Tag Archive for ‘prison’
The Parole Board
Eight years of being a member of the New Zealand Parole Board and I still get asked the same question every time. When people find out that I have just done hearings with prisoners the question I am immediately asked is: “You didn’t let anyone out, did you?” I can safely interpret that the default […]
Tuesday 28 May
Acts 16:22-34; Psalm 138; John 16:5-11 Darkness into light When everything seems darkest, God shows his hand. Paul and Silas had been stripped, flogged, shackled, imprisoned. They prayed and sang hymns. They were alone. No earthly help was forthcoming. A massive earthquake wrecked the prison. The warder was converted, and his family. He took them […]
Monday 11 March
Leviticus 19:1-2, 11-18; Psalm 19:8-10, 15; Matthew 25:31-46. Sheep and goats Does our belief in God show itself through our attitudes and our actions? The Lord tells us today that there will be a judgement which will be based on how we lived our Christian life and how we treated others. He will ask us […]
Sunday 29 July
SEVENTEENTH WEEK ORDINARY TIME 2 Kings 4:42-44; Psalm 145; Ephesians 4:1-6; John 6:1-15 Live worthy of your calling Paul's call to the people of Ephesus and to us to live worthy of our vocation rings so loudly because he was being held prisoner for his faithfulness to his calling. So many persons in our world […]
Friday 21 October
Ephesians 4:1-6, Ps.24, Luke 12:54-59 The everywhere of Jesus Paul was a prisoner when he made the statement, “I, prisoner in the Lord… ” But the word ‘in’ suggests he was saying he had his being in Christ Jesus. Was he exaggerating? I think not. In the introduction to the John gospel, we see Jesus […]
Tuesday 9 February
1 Kgs.8:22-23, 27-30, Ps.84, Mark 7:1-13 The Golden Rule A legalistic mind-set is like a prison. The legalist is fixated on the rule and its strict observance. He cannot see the wood for the trees. The legalist, like the Scribes and Pharisees, has forgotten that every religious rule is a sub-rule of the Golden Rule […]
Saturday 25 July
St James, Apostle 2 Corinthians 4:7-15, Psalm 126, Matthew 20:20-28 Ambition We can imagine James and John going to their mother and asking her to talk to Jesus about promotion. None of them understood that this would result in spiritual restriction. Ambition belonged to the “me first” instinct that locked people into a prison of […]
Tuesday 14 July
Exodus 2:1-15, Psalm 69, Matthew 11:20-24 Oppression All these readings are about oppression and hardship: the plight of the Jews in Egypt, a psalmist praying for protection, and Jesus crying out at the cities that have rejected him. As well, John the Baptist is in prison. Jesus knows what will happen to John. But he […]
Thursday 29 August
Passion of St John the Baptist – memorial Jeremiah 1:17-19, Ps.71, Mark 6:17-29 Lean on God today I can almost hear John reciting this psalm in prison. ‘In your justice rescue me …’ Yet like Jesus he suffered and died. Where is justice, where is God? Those questions haunt us. Other lines help: ‘Be a […]
Prison Chaplain in Japan
A Memoir by Fr John Hill sm During my long life here in Japan, apart from the ordinary Parish work which has been my main occupation, I have spent about 45 years as a Chaplain at a prison in Nara City. A couple of points I must make before I go any further. First of […]
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