Tonight I will be ordained as an auxiliary bishop of the Catholic Church for the Archdiocese of Sydney, and so will take up the apostolic ministry.

So, it seems as good a day as any to begin a blog. But where to begin?

Perhaps a word on the blog title - 'Mind | Heart' - might be in order. The English Jesuit Martin C D'Arcy wrote a book in the 1940s called 'The Mind and Heart of Love: Lion and Unicorn, A Study in Eros and Agape' (Faber, 1947). D'Arcy was responding to another book written at that time which had separated out these two loves, and relating the true love of God only to that of an agape kind of love. Against this dualistic view, D'Arcy wanted to ensure that the Christian understanding of God's love for his creation will always find expression in the various loves that mark the lives of human beings. Not only is Christian love an act of the mind, but it is also and equally a movement of the heart. For D'Arcy, this twofold love is symbolised in the heraldic images of the lion and the unicorn, respectively.

It is this meaning of the mind and heart of love - a love that is the answer to the reason for the hope we have in Christ Jesus (cf. 1Peter3.15) - that is to be read into images of the lion and the unicorn that appear in the episcopal coat of arms I have adopted. And hence, a blog called: 'Mind | Heart'.

I am not sure how often I might get around to adding contributions to this blog, but if you have found your way here, I do hope that it might bring to you a reason or two for the hope that is to be found in proclaiming a crucified Christ (1Cor1.23) to a world that is fast becoming indifferent to that love of his, of which there is no greater (Jn15.13).