(Week 46) The eggs of Week 45 came alive today(?) on Good Friday. The nestlings were too young (and weak) to even make a sound – but how vigorous were their zest for grub! (Week 45) The bauhinia and orchids continue to bloom in their quiet domains, when the birds come to nest. The diversity and…
On Palm Sunday, in the Passion Reading of Luke’s Gospel (23:1-49), Jesus makes an analogy to the treatment to Himself with our fragile Earth that is so evocative as to be worthy of a quotation about our environment (23:28-31) But Jesus turned to them and said, ‘Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep rather for…
The late Dean Brackley, S.J., challenges us in this quote: “I invite you to discover your vocation in downward mobility. It’s a scary request… The world is obsessed with wealth and security and upward mobility and prestige. But let us teach solidarity, walking with the victims, serving and loving. I offer this for you to…
(Week 45) The bauhinia and orchids continue to bloom in their quiet domains, when the birds come to nest. The diversity and cacophony of the dawn chorus and evensong is transformed into the persistent urgent shrills of hungry nestlings and their affectionate parents……… and immediately, we know there and then – there is life. (Week 42) The Bauhinias…
These are the views of the South Sulawesi skyline, looking towards the east across the highland spine that runs down the length of the huge island. The pictures are taken from a downtown Makassar hotel over a 48 hour period. In the Sulawesi islands, also known as the Spice islands, the rainy season stretched from the…
(Week 42) The Bauhinias are in fully perennial bloom – and they are joined by a rare flowering of an epiphytic pink phalaenopsis orchid on the adjacent black bamboo (Phyllostachys-nigra)in the garden. A rare beauty and a true blessing, four weeks to Easter Sunday. (Week 18) The first flowers. And more. The plant looks very jaded,…
The late Ms Harper Lee, the author of To Kill a MockingBird, (described by some as the perfect American book of the 20th century), is amongst a rare group of individuals whose fame had been secured by their first and overwhelming success, and would eventually overshadow everything else that they did, or would or would…
These two photographs of the Golden Gate Bridge in Mist, and By Crissy Field, were taken six hours apart on a mild autumn Sunday. There is a certain timelessness about a still photograph (or two) that is lost in a motion image. The still image allows one to return to a day of finite proportion, and to transform…
Saint Augustine, the great Bishop of Hippo (modern-day Annaba, Algeria), Africa, chose to appoint his successor four years before he died. Thus, on 26 September 426, he gathered the people to the Basilica of Peace at Hippo to present to the faithful the one he had designated for this task. He said: In this life…
Pentecost and the Gifts of Faith, Hope and Love Dr Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (1926-2004), the noted author of the ground-breaking work, On Death and Dying (1969), once wrote in her memoir (The Wheel of Life, 1997), “the only thing I know that truly heals people is unconditional love”. Pentecost Sunday marks the end of the Easter…