Keywords: Ash Wednesday
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RELIGION
- Andrew Hamilton
- 05 March 2025
Lent is often reduced to private acts of restraint. But its history tells a richer story; of communal memory, public reckoning, and the need to confront human suffering. As new crises unfold, from war to political decay, Lent reminds us that forgetting the past is a luxury we cannot afford.
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INTERNATIONAL
- Jim McDermott
- 16 January 2025
In Los Angeles, wildfires blur the line between disaster and daily life. Evacuation alerts, smoke-filled horizons, and neighborhoods turned to ash coexist with packed restaurants and holiday plans. As the fires rage on, one question persists: is this the new normal?
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AUSTRALIA
- Andrew Hamilton
- 27 March 2024
Love is a much-used word, and, like domestic cutlery, it tends to lose its shine. Its boundaries then shrink to the average rather than to the inspiring. For that reason we need stories that stretch the ceiling of love beyond anything we could imagine. Not because we think that we could reach such far places, but because it enlarges the horizon of our lives.
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AUSTRALIA
- Andrew Hamilton
- 19 March 2024
Recognition is not simply an acceptance of facts. It involves also entering the experience of the people affected. Reconciliation must begin with truth telling, flow into empathy, and be followed by a conversation aimed at building decent relationships.
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AUSTRALIA
- Andrew Hamilton
- 13 March 2024
In the face of developments where the commons are intruded upon for private profit and economic efficiency, we need to treasure such unfashionable concepts as the commonwealth, the common good and the houses of commons – the places for deliberation and decision where what is in the common interest is given priority over the benefit of the few.
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AUSTRALIA
- Andrew Hamilton
- 07 March 2024
Generosity is most heartwarming when it is a habit. We see it in people whose first inclination is to give something to a beggar, to stop and listen to a hard luck story, to think first of persons affected by war and economic crises and only secondly to policy, to welcome people into their homes and to go out of their way to help.
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AUSTRALIA
- Andrew Hamilton
- 29 February 2024
In our more routine lives, most of us have people and groups whom we ignore, we instinctively look down on and we keep away from and people whose beliefs we scorn. We need to be attentive to the people who are commonly regarded as second-class citizens.
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AUSTRALIA
- Barry Gittins
- 26 February 2024
February marks 15 years since the Black Saturday fires in Victoria when some 400 fires raced through 78 locations, taking 173 lives, injuring hundreds more, destroying more than 2,020 homes and the entire township of Marysville. In a warming climate, that reality of loss is likely to be repeated ad infinitum.
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AUSTRALIA
- Andrew Hamilton
- 20 February 2024
In an individualistic culture, Lent could be seen as an individual practice of self-betterment. Historically, however, it was a communal activity designed to make the community more attentive and aware of those around them and of their world.
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AUSTRALIA
- Andrew Hamilton
- 14 February 2024
Lent is a time of asking what matters and on commitment. It is a time of grounding, on awareness of the ground and the ash on which we stand, and of focusing on what is important. That being grounded underlies the idea of humility, of being earthed with one’s bare feet on the soil.
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RELIGION
- Andrew Hamilton
- 13 February 2024
5 Comments
In a world grappling with war, inequality, and environmental devastation, can a celebration of sacrifice offer hope? For a secular Australia, the relevance of Lent may lie in bridging the gap between a seemingly dehumanizing act and the profound belief in the preciousness of human life. Can this paradoxical notion inspire action to heal the wounds of our world?
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RELIGION
In a world where we are constantly faced with life's fragility, it's no wonder that we find ourselves wondering what lies beyond. Is it the bright promise of immortality, or the endless cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth? Or perhaps nothingness? When contemplating the 'thereafter,' what can we hope for?
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