Arriving at the wind swept coastal town of Rausu, we had emerged from the shrouded overland traverse across Mount Rausu on the Shiretoko Peninsula and stumbled upon a small community that faces the Kurile islands. We drove up to the Rausu Kunashiri Observatory Tower and confronted an exhibition that reflected the remorseful regret of kinship,…
As dawn beckons on the streets of Yangon, I saw the ubiquitous dish of Myanmar, the Mohinga, a blend of vermicilli, in thick fish stock, and layered with the flavours of Indochinese condiments – witness to subtle hues and variations around a common theme. Here, in the morning informality of the railway stop beneath the…
Jared Diamond, the distinguished Professor of Geography at the UCLA gave the Lewis Thomas Prize Lecture at the Rockefeller Institute, NYC, on March 27, 2003, on “Why Do Some Societies Make Disastrous Decisions” and destroy themselves. This work is also published in his book, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, Penguin Book. The references to the US…
“The Second Coming” Turning and turning in the widening gyreThe falcon cannot hear the falconer;Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhereThe ceremony of innocence is drowned;The best lack all conviction, while the worstAre full of passionate intensity.Surely some revelation is at hand;Surely the…
Traveling through rural Japan, in the island of Kyushu, one is reminded of the fate of the Christian missionaries who were mercilessly persecuted by the then Shogunate of the Edo era. The fate of those who ministered to the Way, and their proselytes have been dramatized in the 2016 Martin Scorsese’s period portrayal of Shūsaku Endō’s…
The venerable Jean Vanier, who is 89 this year, has in recent times come into the consciousness of those of us who have not encountered him and his life’s work or mission in encountering the disabled and the poor. His biography is widely available, as in this site and his writings are just beginning to…
Today’s second scripture reading at Mass in the Roman Catholic tradition is a wonderful rendition of the inner peace that comes with acknowledging the balance and equity of material needs, wants and apportionment. St Paul does not ask for the reversal of fortunes, or even equal misery – just the generosity of needing less and…
Ninety hours in the pilgrim town of Assisi brought me from the milieu of an interesting cultural experience, to the dissonance of attempting a meditative journey amidst the life-line and highway of a major tourist town, and thence to a more balanced reflection on the 800 years that had since passed from the austere beginnings…
This is a Sunday where the divine and the merciful meet. Consider reflecting on the Last Testament and Will of St Pope John Paul II, first written in 1979, and edited on various anniversaries of spiritual exercises, as his Petrine ministry raced towards the Third Millennium. He recalled the wisdom of his mentor Cardinal Stefan…
Last year. this time, in the Gardens Reflections on Good Friday, I had cited two verses from the Gospel of St John: “they went to a place which was called Gethsemane” (Mk 14:32), “across the Kidron valley, where there was a garden”(John 18:1) “In the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in…