Father Peter Fitzgibbon
For the mission of the church to succeed, the church needs ordained and lay pastoral leadership. As the Apostles represent the ordained, so another gospel entity can help understanding lay pastoral leadership. Not himself one of the twelve apostles, St Luke in Chapter 10 told how Jesus instructed seventy-two others and sent them out in […]
Posted on Facebook 27 AUGUST 2021 What do you know about St Vincent de Paul? August 27th is his Memorial Day on the Catholic Calendar. A big shout out to all who do religious and social works as the Society of St Vincent de Paul. What do you know about their mission? As a young […]
REFLECTING ON MY OWN INFANT BAPTISM I was about three weeks born. My parents brought me to Father Michael Griffin at St Patrick’s Church, Kilbirnie, Wellington, New Zealand. Peter John, I baptise you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. It was the sacrament of baptism and […]
To baptise children is to ignite in them the flame of faith. As parents co-create with God in conceiving new human life, so too they work with him when they bring their children to be baptised. They ask the Divine Spirit to bestow on their children a supernatural gift that is nothing less than divine […]
Recently I read a priest’s description of his first experience in charge of a parish. It was in a town in the State of New York, USA during the early years after the 2nd Vatican Council. Preparing for his assignment, he had been thinking how to exercise his new responsibility. He clearly realised many parishioners […]
All who follow Christ today are comfortable with identifying as his disciples. They also know it was after a night spent in prayer, that from his first disciples Jesus chose twelve apostles. These became a group so gifted that on day one about three thousand people were baptised. Their first preacher subsequently framed a beautiful […]
Domestic church is a home where there is worship, religious instruction, and community ministry. It is as old as the church itself. The Apostle Paul recommends the special wife and husband witness and ministry of Priscilla and Aquila, “my fellow workers in the service of Christ Jesus”. “I am grateful to them – not only […]