On the Mount of Olives, just outside of Jerusalem, there is a small mosque. In the centre of this Muslim house of prayer is a flat rock a metre or so in diameter. In the centre of this rock are two foot-shaped indentations.

There is a song titled, “The trouble with hello is goodbye.” We all know that saying goodbye is never easy because of all the physical and emotional attachments that we have, especially if we have a close friend.

Many years ago I visited the parish of Santa Teresa, about an hour’s drive from Alice Springs. Travelling with me was a young man, Alexi, from Vanuatu who at that time had begun training to become a Divine Word Missionary. Alexi had a fantastic head of hair, a wonderful, very distinctive Afro.

The story of the Lord's appearance to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus is probably one of the best developed and deeply insightful of the appearance stories in the Gospels.

“Peace be with you.” This was the greeting of Jesus to his apostles on his first appearance after he rose from the dead. After that, his disciples were first astonished at seeing him, then he greeted them again, “Peace be with you”.

Pope Francis in his Apostolic Exhortation, ‘The Joy of the Gospel’, states, “There are Christians whose lives seems like Lent without Easter”. Are we that?

With the arrival of Palm Sunday our Lenten journey is almost over. Christ’s persecution and crucifixion is still ahead of us, but the promise of his resurrection at Easter is within our sight.

This coming Sunday’s Gospel is full of drama. It tells the story of Jesus’ friend, Lazarus, who died, was buried, then raised from the dead. There are dialogues between Jesus & his disciples, and Jesus & Lazarus’ sisters, Mary & Martha, culminating in his instruction to take away the stone which closed the tomb, and then his command to the dead Lazarus to come back to life.

Karma is something that a lot of people are asking me about, as to whether it is a Christian belief or not. Well, I would politely say that it is not. For us Christians, we believe that retribution or judgment will be happening not in this life but in the next.

Many years ago, I was watching a TV show about newly wedded husband and wives. It was a fun show about how well do you know your partner. They would have questions like, “What’s your favourite ice cream flavour?” “What’s your favourite footy team?” “What’s your kind of food that you like your wife to cook for you?” Sometimes, both partners would get the answer correct and sometimes they would get it awfully wrong and that’s the fun part.