Leach Publications

06/09/2026

Homily for the 23rd. Sunday, Year A

Ezekiel 33:7-9
Romans 13:8-10
Matthew 18:15-20

“He is our God and we, the people who belong to his pasture, the flock that is led by his hand.” Our Psalm today sings of the close relationship that should always exist between God and His people. However, this only raises the question, where can we find God in our busy, modern lives?

For Catholics, of course, the answer to that question is clear. The pre-eminent place in which we encounter God is the Mass. There the priest, acting in the person Christ, offers our gifts to God and they are transformed by the Holy Spirit to become the body and blood, the very soul and divinity of Christ Himself.

The self-same sacrifice that Jesus made on calvary, as both priest and offering, now manifested across time and space. At Mass we kneel at the foot of the cross and receive the fullness of Christ into ourselves in communion. It is both the source and the summit of our Christian life; both our goal and our means to get there.

What of our lives outside of mass? Is God present there? Of course. You see, while the eucharist is the pre-eminent way that God is present to His people, it is not the only way, not even at mass. He is also present in the proclaimed word (the proclaimed word, not the book, that’s just paper and ink) and in the people gathered in His name. ‘where two or three meet in my name, I shall be there with them.’

Whenever we gather in His name, whenever we gather to pray, even just two or three of us, we gather as His church, and He is there with us. This is most powerfully true when the scripture is read, because He is truly present in the proclaimed Word. Indeed, when we gather in our homes, with our family, then we form the domestic church and this is the first seed bed, from which the wider church grows.

Early in our nation’s history, when Catholic priests were banned by the British authorities, the faith was kept alive by just such small churches, people gathering to pray in their homes. Even later, when priests had to ride many miles on horseback to visit their scattered flock and mass was a monthly possibility at best, the faith was alive and active, God was with His people, precisely in these domestic churches – often gathered to pray the rosary.

This domestic church is powerfully described in John O’Brien’s poem, Trimmin’s on the Rosary. It is also a description of the love in a family. This is not a coincidence. You see, if God is present as we pray together, then there is love there as well, because God is love.

That is why all our readings today talk about both community and love. Love that calls a sinner back from his doom. Love that seeks to win back a brother. Love that dares to speak the truth. Love that is the sum of all the commandments.

Of course, love and truth can never be separated since He who is love is also truth. It is only in love that the truth can ever be spoken and love, to be real, must also be true. Try to separate them and, either way, you end up with a lie.

God, however, is both love and truth and He does not lie. So, when He says that He’ll be with us when we gather in His name, He means it. So when He says, if two of you agree to ask anything at all, it will be granted to you, He means it.

So, this week, in your own homes, do gather together, to read the scriptures and to pray, to come into the presence of God. Know that you are the church, and that God is with you and that He will hear you.

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01/09/2026

Musings of a Country Deacon
As the days lengthen and winter slowly comes to a close, we’ve had both sunny days and rain, lots of rain. In the church's year we’re still in ordinary time when the Sundays follow one after another, through both sun and rain, in an orderly progression. Far from being dull, however, this time is marked by the feast days of some great Saints. Some, like Mary Mackillop worked for the poor. Some, like Saint Lawrence cheerfully gave up their lives for their belief. Others, like Saint Bernard sought God in the silence and prayer of the monastery. Great saints all, yet all different, and they remind us that we all need to find our own path because that's the only one we can walk. As the old saying goes, be yourself, everybody else is taken.
In this we can face opposition even from those who love us, even from those who should be supporting us, as many of the lives of the Saints show. Yet they followed the truth as they knew it, quietly and without anger or bitterness. Saint Lawrence even joked with those who were burning him alive; “You'd better turn me over, I think I'm done on this side”.
There can, of course, be a shadow side to this. Isn't there to everything? The shadow here is self-absorption a turning in on oneself to the exclusion of others. The truth, however, always leads outward, to the great mystery that is in every person and yet far beyond any person. This is one of the things that the Saints can teach us, whether in the quiet of the monastery, in the clamorous need of the poor, or in the brutality of martyrdom. Being yourself can be costly, but the cost is worth paying.
Deacon Joe

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29/08/2026

Homily of the Twenty Second Sunday of the Year, Year A

Jeremiah 20:7-9
Romans 12:1-2
Matthew 16:21-27

You know, I think you have to feel for Jerimiah in our first reading. There were of lot of professional prophets in his day, and they made a very good living: telling the rich and powerful what they wanted to hear - that things were going to be great.

Poor Jerimiah couldn’t do that. He didn’t want to be a prophet; but he was filled with the Spirit of God, it was like a fire in his heart, in his very bones, and it caused him, not to praise the powerful, but to accuse them, to cry ruin and disaster, and call on them to repent: to tell them that they had turned away from God, and that they needed to turn back or they would be destroyed.

Unsurprisingly, this wasn’t popular. Nobody praised him or paid him lots of money. Instead, he was derided and laughed at, scorned and beaten. In fact, they tried to kill him.

The thing is, unlike those other prophets, Jeremiah was telling the truth, a truth that people didn’t want to hear. He was telling of disaster and violence that would actually happen. That did actually happen.

Who, then, was showing the greater love, not just for God, but for his country and his people? Those who were whispering soothing, comforting words or poor old Jeremiah crying out ‘repent or you are lost’?

In our readings today, I think you also have to feel for Peter. Our gospel takes place just after he has made his great declaration of faith, just after Jesus has called him the rock on which He would build His church and yet here, only a short time later, this same Jesus is calling him – ‘Satan’. Ouch!

Surely Peter was only being sensible. If You go to Jerusalem, the authorities will kill You, so – don’t go to Jerusalem. The thing is, Peter had missed the most important point; the most astounding part of the prediction.

Yes, in Jerusalem Jesus would be put to death but He would also rise again on the third day. Good Friday would be followed by Easter Sunday and all of creation would be forever changed.
In our society, at least before the Corona virus pandemic, the Ukraine war, and the cost of living crisis, there were many prophets, commentators and experts, who would tell anyone who would listen to them, about how wonderful our society is; how progressive, how tolerant. They would tell us about how prosperous, fair, and open our economy is. Of course, those words sound a little hollow now.

They always sounded hollow to those being underpaid for shift work, to those stuck in an endless round of part time jobs, to those who have no hope of secure employment. How hollow did those words sound to those families sleeping in their car because they have no home, or to those women attacked by the one who promised to love them?

Most especially, how hollow those words must have sounded to the families of those many hundreds of Australians who each year get so lost and bewildered in the hopelessness and the darkness that, tragically, they take their own lives.

To be clear, bad as they are, neither COVID 19, nor the war, nor any financial concerns, have caused these problems. Rather, they have made clear the weaknesses that were already present. We were in trouble long before the virus hit, long before the war in Ukraine. Our society has abandoned its Christian heritage and it is the poor and the powerless who are paying the price.

It has become all too clear that Australia has lost its way and it is up to us, who still know the love of God, who still know the way and the truth, to cry out ‘ruin and disaster’, to call the powerful to repent; to use our voice as citizens to warn our people; to use what power we have to stand against all that is contrary to the law of God.

Make no mistake, we will be derided for this. We will be laughed at; mocked and abused; our friends may even turn away; and we may feel that perhaps Peter had a point and that it would have been better to be sensible, to keep our heads down.

Since, if we speak, we will be laughed at abused and ignored. So, perhaps it’s better not to speak. Yet that would only be the way of the world. It’s not God’s way and we are His people. Like Jeremiah, we must allow ourselves to be seduced by the Spirit of God, His truth must be like a fire in our hearts, in our very bones.

Out of love, we must tell the truth, cry out the truth, insist on the truth; even to a world that doesn’t want to hear. We must not be afraid. God has chosen us to live in these times and we must pick up the cross that has been given us. Following Christ may lead to Calvary, but it will also lead to Easter Sunday and the joy of the resurrection.

In our second reading, St. Paul tells us that if we model our lives on the rich and powerful, or live according to the opinions of the prophets of this world, we will find nothing but death and decay, gaudy trinkets and despair.

All too much of our society is built on injustice and greed and love demands that we cry out against it. Love demands that we try to bring it back to what is good and perfect; to bring it back to God. You see, in the end, this world, for all its sound and fury, is only a temporary thing. In time, all its progress will turn to dust and ash, all its riches to clay. To win the honour of this world is to win nothing at all.

As the great St. Theresa of Avila said: all things pass, only God endures. Embrace the cross and surrender your life to Him, and then, and only then, you will have life forever. Lose your life for Him and you will save it.

23/08/2026

Homily of the Twenty First Sunday of the Year, Year A

Isaiah 22:19-23
Romans 11:33-36
Matthew 16:13-20

Our gospel passage today comes at a crucial time both in the mission of Jesus and in the life of His church. Jesus and His disciples have once again been driven from Galilee and into pagan territory by the opposition of the pharisees and temple authorities. Here He first asks the apostles how His mission has been received by the people and He then asks them how they understand it.

It is Peter who answers, ‘You are the Christ,’ he said, ‘the Son of the living God.’ This statement of faith marks the end of Jesus’ public teaching ministry and, arguably, the beginning of the church. His disciples have understood, and He can entrust His mission to them. From that point on He sets out resolutely for Jerusalem and the events of Easter.

It is significant that it is Peter who makes this statement on behalf of the others. All through the gospels, it is Peter who is the leader and spokesperson for the apostles, but it is in this passage that his leadership is most clearly expressed and it is here that it is confirmed, and indeed established, by Jesus Himself. It is this passage, principally but supported by others, which underpins the primacy of Peter’s successor, the bishop of Rome, the Pope.

‘Simon son of Jonah, you are a happy man! Because it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. So I now say to you: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church. And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven.’

There is much that could be said about this most important passage. The first is that Peter is foundational to the church. Petrus (Peter) of course means rock, so that line should read, ‘you are rock on this rock I will build my church’. It is Peter, or rather his office, who allows the church to hold firm and prevents it from being washed away by the currents of history. As St Ambrose of Milan said in the fourth century, "Ubi Petrus, ibi ergo Ecclesia" (Where Peter is, there, accordingly, is the church).

Peter is also given the keys of the kingdom. As our first reading points out, the keys of the household were the symbols of a steward’s office. The steward was the chief servant and in charge of the smooth running of the master’s household. Here Peter is being given charge of the smooth running of the Lord’s household, His ecclesia, His Church. The keys, the authority as the Lord’s steward, the power to decide, to bind or to loose, are being taken from the temple, whose priests refused the Son of God, and given to Peter, who accepted Him.

Founded on Peter, the Church will not fail, ‘the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it”. The Church, for all her faults and weaknesses, will never turn from the gospel. It follows from this that her teaching is infallible and that Peter, her chief teacher, can also, on rare occasions, exercise this charism of infallibility.

As the first Vatican Council put it, “...We teach and define that …the Roman pontiff when he…defines a doctrine regarding faith or morals, it…by the Divine assistance promised to him in Blessed Peter, is possessed of that infallibility with which the Divine Redeemer willed that his Church should be endowed.”

While this doctrine was only formally defined in the 19th century, it has a long history. Indeed, it has been held in the Church from the earliest times. It has been fundamental in safeguarding the Church’s teaching. For example, in 451, the Council of Chalcedon rejected the heresy of those who denied the true human nature of the Son of God. They affirmed the union in the Person of Christ, of two natures, human and divine, without either confusion or separation. This understanding was from a letter from Pope St. Leo the Great. When the letter was read to the gathered bishops, they replied, “This is the faith of the fathers! This is the faith of the Apostles!... Peter has spoken thus through Leo!” The matter was settled.

Does this mean that we have to agree with and hold everything that any given Pope might say? No, although we must listen and pay all due respect to his office. Can we believe that a Pope has made a mistake, even in a serious matter? Yes. Can we even believe that this or that pope was a bad person? Yes, over the Church’s long history there have been some very bad men who were elected pope. However – when a Pope speaks as from the chair of Peter, on a matter of the faith or moral life of the Church, then we must hear and believe.

Surely, this is a lot of power given to one man? Yes, it is. Great power and great responsibility. It does not, however, mean that the Pope can do whatever he wants. His authority can only be used to defend what the Church has always taught. Again, as Vatican I puts it, “The Roman Pontiff is subject to the Word of God, to the Catholic faith, and is the guarantor of the Church's obedience;…He does not make arbitrary decisions, but is spokesman for the will of the Lord, who speaks to man in the Scriptures lived and interpreted by Tradition; (His)… the primacy has limits set by divine law and by the Church's divine, inviolable constitution found in Revelation”.

For all the splendour and history of the Vatican, for all the Pope’s travels, for all his meetings with foreign presidents and dignitaries, for all the trappings of his office, the Pope is not a monarch or a dictator. He is the steward of the Lord’s household and he has only one job: to faithfully preach the gospel and to ensure that his brother bishops do the same. He is the rock which ensures the unity and faithfulness of the Church.

Ubi Petrus, ibi ergo Ecclesia.

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16/08/2026

Homily of the Twentieth Sunday of the Year, Year A

Isaiah 56:1,6-7
Romans 11:13-15,29-32
Matthew 15:21-28

Our gospel story today is both puzzling and confusing. In it, Jesus seems to act in a way that is out of character. When the Canaanite woman asks him to drive the demon from her daughter, He at first ignores her, then He dismisses her, and then He insults her. This is not how he treats anyone else who asks for His help. This does not seem to be the Jesus that we know and love. What’s going on?

Well, some commentators would suggest that this is an example of Jesus’ humanity. That He is reflecting the attitudes of the culture He was brought up in and only through this incident learns of the broader nature of His mission – not just to the house of Israel but to the whole world.

I don’t think this interpretation holds up under analysis, for many reasons. Here I will point out only three. The first is that previously, in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus has spent time in pagan regions and healed the people there. Nowhere was His reaction like this.

Secondly, even within this story, the disciples beg Him to deal with the woman, so it can’t just be a Jewish reluctance to deal with gentiles. And thirdly, at the end of the story, He doesn’t just give her what she wants grudgingly, to make her go away, but rather praises her, not just for her faith but for her great faith, praise not given to anyone else in Matthew’s gospel.

If it’s not that then, what’s going on? Well, many well respected commentators suggest that this is a test of the woman’s faith, a test which she passes and so her daughter is healed. This may well be true, and I’ll come back to that because I think there is a lesson in that for us today, but I also think there is something else going on.

I think the clue lies in our first and second reading. The people of Israel were chosen by the Lord. They were to be His people and He would be their God. This wasn’t, however, just to be a limited, tribal religion. Israel was chosen so that through them, God could be revealed to the world. This came to pass fully in the person of Jesus. However, the world would need to come to the temple, to Jesus. It could not take or demand the revelation of God. It had to receive it as a gift.

This, I think, is the dynamic behind this story. The woman is here called a Canaanite. This is an archaic title from the time of the prophet Elijah. They were the people of Jezebel who had lured Judah into the worship of Baal. In Jesus’ time, the Canaanites no longer existed. Matthew uses this title here to make clear that this woman was from the pagan world, a worshiper of false gods. In Mark’s gospel, she is identified as a greek speaking Syro-phoenican. That is, she was a member of the culture that dominated both the trade and the wealth of the Mediterranean.
Yet here she uses the Jewish title ‘Son of David’ to address Jesus – a title connected to authority rather than healing. By using this title, she is making a claim, a demand, of the office and authority of Jesus – something that neither she nor the world she comes from has the right to do. So she is ignored. It is only when she abandons any sense of worldly superiority and asks in utter humility that her request is granted – and not just granted but granted graciously and with praise. The revelation of God’s healing love, perfectly manifested in Jesus, comes first to Israel and then through Israel to the world, but as a free gift, not as a right.

What can we learn from this strange story? Two things, I think. The first is that the way God looks at the world is very different from the way this world sees itself. The Greek and Phoenician cultures dominated the economic and cultural life of the Mediterranean, just as much as Rome dominated its political life. Israel was only a small country on the far eastern shore. Yet it was with Israel that God made His covenant and it was through them that He became incarnate in the world. Not in Rome. Not in Athens. Not in any of the great trading centres.

It would be a good idea to keep this in mind as we consider who holds the wealth and power in our world today. It would be good to consider what God thinks of that wealth and power and how it is being used.

It would also be good to consider that, no matter who we are, we cannot command God. We can only accept the grace that He gives us. There is no form of words or devotion that can force Him to do our will. He is God and we’re not. We are His creatures. However, He loves us and will always hear and answer our prayers – just not always in the way we want Him to.

We can also, I think, learn from the woman. Her faith and her love for her daughter were indeed tested. For love of her daughter, she persisted in her request, even through dismissal and insult. For this she was honoured and her deepest desire was granted. We too should persist in our prayer, even when God seems silent, even when things just seem to be going from bad to worse. Perhaps in those times, the prayer of the Canaanite woman would be a good model to follow.

Hold fast to your faith in Him and persist in prayer. He will not fail us.

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15/08/2026

Homily for the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven.

Apocalypse 11:19,12:1-6,10 1Corinthians 15:20-26 Luke 1:39-56

In the Byzantine churches of the east today we would pray: O Lady, do not forget those who share your humanity and who celebrate your holy dormition with fervour and love.

Today we celebrate the feast known as the Assumption in the west and as the Dormition in the East. I quoted from the Byzantine vespers here to show that, even though the Assumption was only dogmatically defined by Pope Pius XII in 1950, it is, in fact, a very ancient belief of the church, both east and west.

History tells us that the earliest writings we have about the Assumption date back to the third century and these are popular legends built around what must have been a still earlier belief.
Faith tells us that the church, in her living tradition, simply remembers what actually happened. That the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever-Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.

This day we celebrate that, through the power of her son’s resurrection, Mary was born into a new and glorious life. The traditional eastern icon of this feast includes the figure of Jesus, surrounded by angels and in the glory of heaven, holding Mary - symbolically represented as a child wrapped in swaddling clothes.
You see, He holds in His arms she who once held Him in her arms. He raises to a heavenly birth she who once gave Him an earthly one. She gave Him His human nature and He now shares with her His divine nature.

This is the promise of this feast, a promise made to all of us. Where Mary has gone, we can follow. As the early church fathers proclaimed - Christ became man so that men might become divine.
In our second reading. St. Paul tells us that, All men will be brought to life in Christ; but all of them in their proper order: Christ as the first-fruits and then, …those who belong to him. Mary is the first, after Christ, but we too belong to Christ and the assumption is a sign to us that where she, our mother has gone, we, her children, will follow.

In the richly symbolic language of the Book of Revelation, our first reading speaks of: a woman, adorned with the sun, standing on the moon, and with the twelve stars on her head for a crown.

This woman is clearly Mary but she is also a figure for the church. The two cannot be separated. Mary is both the mother of the church and also its symbolic embodiment. So, just as Mary brought Christ into the world, so are we, His church, meant to bring Christ to the world. Just as Mary has been raised, body and soul, to heaven, so will we, His church, also be raised.

This is why, on this feast day, together with Mary our mother, we sing with joy: ‘My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit exults in God my saviour.’

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13/08/2026

A free gift! A collection of flash fiction stories (1000 - 2000 words) from Legend Fiction. My contribution involves a forestry work team on another planet who encounter a protective power they don't understand. welcome to Glimmerwood.

Download your free gift now, handcrafted from the LegendFiction community

10/08/2026

Ya! My short story 'Samantha' about a frozen planet, a crashed spacecraft, an AI that thinks it's human, and a rescuer who dosen't has now been published in the Grim Winter anthology by Legend Fiction. Did I mention there are monsters? Of course there are monsters.

10 stories from LegendFiction authors • Cool off from this summer heat with a foray into frozen, dark fantasy worlds!

02/08/2026

Homily for the 18th Sunday, Year A

Isaiah 55:1-3
Romans 8:35,37-39 Gospel
Matthew 14:13-21

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

This passage occurs close to the start of The Lord of the Rings, when Frodo has his first inklings of the enormity and the gravity of the evil that faces him. His world had changed and now his future was going to be very different from his past. In this, Tolkien speaks for all of us at one time or another, when something happens, and life takes us down a path we would not have chosen. Perhaps it speaks more particularly for us now in this current time.

The Jewish people would certainly have echoed this sentiment during their long exile in Babylon. Everything they knew and valued had been destroyed and they were a displaced people in a foreign land, in a foreign and hostile culture. This is where our first reading comes in. It is the conclusion of that part of the prophet Isaiah which is sometimes called The Book of Comfort. You see, in the first part of the Book of Isaiah there are all the warnings of disaster if Israel would not turn to the Lord. A disaster which happened when Israel was sent into exile.

Following those dire prophecies, however, Isaiah points out that this disaster will not last forever. The Lord will look after His people. He will call them back to their own land and care for them. The short passage we have today is the summary of this section. There are two things to note. One, the care of God is presented as a meal, a banquet, an abundance of good food. Two, you don’t need any money. This is all free. God gives Himself generously and freely. You cannot buy His favour.

Our gospel story shows Jesus to be the ultimate fulfillment of this prophecy. Here, He feeds five thousand men, plus women and children. God cares and looks after His people. Mind you, He had already done this even before the miraculous feeding, when He sat down to teach them, even though He was grieving for his cousin and just wanted some time alone. Notice here too, that even though our human contribution is pathetically small, five loaves and two fish, God’s grace is super abundant. Remember, buy corn without money and eat, and at no cost, wine and milk. You can’t buy God’s favour. You don’t need to. All of the ten or fifteen thousand people who were there didn’t just have enough, they had more than enough.

In this story we see not just a fulfilment of the old covenant, but also a pointer to the new. There is a eucharistic structure to this story. Here the people listen to the word of God, they bring forward their offerings, these are blessed, and something miraculous happens. God gives of Himself to feed His people. At mass, we too listen to the word of God and we make our offerings. Our offerings are not just the bread and wine. These are there as the symbols of our life, our work, of all that we have. In the bread and wine, we offer our whole selves and all our world – poor and inadequate as they are.

These poor and inadequate offerings, however, are accepted by God. They are blessed and they are transformed. Something miraculous happens. We offer ourselves to God and in return He gives Himself, His very self, in communion with us. We join in God’s banquet, we receive His super abundant gift, and we have enough and more than enough.

This is why St. Paul tells us that nothing can separate us from the love of God. All of the sufferings that come out way only bind us closer to His cross and if we are bound to His cross, then we are bound to His resurrection too. The love of God is stronger than anything the world can throw at us. It is stronger than death itself.

Of course, at times we are all probably like Frodo and wish that the times we were living in were different, but they’re not and we must live in the times we are given. Yes, life can be hard, more than hard. Isaiah, however, reminds us that all of this will pass. God will care for and feed His people. In The Lord of the Rings, Frodo went on to face the evil that threatened his world, and it was only by sheer, dogged perseverance, that he overcame it. Tolkien, who lived through the trenches of WW1 France, knew what it was to live through evil times – and he Knew that, in God’s good time, they pass.

At the time of the Black Death, when half of all Europe died from the plague, when churches were closed and the infected were locked and bolted into their houses, Julian of Norwich, the great theologian and mystic, knew that in the end, the love and grace of God would triumph, even as riots rocked her city and death stalked its streets. Locked in her cell and dying, she gave her final message to the world:

“All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well"

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