Richard Leonard

Daniel went to his mother demanding a new bicycle for Christmas Danny we can t afford it she said so write a letter to Jesus and pray for one instead Dear Jesus I ve been a good boy this year and would appreciate a new bicycle Your Friend Daniel Now Danny guessed that Jesus really

Before I said my first mass an old priest gave me two great pieces of advice You know when the congregation is filled with optimists After you have given a long series of announcements at the end of Mass and then you say and finally – people take out their car keys The second was Never

A few years ago there was an English film entitled Secrets and Lies It charted the story of a dysfunctional family who sat on terrible secrets and told many lies for decades Like many successful dramatic films audiences flocked to see it not only because of its compelling story but also bec

After 16 Sundays celebrating Lent Holy Week Eastertide and then the four great feast days of Ascension Pentecost Trinity and the Body and Blood of the Lord last week we returned to Sundays in Ordinary Time I like Ordinary Time It s the moment in the church s year coming as it does out of

Many years ago now Pope John Paul II went to Lima Peru There he was met by a massive crowd of two million people Instead of the usual greetings from the President and the Cardinal two people from a shantytown stepped forward to the microphone Their names were Irene and Viktor Charo As the hug

I have a friend of mine who is a great lover of classical music His knowledge of it is vast He only needs to hear a few bars of most musical works and he confidently declares Mozart s Piano Concerto in A or Stravinsky s Rite of Spring He s always right Another of his superfluous but

The plunging of an adult or an infant into the baptismal font three times is the most important moment in the baptismal ceremony and meant to be the most moving one as well Most of us understand that this action is associated with the Trinity It is But the more ancient association is with the th

27th Sunday Today s Gospel highlights what a different world Jesus and the earliest Christians lived in by comparison with us today Jesus and Luke s community unquestionably believed in slavery In all the Gospels Jesus regularly draws on the image of a slave to make points about duty respect

24th Sunday A Bishop in a rural diocese was explaining to the confirmation class how he was the shepherd of the flock Given that many of the children came from large sheep ranches he decided to draw on today s Gospel as an analogy for his pastoral leadership I care for all of you like the Good

22nd Sunday One of the most basic human responses to anything new is to ask What s in it for me We would like to think our motives are pure and our interests are for others but there is often a nagging voice reminding us that selfish desires are never far from the surface That said we all