Today’s Gospel is the beginning of Jesus’ Sermon “on the Mount” (according to Matthew – “on the Plain” according to Luke) – an extended instruction for his disciples.

Happy Easter. For a Christian, there could be no more wonderful day than this—when we shout with joy that death itself has been defeated forever — we celebrate the victory of life over death. And even more, that this victory can reach back to the very beginning of time, till the end of time.

The year has begun in typical fast-paced fashion for us all, and we are just about to leave summer behind in most of the AUS Province and head into Autumn.

I quite like the fact that here in the south, Lent normally takes place in Autumn – a time when we see the leaves start to fall from the trees and we ponder the fact that they will return to the earth, from where they came.

The year has begun in typical fast-paced fashion for us all, and we are just about to leave summer behind in most of the AUS Province and head into Autumn.

I quite like the fact that here in the south, Lent normally takes place in Autumn – a time when we see the leaves start to fall from the trees and we ponder the fact that they will return to the earth, from where they came.

The beginning of Advent always comes as a bit of a shock in this increasingly busy world we live in. Just as everything seems to get busier in the countdown to Christmas, the Church asks us to slow down, to reflect, to prepare.

This year, as the world reels from recent terror attacks, we have more cause than usual to engage in some serious Advent reflection and to earnestly await the arrival of the Prince of Peace.