The Strange Holiness of Growing Up

Maturity is one of those virtues we rarely name directly. We praise leadership, resilience, professionalism, courage, wisdom, kindness. Yet underneath all of them sits maturity: that quiet, costly capacity to be more governed by truth than ego, more committed to the good than to being right, more responsible for one’s impact than attached to one’sContinue reading “The Strange Holiness of Growing Up”

When we really need the joy of Sacraments

There is a particular kind of joy that arrives when it has no business arriving. It is not the polished kind, nor the carefully staged version that depends upon circumstances behaving themselves, calendars clearing, bodies cooperating, relationships mending, or the world remembering how to be gentle. Sacramental joy is stranger and sturdier than that. ItContinue reading “When we really need the joy of Sacraments”

For the troubled heart

There are sentences in Scripture that arrive like a hand placed gently on the table. Not dramatic or loaded with sentiment. Not loud enough to silence the room. Simply there. Steady. Present. Waiting to be noticed. Do not let your hearts be troubled. Jesus speaks these words in John’s Gospel on the edge of loss.Continue reading “For the troubled heart”

The netball lesson

In Australia, netball has long been woven into the fabric of communal life. It has been played in parish schools, local clubs, and community associations for generations. It has formed girls and women in skill, discipline, resilience, and loyalty, often without fanfare. It has given people not merely a sport, but a place to stand.Continue reading “The netball lesson”

The Good Samaritan

I recently participated in a Synod retreat and was gifted with time and momentum to pray some scripture. From the second one these thoughts arose after praying The Good Samaritan from the Gospel of Luke. There is something unsettling about the question that opens the parable of the Good Samaritan. The expert in the lawContinue reading “The Good Samaritan”

The Light we don’t get to keep

Lent is honest about timing. It hands us the Transfiguration not as a glittering detour from the hard road, but as a lamp lit on the hard road. Every year, in Lent, the Church insists we climb this mountain with Jesus and then come back down again. We do not get to choose only theContinue reading “The Light we don’t get to keep”