Jesus and John the Baptist: Companions
In recent weeks across the globe, the world has been lamenting tragedies described in media reports as ‘living hell’. This includes the land where both Jesus and John the Baptist were born, grew into manhood, ministered amongst their people, and died for how they taught and lived in right relationship with God and with other […]
Birth of John the Baptist
We commemorate the Birth of John the Baptist on 24 June. Only Luke tells about John the Baptist’s birth. In the other Gospels, Matthew, Mark and John, John the Baptist is already an adult when he comes into the story. He appears as a man of God, a prophet trusted by the people to whom […]
Celebrating June Feast Days with Mary MacKillop
During the month of June, we have the opportunity as followers of Mary MacKillop, to recall and celebrate the great feast days of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (24 June) and St John the Baptist (25 June). Our Josephite constitutions expresses Mary’s hope that: God’s compassionate love, symbolised for Mary MacKillop by the Sacred Heart, […]
The Baptism of Jesus, A Story of Two Cousins
The baptism of Jesus, celebrated on 9 January, reminds us of two cousins; Jesus and John the Baptist and their mission, their relationship, their lives and their God consciousness revealed in their ministries. The relationship touchingly begins with the meeting of their pregnant mothers, Mary and Elizabeth, who were delightfully surprised by their unborn babies, […]
The Birth of St John, the Honey-Eater
My ageing parents helped raise two grandsons for a while. Whenever the boys were away, the signals for their return were the tyres of the car bringing them home rattling the cattle-grid outside our home, and my mother saying with a smile, “Here come the honey-eaters!” Ahead of the Church’s feast day commemorating the birth […]
A Communion of Companions
Mary and the men on the founding Monogram: A Communion of Companions In May this year, Sr Marie Foale wrote on the founding Josephite Rule written by Fr Julian Tenison Woods in October 1867 (First steps towards the Foundation of the Order). This Rule, lived by Mother Mary and her early companions, was signed by […]