St Joseph Feast Day 2025
Joseph, the Pilgrim of Hope Greetings on the feast of Saint Joseph. This Jubilee year provides each one of us with the opportunity to reflect on the role of pilgrimage in our lives and in the life of Joseph. The Gospel accounts in which reference to Joseph are shared speak of Joseph setting out on […]
Word of God Sunday Reflection
In Australia this year, Word of God Sunday is on the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord (2 February). Word of God Sunday invites us to pay special attention to the Word of God that we hear in that Sunday’s Liturgy of the Word. When Pope Francis established this Sunday as a way of […]
Conversion of St Paul
We commemorate the feast of the Conversion of St Paul (previously named Saul) on 25 January annually. On the road to Damascus, Saul of Tarsus was turned upside down and inside out. Usually referred to as his ‘conversion’, it has been described by one scholar as “the intervention by the risen Christ into Paul’s interior […]
The Baptism of Jesus
Sr Helen shares a reflection for the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, 12 January 2025. Your Baptism, My Baptism – what does it mean? We go in spirit to the peaceful and loving home of Nazareth. We somehow know that Joseph would have died, and Mary and Jesus are living their ordinary lives […]
Epiphany – God puts on flesh!
We saw his star at its rising… Matthew 2:2 God puts on flesh! God brings light! What do we do? The word ‘epiphany’ used in Greek indicates an appearance or manifestation. What does it invite us to?
Feast of St Francis Xavier
Sr Virginia shares a reflection for the feast of St Francis Xavier, 3 December, missioner in Asia and formerly patron of Australia. I first ‘met’ Francis the day I entered religious life in 1963 and received the religious name ‘Xavier’. It was the day Paul VI became Pope. Soon after, the local parish priest loaned […]
Feast of All Souls
Every moment in life has the potential to be a ‘God-moment’, as Mary MacKillop reminds us: “There where you are you will find God” (1871). Perhaps the most obvious of these moments are those of birth and death. Have you ever been present at either? Personally, I have yet to witness a birth, even that […]
Julian Tenison Woods – Encouraged by Saints
We celebrate the feast of All Saints on 1 November with a reflection by Sr Jan Tranter. Drawn to priesthood from youth and struggling to his goal, Julian Tenison Woods was encouraged by three priests who are now recognised or on the path to be recognised as saints. Venerable Ignatius Spencer, St Peter Julian Eymard […]
Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross
You may have noticed recent media references to “childless cat-ladies”. By and large, these have been politically spiked, positive neither to women or cats. For a start, the woman of whom I write today was definitely not ‘childless’, for she, Saint Helena as the Church honours her, was the mother of Constantine the Great, the […]
Celebrating St Mary MacKillop’s Feast at Mary MacKillop Place
St Mary MacKillop’s feast day is a momentous occasion, and to those of us blessed to call Mary MacKillop Place our workplace, we prepare to ensure everything runs smoothly for the large number of pilgrims who celebrate the feast each year. Every team at Mary MacKillop Place has a crucial role, from organising liturgies to […]
Mary MacKillop Feast Day Celebrations 2024
Mary MacKillop Place, the Sisters of Saint Joseph and Mary MacKillop Today extend a warm invitation to all to celebrate the Feast Day of Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop on Thursday, 8 August 2024. We look forward to welcoming everyone, including our pilgrims and supporters, to Mary MacKillop Place in North Sydney.
Feast of St Ignatius – Finding God in a time of Plague
The medieval town of Manresa sits upon the banks of the Cardoner River, a little north of Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain. For devotees of Ignatian spirituality and Jesuits, Manresa is intimately linked to the story of St Ignatius of Loyola’s conversion and the place where his famous manual for prayer, the Spiritual Exercises were conceived.