MEDITATION: Alwy Fadhel was an asylum seeker detained for five years in the Villawood Detention Centre. His art consists of paintings made with instant coffee powder diluted in water. He was taught by an Iraqi detainee who had some knowledge of coffee art.
HOMILY: Jesus’ triumphal entry into the crowded streets of Jerusalem was a kind of performance art, an enacted parable that dramatised his subversive mission.
SATURDAY ART WORKSHOP: Johnny Bell will lead the workshops in April and lessons will invite participants to make clay sculptures. All materials and lunch provided. Gold coin donations gratefully received.
NEWS: Our services in Holy Week commemorate Jesus’ last days in Jerusalem – from Palm Sunday to Holy Thursday, the crucifixion on Good Friday, the silence of Holy Saturday.
HOMILY: Today I’m going to be talking about teaching, learning and wisdom – how Jesus taught, how the people closest to him responded to his teaching, and how we teach and learn now. I have lived my professional life as an English teacher, working mostly in girls’ secondary schools. Some years ago, when I worked at a Catholic school, we began all our faculty meetings by praying together.
GOSPEL CONVERSATION: April 2022.
HOMILY: “I once was lost, but now am found …” sings a former slave trader (John Newton, 1725-1807). Another hymn writer concludes a poetic account of salvation/new creation with the beautiful line: “Lost in wonder, love and praise” (Charles Wesley, 1707-1788). It’s at least as complex as this.
HOMILY: The call to change our thinking with regard to tragedies and blessings is at heart a call to eschew simplistic worldviews (prosperity gospels as well as theodicies) which serve primarily to bolster a sense of control over others, a sense of order wherein the interests of the powerful (the prosperous-blessed) remain central.
GARDEN TIPS: You can’t underestimate the value of worms. They make the best fertiliser, and keep the soil healthy.
GARDEN TIPS: I’ll be fairly busy this year, studying horticulture by correspondence. The course is run by OTEN (The Open Training and Education Network) through the TAFE system.
