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Keywords: Blessings

  • RELIGION

    Hands-on faith

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 06 May 2021
    17 Comments

     The laying on of hands has been associated with controverted change in Western religious societies. Central in religious societies, it became neuralgic in cultures seeking to mark out clear boundaries between religion and such domains as politics, science and medicine and demography. To appreciate the significance of the action, it is worth reflecting on its history.

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  • RELIGION

    Faith and reason, same-sex relationships and blessings

    • Ross Jones
    • 06 April 2021
    241 Comments

    The opening line of John Paul’s encyclical is memorable: ‘Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth.’ The recent pronouncement by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) on the blessing of same-sex unions certainly had people assessing its reasonableness as a so-called ‘deposit of faith’.

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  • FAITH DOING JUSTICE

    Spirituality, leadership and social service in the church

    • John Warhurst
    • 15 December 2020
    6 Comments

    The work of Catholic social service agencies should be celebrated within the church. Its peak body, Catholic Social Services Australia (CSSA), which has been savagely cut recently, has successfully matched wits with governments for over sixty years and its member agencies continue to serve the community selflessly.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Language as an open door

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 10 December 2020
    13 Comments

    If we want to renew religious language and images we must begin with attention to the words we currently use, noticing their resonance as well as their meaning. It is then important for the language of prayer and reflection to be grounded in deep contemporary experience.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    No man is an island

    • Catherine Marshall
    • 15 May 2020
    7 Comments

    This time last year I was smuggling contraband into one of the world’s most inaccessible places of exile. I’d stared down nervously as we descended onto the island’s lofty runway — a strip of ribbon ending abruptly high above the sea.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    A discovery of connections

    • Najma Sambul
    • 11 February 2020
    2 Comments

    The group had come together by the chance enquiry from one churchgoer who asked another if they could dedicate time to this — to us. So, we clambered into a mini van with our meagre possessions, and the myths and half-truths we knew about Australia followed suit.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The contrasting gospels of Morrison and Shorten

    • Barry Gittins
    • 13 August 2019
    6 Comments

    In Jensen's take, while Shorten expresses honest doubt and cites Christ's golden rule, care of his Jesuit educators, Morrison indulges in a marathon of spiritual self-indulgence. Morrison masterfully works right-wing media outlets, or is worked by them, with Alan Jones leading the PM through a radio interview 'like Simpson led his donkey'.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Tears in store after Hong Kong chaos

    • Michael Kelly
    • 08 August 2019
    9 Comments

    The betting among many observers is that the current chaos will end in tears. The massing of troops at the border is one sign. But the biggest thing that suggests that the PLA will march in and declare martial law is that the Chinese Communist Party has what we call 'form'.

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  • RELIGION

    New Zealand's model for public religion

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 05 June 2019
    11 Comments

    The limitation of the Australian separation of religious language and symbols from those of the secular culture is that it leaves one poorly resourced for translation. The encounter of cultures is avoided in the interests of tolerance. Tolerance avoids bullying but can also discourage personal engagement in others' worlds.

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  • RELIGION

    'He did everything for love'

    • Frank Brennan
    • 12 September 2018

    'After he retired from the bench, John was a great advocate for the vulnerable who missed out on all sorts of political and economic fronts. He was not only an advocate but also a practical helping hand.' Homily from the Requiem Mass for the repose of the soul of John Thomas Hassett.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Subverting your world with a handful of stories

    • Ellen Shelley, John Cranmer
    • 23 April 2018
    4 Comments

    The telling of stories is at the heart of making a new world. They have inherent within them seeds of many possible futures, that take root in the most rocky of soils and surprising places of uncertainty, creating strongly blooming imaginations that have decided to live for ever.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Danger in low-lying areas

    • Anne Casey
    • 09 April 2018
    1 Comment

    For days I passed the black screen, berating and blaming the mass-entertaining hooked on a loop, counting down to more incoming footage ... What if we are not seeking ruin but searching the ruins for a hand, battered and bruised, broad-backed, mud-slicked, bent but unbroken, reaching out of the mire to catch a pale light ...

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