Here I have put together a selection of homilies. The Word of God is ‘alive and active’ says the Letter to the Hebrews. That is not to say that it lives a hidden organic life we can trace through a microscope, as if it were a virus; but that it is inspired, a bearer of God’s eternal Spirit. Therefore it resounds to this day with quite as much force as when it was first spoken. It ever has something new to say. The preacher’s first task is to listen intently to this Word at once ancient and new, then to make his own, necessarily limited words its vehicles. I have not been able to provide translations of texts in other languages; but if you rummage around a little you will find a fair amount of material in English.
Don’t we risk falling into a kind of double-speak whereby we gather in church now and again to recite reassuring but ultimately meaningless lovey-dovey formulas before we step back into the ‘real’ world where love has no place and man is to man a wolf?
Continue reading St Eystein is inseparable from the legacy of St Olav. He knew in his body the reality of Olav's powerful intercession as one of that host of witnesses who eternally sing praise before the throne Ezekiel saw, recommending the needs of the Pilgrim Church on earth to God's mercy.
Continue reading In recent times we have heard voices crying, 'I am for Pope Francis', 'and I am for Pope Benedict', while others shout, 'and I am for Pope Pius X'. What a lot of nonsense.
Continue reading Who among us has not experienced that one whom we have known for years suddenly reveals a new side of himself or herself and we are forced to admit: 'I thought I knew him (or her), but I now see I did not'.
Continue reading When I speak of poetry I do not primarily think of pretty verses about flowers, keeping a regular rhythm and end-rhymes. I envisage the poem as an inspired statement of what, otherwise, remains ineffable.
Continue reading To be a mother or father is not limited to the generative act; she is a mother, and he is a father, who allows generated life to be realised in its irreducible otherness.
Continue reading John the Evangelist soars in the firmament, seemingly motionless, yet rising ever higher. He sees hidden and beautiful patterns that can’t be perceived from below.
Continue reading We need not be ashamed of childish fears. It is as a child that God comes to us, to comfort us and free us, and so to make us bearers of freedom and comfort.
Continue reading I am not trying to preach some kind of ideological rant. I am just reminding you that the world of Ahaz and Isaiah is not so very different from ours, which seems to have gone off the rails.
Continue reading The eternal truth of God is made manifest in time, by all means, but to adjust it to a secularised society's expectations is irresponsible to the point of absurdity. The contemporary world must be read, rather, in the light of revealed eternity.
Continue reading In looking, as it were, up and down at the same time, we approach the mystery of Christ, who was incarnate to ‘unite all thing in himself’; who, for being fully God, was fully a man, spreading abroad on this concrete, perspiring earth a fragrance of divinity.
Continue reading Our present condition, even in its moments of ecstasy, is but a noviciate preparing us for a life of eternal abundance.
Continue reading Only when I assume responsibility for my life the way it has turned out do I take my first tentative steps towards freedom. There is no other way.
Continue reading The Judge before whom we shall stand is no bureaucratic official. The Shepherd who awaits us at the gate is the Lamb of God.
Continue reading Our outlook is so limited! We are like ants who think of our anthill as the world.
Continue reading What are we not prepared to do to hide our vulnerability? Often, very often, the source of sin in people's lives is a near-panic fear of being humiliated.
Continue reading The humble person, when he does good, does not say anxiously, ‘O, there’ll be sin and selfishness in this, somewhere’. He feels a kind of jubilant astonishment and asks, ‘Really, was that me?
Continue reading When Paul speaks of 'putting on the Lord Jesus Christ', the reference is not to some kind of loose poncho that fits on top of various layers of other, personally chosen garments. To be a Christian is to be transformed.
Continue reading Saying thanks is hard for many. A person’s capacity for gratitude is a pretty infallible index of his or her inner freedom and maturity.
Continue reading All of us may feel from time to time that we haven't strength for all that should be done, that needs far exceed our abilities and means. That is nothing to get too excited about - it is how it is to be a Christian.
Continue reading ‘The righteous will live by faith', we read in the prophet Habakkuk, who lived in the 7th century BC. For us, though, the statement resonates with jousting matches about theology fought in Europe 2100 years later.
Continue reading What is at stake is an effort to help ourselves and others to grow 'to full maturity, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ' — no less. May our lives, like Matthew's, serve this grandiose, joy-bearing, freeing cause.
Continue reading The metanoid woman or man takes stock of life to reorient it, letting life’s project be re-magnetised by a single, definitive desire strong enough to order lesser desires according to itself, where before these had been pulling in opposite directions. Is my heart unified - is yours?
Continue reading In this symbolic, sacramental interaction of masculinity and femininity, fundamental to Catholic life, we shall find, of this I am convinced, the true response to painful perplexities present in our time. This response is already formulated, thank God; it needn't be invented anew.
Continue reading The pursuit of humility is not just a matter of devotion; it is about upholding the dignity of all human life, recognising ourselves among the weak and outcast, standing up for table fellowship. To be humble on these terms is not to be meek and mild; it requires courage, strength, and perseverance in the face of hostile opposition.
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