Having recovered from a bout of Covid that seemed to lay me low for well over a week, I was indeed ready to get back to doing something that took me away from the negative that can so easily [...]

I want to welcome you all. Today is so very special. In fact it is well over four decades in the making. But for Gerard and Rauli the moment has come when they can reveal in the most public of [...]

If we hold up the flag of Peter Dutton and his ilk it would mean, we will forever be tarred with the tag of racism that will denigrate the good we still have to offer a troubled world. That world [...]

How does one explain the role of a humanist civil celebrant and a spirituality that goes with that role? The humanistic and the spiritual are joined. In a marriage a couple choose each other and [...]

“We are not a racist country.” Michaela Cash, Peter Dutton and their followers are shouting this mantra from their guarded rooftops, believing, and dearly hoping that the Yes campaign will fail. [...]

From the 1990s Recently I came across a poem by the Sufi mystic Rumi and it read, “I sought a soul in the sea and found a coral there beneath the foam for me an ocean was all laid [...]

Hello Benjamin, I speak to you as one who appreciates our friendship but realise that it may be on the line of what I am about to say about Israel’s actions on Palestine. I am appalled and deeply [...]

From the 1990s I had a bad day today. One of those days that come on top of us after a weekend away from the worksite. One of our students had been robbed at knifepoint by three Caucasian youths [...]

I was at a medical centre recently and sitting next to me was a young lady who was waiting to get her GP’s report from her oncologist. There she was with a brightly coloured tee- shirt and [...]

I was privileged to have officiated at my first gay wedding some weeks ago. Having been a celebrant on and off for over 50 years this was the first occasion to move into uncharted waters. It [...]

From the 1990s The novels of John Marsden are a source of enjoyment to many teenagers as well as to others. I refer more to his quartet of novels about the invasion of Australia. He shows in a [...]

Tear, anger, frustration don’t easily surface with an 83-year-old, but come they do. Perhaps let me start with a Graham Greene novel I read many years back and. ‘The Quiet American’ written as an [...]

From the Counsellor (1990s) The other afternoon I was standing out the front of the school after classes. There is so much one can see and appreciate at a time like this. I saw vividly the [...]

Kate was my friend for over 50 years. It was in this church that we met in early 1968. It was the time when the Vietnam War protests were in full swing. “May angels guard you.” For Kate that was [...]

From the 1990s Recently I was told a story that in many ways is full of pathos but at the same time it may just be able to highlight what so much of life is about. A father was teaching his [...]

From the Counsellor (1990s) Symbols are the way we communicate. The expression of the inexpressible. Last Friday night was very special for students, parents, teachers and all connected with the [...]

From the 1990s My dear friend and mentor Fr. Ted Kennedy gave the eulogy for Mum Shirl Smith at St. Mary’s Cathedral last week. His farewell words for this very special lady were most apt [...]

From the 1990s A connoisseur’s movie will never last long at the box office. It is the Spielberg movie that keeps up on popularity because it can afford to cater for the masses. Yet it is [...]

I know that we live in troubled times. We do our best to cope. In a sense that is the story of life. Yet in our more serene and positive moments we discover something truly precious. We discover [...]

We white folk don’t have to hide behind a mask like a youth, tough yet isolated, swaggering down Redfern in a two-dimensional dusk just killing time, to hide our true feelings. The general [...]

FROM THE DESK OF THE COUNSELLOR – JOHN HILL (1990s) I was talking to a parent today and when she and her husband were deciding which school they wanted for their children they were told by [...]

Tears, anger, frustration don’t easily surface with an 83-year-old, but come they do. Perhaps let me start with a Graham Greene novel I read many years back and. ‘The Quiet American’ written as [...]

From the 1990s In a casual conversation with a teacher from Melbourne who taught at Jesuit schools in Sydney and is now at Xavier College I learnt something which I was not surprised to hear. She [...]