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 […]
A Starlight of Everyday Epiphanies
The feast of the Epiphany (7 January) celebrates the revelation of God incarnate as a vulnerable newborn baby to the Three Magi who followed the Star to Bethlehem stable. Matthew’s gospel puts its simply: …and there in front of them was the star they had seen rising, it filled them with delight and going into […]
Advent Reflection
The days are growing longer, the sun is growing towards its full summer radiance, the Jacaranda, Silky Oak, Poinciana and Flame Trees are blooming. We find ourselves moving quickly toward our remembrance and celebration of the coming into our world of the One who is Light. We are in Advent time, a time of waiting, […]
Walking with Jesus to Calvary
On the last day of term at Mount St. Joseph Girls’ College (Altona, Victoria), the entire College community stopped to retrace the final days of Jesus’ life which we refer to as the Stations of the Cross or the Way of the Cross. As we encountered each station, we creatively contemplated the situation before moving […]
Epiphany: Christmas Camels
When asked to write about the feast of 6 January called ‘Epiphany’, I discovered that Eastern and Western Churches emphasise different aspects of the theme ‘manifestation’, which is the meaning of the Greek word ‘Epiphany’. Eastern Churches focus on God’s manifestation of Jesus’ divinity at his baptism and at Cana, where he begins his public […]
Triumph of the Cross
The feast of the Triumph of the Cross, also known as the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, is commemorated on 14 September. For this feast, Sr Caroline Dale shares a poem.
Feast of the Sacred Heart
For us as Josephites, celebrating the feast of the Sacred Heart (24 June) is intimately connected to God’s compassionate love. The Constitutions of the Sisters of Saint Joseph remind us: Mary MacKillop believed that God’s compassionate love symbolised by the Sacred Heart would become a reality for her sisters and the people with whom they […]
Ascension – Letting Go and Opening Space for the New
The Ascension occurred in the life of Jesus when he left his followers, 40 days after the Resurrection and returned to His Father in heaven. ‘Why now?’ the disciples could be thinking as He disappeared from their sight and left them with his command to go out to all the world and be like him […]
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, […]
From Darkness to Light
A reflection on the Feast of the Epiphany (3 January). The moment of the big bang, or more poetically, great flaring forth, is for scientists a moment to explore, rationalise and quantify. For those who believe in a God it is a moment of epiphany, a theophany and the moment when God released life and […]
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 […]
Raised from ‘Death’ to New Life
How or When Have You Been Raised From ‘Death’ to New Life? Jesus is raised from the dead! Most of us have experienced times when things have been grim: we have lost a significant other… our treasured hopes have been destroyed… we have been let down, even betrayed… and it seems like the proverbial light […]