thinking honestly about life and faith
This week I have been at Pallotti College for the annual Candidates’ Retreat: a wonderful time at a wonderful place. Pallotti is set overlooking the Yarra Valley, with sweeping views up to Mt Donna Buang also. Once again this week … Read More »
At the weekend we went to see the marvellous exhibition titled The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greece at Bendigo Art Gallery. It’s a superb collection of sculptures and pottery from Greek and Roman sources, from around 500 BCE to 200CE. The centrepiece … Read More »
When I was a child, this was often said to us: ‘Respect your elders’. I think it meant not to speak when they were in the room, always to defer to them, and probably not to ‘give cheek’, as I am … Read More »
I’ve greatly enjoyed David Malouf’s The Writing Life, a collection of his reflections and talks about writing, many of them offering insights not only into his own experience but the lives of other great writers as well. One really superb … Read More »
We all have difficult decisions to make at times, and very often we think in terms of what we ought to do. Duty is an important consideration, but it’s not the only thing. It may not even be the best … Read More »
The words of Peter, Paul and Mary’s song, ‘When will they every learn?’ spring to mind, as we engage yet again in a bombing war in Iraq and adjoining countries. Except it is not ‘they’, but us. When will we … Read More »
Peter McKinnon’s novel The Songs of Jesse Adams is a good read. It’s his first novel and is a vibrant story of a rock star, set in the late 60s, culminating in 1970, and has all the passion, vision and energy of … Read More »
It’s a new year and with the new year I discovered that my blog site had collapsed. Six months of posts were lost. But it is time to begin again: ‘move on’, as they say. So I thought to share … Read More »
I am convinced that we who might describe ourselves as ‘the Christian Left’ need to shift our focus to a more radical engagement. We can’t trust governments to act justly. It is a delusion to think that any government, Labor … Read More »
In recent weeks I have been reading Roger Lipsey’s big and challenging biography of Dag Hammarskjöld, the second Secretary-General of the United Nations. Hammarskjöld’s personal journal, Markings, has become something of a spiritual classic, since its publication soon after his … Read More »