A Reflection for International Migrants Day 2024
December 8, 2024
Honouring the Contributions and Upholding the Rights of People who are Migrants: A Reflection for International Migrants Day 2024
Every year on 18 December, the world comes together to observe International Migrants Day – a day to celebrate the incredible contributions migrants make to societies across the globe and to reaffirm our collective responsibility to respect and protect their human rights. As we commemorate this important occasion in 2024, we reflect not only on the progress made but also on the urgent work still needed to ensure that people who are migrants can live with dignity and opportunity wherever they are.
Human Rights Day
The year was 1945. I was 10 years old that year, old enough to understand the horror of Hiroshima, to remember the newspapers showing young soldiers with limbs amputated, to learn about the holocaust, to watch the pain of our neighbour’s children when their father, a prisoner of war, returned a different man, a man needing care in a psychiatric hospital.
People throughout the world were devastated about the accumulation of pain. Leaders of 51 nations from across the planet gathered to lament the carnage of World War II. They grieved together and together made a pact to do all in their power to avoid such a thing happening again.
Christian Hope – Jubilee 2025
December 6, 2024
As Pope Francis expressed many times, we are currently living in a world that needs hope. As pilgrims in this world, we are all journeying and experiencing life with all its challenges and opportunities, bad and good, struggles and breakthroughs.
This Christmas, give the gift of education
December 5, 2024
Timor-Leste may be one of our closest neighbours but for many of its children, schooling – something that is taken for granted by most Australian children – remains a distant dream. Sadly, nearly 42% of Timor-Leste’s population lives below the poverty line, and children miss out on vital opportunities for learning.[i]
Saint Mary MacKillop was a pioneer of schooling for the most marginalised children – just like Juliana. Juliana lives only one hour from Australia, and yet her world couldn’t be more different from ours. She’s the youngest of five siblings living in a remote farming community in Timor-Leste. Her family regularly goes without food so there’s money for her to go to school instead.
Children like Juliana know only too well that school is a way to break the cycle of poverty and create a brighter future for their families. But while Timor-Leste is making astonishing progress at rebuilding itself to become a strong and stable nation – after gaining its independence 25 years ago – there are still many challenges, especially when it comes to providing quality education for its young people.
Feast of St Francis Xavier
December 2, 2024
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 me a life of Saint Francis Xavier by James Brodrick SJ. Because it held the saint’s missionary letters, he told me it would be good for me.
Hugo’s Starting to Thrive
For the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (3 December), St Anthony’s Family Care* shares a reflection by Anna on the difference Figtree Early Learning Centre is making for her son Hugo.
Our St Anthony’s Family Care journey has just begun, but already it has become a beacon of support and warmth for our son Hugo. The community has embraced us wholeheartedly, providing a nurturing environment that we know is perfect for Hugo. It’s been a life changer for our family.
An Advent Reflection for Year C
November 29, 2024
These are the opening words from Paul in the second reading for this First Sunday of Advent in Year C (1 Thessalonians 3:12-4:2).
It seems that here, Paul is suggesting that being human is more a verb than a noun, more a human becoming than a finished product. Perhaps it would be most accurate to add the word ‘yet’ to all assessments of ourselves and each other.
The Call to Get Our Hands Dirty
November 22, 2024
The 2021-2024 Synod on Synodality has concluded. Since Pope Francis convoked this Synod, it has been different from the other 20 plus Synods since the Second Vatican Council. The framework, timeline and strong emphasis on consultation marked the Synod on Synodality as an emerging way of being Church.
This Synod unfolded in stages across three years and consulted not just a small group of hand-picked ‘experts’ but all those interested in sharing their prayerful consideration of the question:
A synodal Church, in announcing the Gospel, “journeys together”: How is this “journeying together” happening today in your local Church? What steps does the Spirit invite us to take in order to grow in our “journeying together”?