Br Mark O'Connor FMS

  • Judgementalism: Who am I to judge? 

    Pope Francis believes that the world and even the Church has forgotten what it means to be merciful and that being overly judgmental prevents us from showing mercy to others....
  • Soundings from Rome: The Pilgrim People of God navigate the journey

    Br Mark O'Connor FMS, in this series of 2022 letters, covers some of the central pastoral issues which will form at least a part of the conversation ensuing at the coming Synod. Soundings from Rome: Part 3 - The Pilgrim People of God navigate the journey...
  • May 22: 220-year anniversary of first Catholic Mass in Parramatta

      The early Australian Catholic community is famous for its devotion to the Mass, in trying circumstances. Despite the lack of priests and the real difficulties of the early Irish Catholic community, as it emerged from its convict and nascent settler roots, the sacred importance of the Eucharist was...
  • Cling to the rock

    As we prepare, once again, for the Easter mysteries, the dramatic scene of Jesus’ Agony in the Garden (Mark 14:32-52), is a rich source for our prayer and meditation....
  • To visit the sick

    Christ calls us to ‘visit the sick’ and care for them as an essential part of our Christian mission of love and compassion. Hence the crucial role the Church played in establishing hospitals and the critical role it still plays in health care....
  • To visit prisoners

    No doubt because of the humiliation Jesus must have felt was that he saw himself being treated, or mistreated, just like any other prisoner, many Christians take to heart his blessing of those who saw him in prison and visited him....
  • To shelter the homeless

    For in welcoming the stranger and the homeless, in ‘sheltering’ them, we want to also share with them the joy and peace of being at ‘home’ with us as friends of Christ Jesus our brother....
  • To clothe the naked

    When a person is most vulnerable, as were Adam and Eve in the primeval story of Genesis, they need to be covered. The merciful act of ‘clothing the naked’ then, is an act of responding to the dependence of a fellow human being when they stand most in need....
  • To feed the hungry

    At the heart of what Dorothy Day did were the ‘works of mercy’. For her, these were not simply obligations Our Lord imposed on his followers. As she said on one occasion to famous Harvard psychiatrist Robert Coles: “We are here to celebrate him through these works of mercy.”...