We live in a unique country, a family of islands under southern skies.

By day Aotearoa, the long white cloud, covers the land, recalling for many the pillar of cloud, leading God’s people through the desert (Ex 13: 21).

At night, the stars of the Southern Cross remind us of the pillar of fire which led the people in the dark of night. This luminous sign reveals the grace and blessings of God.

In these islands and under this Southern Cross, Christ crucified and risen from the dead is with us.

For the tangata whenua, the group of stars known as the Pleiades (Seven Sisters) was the Southern Sky sign they worshipped under. For the Maori people this sign was known as Mata Ariki, the ‘Eyes of God’.

How do you expect to discover God under our southern skies today?

When we hear the term 'missionary’ in the church context, do we still think of people living in poverty overseas?

We have grown to know that while some may be called to serve God in other places, most of us are called to be missionaries of the Gospel in our own land.

What does this mean?

I remember as a child hearing the story of soldiers wandering through the ruins of a German church. They came upon a statue of the Sacred Heart lying beside its pedestal. As they returned the statue to its shrine, they noticed that both hands had been broken in the fall. They placed a sign beneath the statue which read: ‘now I have no hands but yours’.

We are called to be the eyes, the feet, the hands and the voice of Christ. In this awareness, the responsibility of mission becomes ours.

How does it feel for you to be the HANDS, EARS, EYES, FEET, MOUTH of Jesus?&l ... Read More »

As we begin to think of ourselves sharing the mission of Jesus, we often begin by looking outwards.

We see the people who hunger and we want to feed them. We hear the cry of the poor and feel the urge to give them shelter and warmth.

We hear the grief of the rich, who realise that their wealth has not delivered the security it promised. We run to meet the needs of others. Might we need to look more deeply into our own minds and hearts first?

The Mass is the moment when God gathers ALL into one. How do you experience this? We see the people who hunger and we want to feed them. We hear the cry of the poor and feel the urge to give them shelter and warmth.

We hear the grief of the rich, who realise that their wealth has not delivered the security it promised. We run to meet the needs of others.

Might we need to look more deeply into our own minds and hearts first?
& ... Read More »

Mission is the fruit of our encounter with Jesus in the Mass. We go from this experience to share what we have celebrated.
We need to realise, however, that the mission of Jesus in the Church can only be carried out when each disciple is living in intimate relationship with Him.
Jesus is the Master Missionary. He seeks to touch us first, so that we might reach others.
The divine mission is our irrepressible response to the visit of Jesus to our own hearts. Before we can share what we have received, we need to know that in every moment, in every word and encounter Jesus is reaching out to us.

The starting-point for the Church’s missionary activity is the encounter between Jesus and the individual human heart.

In this space where human frailty and need meet divine love, we know love. We are visited by the love which forgives sin. We know the touch of the love that heals hearts and transforms all life. In this ... Read More »

Then they said to each other,
‘Were not our hearts burning within us
while he was talking to us on the road,
while he was opening the scriptures to us?’
That same hour they got up and returned to
Jerusalem; and they found the eleven
and their companions gathered together.
They were saying, ‘The Lord is risen indeed,
and he has appeared to Simon!
Then they told what had happened on the road
and how he had been made known to them
in the breaking of the bread.
Luke 24: 32-35

Spend some time with this Scripture passage.
How does this story
stir your heart today?