Celebrating 130 Years of Education
June 8, 2022A reflection by Sr Maureen McDermott rsj on an exceptional milestone and celebration.
It was with a joyous and grateful heart that I journeyed home after the celebrations of 130 years of education at St Joseph’s School, Hillston, New South Wales on Tuesday 3 May.
The celebrations began with Eucharist concelebrated by Bishop Columba Macbeth-Green OSPPE and the parish priest, Fr Christopher J Lim, for the parish community, in which the pupils were the focus. The spirit of Mary MacKillop was tangible as the entrance hymn in praise of Mary was sung with great gusto.
A hand-up not a hand-out
CEO of Mary MacKillop Today, Jane Woolford, explains how affordable access to financial services can stop the cycle of poverty.
Imagine your fridge breaks down one day — but you simply can’t afford to buy a new one to ensure you have fresh food to feed your family. Would you take out a loan to get the money you desperately need right away — even if it means falling into a debt trap?
Hardship is rife in Australia, with more than 1 in 6 households unable to raise $2,000 for an emergency. The combination of the pandemic, floods and droughts, rising fuel prices, and the housing market has sent the cost of living skyrocketing.
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:
Trinity Sunday – Invitation to dance
Attempts to explain the Trinity are multiple. St Patrick is said to have used a shamrock to illustrate that the Three are One. The Russian iconographer, Rublev, offered us a beautiful image where the three appear equal around a table and there is a space for the observer to join them. Hildergard of Bingen left us an image of the Christ figure surrounded by a golden circle representing the Spirit, enclosed in a larger circle representing the light of God, Father.
In another relational representation, the Cappadocian (Eastern Turkey) Fathers of the third and fourth centuries, offered us the image of God as a circular movement of total outpouring and perfect receiving among three intimate partners. The word used by these wise men was perichoresis which comes from the same root word as choreography, so the Trinity is relating in a dance of love, into which we are invited.
So, how might these representations influence the life of you and me?
Sesquicentenary of the NSW Sisters of Saint Joseph 2022
June 7, 2022
This July, the Sisters of Saint Joseph will celebrate 150 years of the Congregation’s presence in NSW since their arrival in Perthville in 1872.
The Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Joseph was founded by Mary MacKillop and Father Julian Tenison Woods in 1866 in Penola, South Australia.
The first ministry of the Congregation was the opening of a school for all the children of that small distant town. The education being offered was an important step in breaking the cycle of poverty that had trapped so many of the children’s parents, struggling to make a go of it in the pioneering times of colonial Australia. By the end of that first year there were four sisters.
Pentecost 2022
May 24, 2022
One of the joys of my recent participation in the International Union of Superiors General’s (UISG) meeting in Rome, was the deep sense of the Spirit moving in and among us.
On a number of occasions, we were asked to pray the Our Father in our own language. This profound experience drew me into the reality of the first Pentecost where Luke records in the Acts of the Apostles – each one understood in their own language: ‘We heard them telling the wonders of God in our own languages.’ (Acts 2:11) At this moment in the Assembly, there was a deep sense of communion among us. As the days progressed, the call to work in collaboration with one another grew stronger – an indicator of the Spirit’s presence with us.
World Communications Day 2022
World Communications Day was established by Pope Paul VI in 1967, in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, which sought to bring the gospel to light in the modern world.
This annual celebration occurs each year on the Sunday before Pentecost. World Communications Day invites us to reflect on how we can best use our gifts to bring about the gospel message of love, compassion, and inclusion.
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 and spread the gospel. How could they do it without Him? His ascending is a loss for them. He is absent, or so it seems.