As Christians everywhere prepare to commemorate the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem and enter into Holy Week, I could not help but think of the paradox of these upcoming religious celebrations almost colliding with one of humanities darkest days.

Among the four gospels, John's account of the raising of Lazarus is surely one of the most remarkable.

Karma is something that a lot of people are asking me about - whether it is a Christian belief or not.

In the National Rugby League’s (NRL) Footy Show, a slightly irreverent show about the players of the NRL, they have a segment where they ask the wives or girlfriends of the NRL players questions and then try to match their answers with their partner’s.

When I was a pre-school child, my mother used to take my sister, Yvonne, and I shopping in Mark Foy's. Mark Foy's was a big, exciting department store diagonally opposite the Hyde Park entrance to Museum Station in Sydney's CBD. The building was a marvel to behold from the outside. With its turrets and decorative finishes, it looked a bit like Uncle Scrooge McDuck's mansion. However, it was the interior that really captured the imagination of a little three-year old boy: All the floors in the store opened onto a big, central atrium, and, reaching from the basement to the top floor stood an aviary full of live birds, budgerigars, I think. What a place to let one's imagination run wild! And on one visit to Mark Foy's, my imagination really did run wild: I got lost.

There is a mysterious story in 2 Kings that can help us understand what is happening in the transfiguration.

There is a mysterious story in 2 Kings that can help us understand what is happening in the transfiguration. 

The Gospel for the first Sunday of Lent, in all three years of the lectionary cycle, is devoted to the temptation of Jesus in the desert.

When I was in my 30's, working as an engineer in the Middle East, and before I became a priest, I made a journey to Egypt.

One Jewish philosopher once said, “If we followed the law ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’, we would all end up blind and toothless.”

Adjacent to the Epworth Hospital in Richmond, Melbourne, is an eye clinic run by Dr Medownick. Dr Medownick treats eyes in a special way, and most of his patients experience a great improvement in their sight. In the foyer of his clinic is an elephant made from basket-weave. There is an opening in its back. Satisfied patients are invited to place the glasses they no longer have use for in the elephant, for distribution in needy areas. The elephant fills quickly.

Recently while reading the Gospel story about Jesus' reception in his home town, I found myself thinking about Dr Medownick.

Our Gospel for this weekend is taken from the beginning section of the Sermon on the Mount.

At the beginning of this month in February, in the state of New South Wales where I live, the summer season brings in the longest days and shortest nights.

The coming of the child Jesus to the temple to be presented to God according to the Law of Moses took place forty days after his birth.

In our lives, many of us have “turning points” that make us work more fervently or sometimes make us do things at a more urgent pace.