Fr Noel Connolly SSC

Fr Noel Connolly was Regional Director of St Columbans Mission Society for Australia and New Zealand from February 2006 to November 2011.

Filter Archive:

From the Director - Don’t feed your anger

Nov 16, 2011
Our society and especially our politics are becoming increasingly angry. There is real venom in our national debates about all the major issues, the need for a carbon price, refugees, and the economy.
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From the Director - On the road to Portumna

Oct 12, 2011
The reason why this story appeals to me is because I am about to take a radical turn. This is my last Director’s Column.
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From the Director - The Church in the modern world

Oct 12, 2011
We do not like authoritarian figures and we are intolerant of “God’s police”. Australians are suspicious of “Bible bashers” and preachers with "all the answer".
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From the Director - Your people will be my people

Aug 10, 2011
Love is seamless and to exclude some undermines the quality of all our love. You cannot love just your friends and family, or fellow Australians or fellow Christians. Real love must reach out to all, especially disliked and victimised minorities.
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From the Director - Seeing danger instead of difference

Jul 22, 2011
As a missionary I was struck by Gittins’ basic insight that in fearful situations emotional contact is always more powerful than rational argument.
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From the Director - Pluralism as a value

Jul 13, 2011
At a time when many in the Church are concerned with uniformity and orthodoxy it is helpful to remember that the foundational book of our faith, the Bible, is a book full of pluralism.
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From the Director - No earthly good

Apr 13, 2011
For us Christians, it is a gift but also a challenge, not only of the present but also of the future.
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From the Director - What is religion for?

Mar 01, 2011
We missionaries go to peoples of other cultures and religions and proclaim our religion but without any understanding of what religion is.
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From the Director - A God who ‘allows’ earthquakes

Feb 09, 2011
“How can you believe in a God that does not allow earthquakes?”
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A Christmas Wish - From the Director

Dec 21, 2010
I hope you have time to reflect on your own humanity and can embrace and appreciate the humanity of others, especially those who are so different that we sometimes fear them. Let us celebrate the feast of Christmas when God became human like us.
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A good missionary is always learning from and enjoying others

Oct 06, 2010
But a missionary also needs to learn to be humble and examine his or her motives. I started to learn this in Korea.
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A love that gives life

Sep 24, 2010
It is only when we love someone as they are that our love can give life and promote growth.
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People listen to witnesses rather than teachers

Sep 24, 2010
“Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.”
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An arrogant or a loving eye

Aug 23, 2010
There is a Latin saying that in communication whatever is received is received according to the mode of the receiver.
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Brightness and the power to challenge

Jul 14, 2010
Today in the Church we seem to need a symbol that will unite us.
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A movement to recreate the world

Jul 14, 2010
The Church exists, not for its own sake, but for the sake of God’s reign which is breaking into our world in many ways and many places.
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Bold humility

Apr 30, 2010
We have to learn to be wary of our urge to change people and of our need to be always in charge and always the giver, the teacher.
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It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness

Mar 25, 2010
The most moving part of the Easter ceremonies for me is when the priest carries the Paschal Candle into the darkened church during the Easter Vigil.
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God has a liberating plan for the cosmos

Mar 04, 2010
The Church exists, not for its own sake, but for the sake of God’s reign which is breaking into our world in many ways and many places.
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If only love were simple

Feb 15, 2010
One of my favourite sayings about Jesus is that “he spoke with authority.”
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Media and Publications

Fr Noel Connolly SSC