Fr Jim's Blog

Today I went to the wonderful wedding of my classmate Coco, and her ever-smiling fiance (now husband) Nick. What made it so great? 1.Everyone was invited. All of our class Coco's high school students. Parishioners. St John's Church, which is close in size  to OLOD Chatswood, was mostly full. This wasn't some little boutique thing limited by how many people they could afford to invite to the reception. It was generous and inclusive.  2. Both Coco and Nick were greeting guests together at the door as we arrived. There was no big wait for the bride to arrive by limosine, and then spend 10 minutes having her photo taken getting out of the car from different angles (when did this become a thing?). I have counselled every couple I marry that it's not fashionable for the bride to be late, it's rude, and that you're leaving all your guests and the man you love waiting anxiously. They all agree, but then so many of them still arrive up to 30 minutes late. Coco w

Life maintains a steady, almost monastic rhythm here. Pray, study, eat, study, eat, pray. I rather enjoy the predictable routine and the fact that my weekly calendar fits on a post-it note. Walking to the shops for breakfast cereal or doing a load of washing sometimes counts as news. So it's worth reporting the two different things I did this week. 1. I gave blood. I have given blood for years at home, but I don't always have an hour to spare, so I took the opportunity to be part of a blood drive here. 2. After walking downtown for a cup of tea just to get out of the building last night, Kevin and I caught ride home with a pedal powered rickshaw. There's several of these doing loops around the Old Market section of town, even late at night. For $10 our driver did a thigh-burningly impressive job of peddling up the long slow incline back to the college.

This week I re-watched one of my favourite films, Lars and the Real Girl . It's the story of a patethically shy man who buys a mannequin and has a delusion that she is real, and his girlfriend, Bianca (spoilers ahead). As the story unfolds we learn that Lars' mother died giving birth to him, and that his retreat into fantasy has been triggered by his sister in-law's pregnancy and his fear for her. And what could be a creepy and weird film actually turns out to be beautiful. Lars' family, then church, then workmates then whole small town live into the delusion with him on the advice of the town's kindly doctor that there is no way they will convince him that she isn't real.They join in treating Bianca as if she is real. Little by little, Lars comes out of himself, and, declares that Bianca is sick, and then that she is dying. The scene of the ambulance racing to the house through the snowmelt of a Minnesota spring is gorgeous. And finally, Bianca dies. Th

In 1914 Allied and German soldiers famously had a spontaneous truce along the Western Front, singing Christmas carols, exchanging gifts and playing a makeshift game of soccer together. It' s a bittersweet story about the humanity which can exist even in the midst of war, yet, so swiftly devolved into fighting again, with young men on both sides laying down their lives for what they imagined was their country. This week Afghan soldiers and Taliban fighters have done the same thing to mark the feast of Eid al-Fitr, that is, the end of Ramadan, with soldiers from both sides embracing and taking selfies together. The Afghan government called for a three day ceasefire, which for the most part has been holding, despite at least one car bombing. It gives hope that with the seemingly intractable acrimony in the Middle East peace may yet be possible.Let's hope and pray it lasts for more than three days. Did this good news story get coverage on your news source? ABC online   carried

One of the great things about these months of study is the simplicity of the schedule. It's go to chapel, to class, to cafeteria, home to read and write, back to cafeteria, maybe an evening walk, and bed. That's pretty much every day. My appointment diary for this week fits on one post-it note! It's great not to carry around a phone and not to have to check a calendar to see where I have to be next. That freedom allows me to so much better concentrate on the longer blocks of reading or essay writing for several hours at a time without that nagging feeling I always have at home - is there somewhere else I'm meant to be? What's coming up next?

Every morning I pray the official "Morning Prayer" of the church from the "Divine Office". It's a few psalms, a song and other bible readings which clergy, religious and some lay people all around the world pray every day, and have done in some form for 1500+ years. On Monday I prayed, as I always do, these prayers which have become so familiar to me over time. I read the prescribed verse Jeremiah 15:16 When your words came I devoured them.  Your word was my delight and the joy of my heart.   Now I have read this verse probably 300+ times, being the prayer for Monday, the 2nd week of the 4 week cycle, which I've been praying since first year in seminary. But I had never really noticed it. It had  never touched my heart. But this time, I felt a rush of anticipation and delight, as I became excited to devour God's word in all the many forms it will come to me in the coming weeks here, through the bible itself, through classes, through

is the fancy name for jetlag. It's my least favourite thing about coming here to the US. We're 15 hours behind Sydney.  I got to sleep quite readily at 10pm on my first night here. Then I woke up, fully awake, at 11pm. Got back to sleep, woke up at 12, and then in 1.5 to 2 hour blocks all through the night. By 6am I'd love to roll over for another ninety minutes of restless sleep, but I always make myself get up and go for a walk outside to get so UV rays, especially to the eyes, to start to recalibrate the body to daytime.  But having successfully done this, the next night was the same. and the night after. And whether I go to bed at 9 or 11, whether I take an afternoon nap or not, I keep on having disrupted sleep. I take a melatonin or an Ambien on the second wake up, alternating so that I don't get reliant on either one.  How do parents  with babies do this for months at a time? Today is day 15 in the US. It can take one day per hour of time shift, so perhaps

The first part of this year's course was to lead a nine day silent retreat at the university's own retreat centre at Griswold, Iowa . It's a beautiful place, a few acres of woodlands attracting hummingbirds, woodpeckers and deer, all surrounded by farmland (corn) as far as the eye can see. I did seriously underestimate the challenge though. I expected that there would be a few hours a day where we (my third-year classmates and I) would be giving spiritual direction (a one-on-one conversation with a retreatant where we don't so much direct as accompany and help them explore what is happening as they pray) and doing some reflection on this, and then there would be half a day free to basically have my own retreat. Nup. Every day was two one-hour spiritual direction sessions, followed by writing up a reflection and excerpts of the conversation, then a one hour meeting with a supervisor, plus writing that up, then a two hour small group "peer supervision"