Holy Thursday marks a liturgical threshold—a moment suspended between love and betrayal, intimacy and abandonment, service and sacrifice. This year, I crossed that threshold in an unexpected place: a prison chapel, where I accompanied Bishop Vincent Long OFM Conv, Bishop of Parramatta, as he celebrated a Holy Thursday liturgy with thirty-two incarcerated men. I entered the Parklea Correctional Centre that morning with quiet apprehension—not fear, but an awareness of the weight of the stories held within those walls. The chapel itself bore witness to transformation: crucifixes and religious artworks, carved and painted by inmates over the years, lined the… [...]

Tenebrae might initially seem like a distant monastic rite – steeped in symbolism but removed from contemporary spiritual life. Yet within the walls of the Cathedral, its impact was immediate and profound, providing a deeply moving encounter with the Passion of Christ.  [...]

While the other Evangelists mention women at a distance, it is John alone who notes that the women—Mary, his mother; her sister, Mary the wife of Clopas; and Mary from Magdala were standing near the cross, perhaps under the cross. And they were courageous, and they stood there because perfect love casts out fear.  [...]