursillo Movement

Were not all ten healed

When we are sick and need it, it is easy for us to seek the aid of another. We are aware of our own helplessness and poverty, especially when we are beset by our own weaknesses. Yet in the midst of this petition, we are called to be open to the one who can heal us.

Many studies show that our healing from both sickness and poverty means a belief that the person who walks alongside us speaks the truth to our condition. We see this in the ten lepers who came for healing. They had faith that Jesus could heal them, but it was only the Samaritan who saw his life transformed and thanked him. This faithful response is that it is not just about a physical healing but a spiritual reshaping of his life.

This is where the faith can lead us to recognise how our choices in life need to be examined in the environment in which we live. We do not wish away our troubles, but in the midst of these difficulties, we seek to encounter the person of Jesus who walks by our side.

We notice the way of life that addicts us to specific patterns of behaviour that prevent us from living in a way that is life-giving for God, others and ourselves. By surrendering ourselves, we discover that Jesus cannot disown his own self.

It is in realising this that our lives can change for good. It calls us to hold firm even when faced with these difficulties to acknowledge how we resist that grace and to surrender our whole self in thanksgiving to his life.

Naaman is challenged by this revelation when he is called to bathe in the Jordon. He has to overcome his own pride and attachment to power to allow God to not only heal his leprosy and his resistance to accepting a gift without price.

He notices that he is called to become a person whose life is offered wholly to God. In this, we discover that holiness comes when we surrender ourselves entirely to God’s healing touch.

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.

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

“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)