My Dad used to eat papaya and one day he decided to throw the seeds onto our lot near our house. Then he was surprised when one day the seed that he had thrown grew and soon enough it was producing fruit and my mum had no need to buy papaya anymore. You can just imagine how fruitful that soil was.

As we gather on this 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, the Word of God reminds us of the enduring invitation to find rest in the loving arms of our Heavenly Father.

In the 80s, there was a famous Protestant pastor in Manila named Ronald Remy. He was a very charismatic preacher. However, he made a stir one day when he declared publicly that he loved Jesus more than his wife.

Earlier this month the Church celebrated Corpus Christi, the Feast Day of the Body & Blood of Jesus.

In many Catholic houses, you will see a picture of the “Last Supper” and with it hopefully the names of the twelve apostles of Jesus.

Not long ago, we celebrated Easter. During the Easter season, we reflected on the story of the Risen Christ appearing to his disciples.

Today the Church celebrates the solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, one of the most basic tenets of our Christian belief and underlying principle of our faith.

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.

We have a belief that if you love someone, you’re willing to do everything for him or for her. In the gospel for this Sunday, Jesus is challenging all of us that if we really love him then we must obey his commandments.

Before his earthly departure, Jesus in his farewell discourse to his disciples (Jn 14) assured them that not only would he not leave them orphans, but he also introduces them into his spiritual family, a spiritual family that has many rooms able to accommodate all, and is life giving.

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?