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”?
Blinded By Our Might – Josephites Launch Second Laudato Si’ Conversation Package
November 18, 2024
The Josephite Laudato Si’ Action Plan team presents its second Conversation Package in the five-part URGENT HOPE series.
Titled Blinded By Our Might, this community and educational resource has been developed by the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart in collaboration with the Sisters of St Joseph Lochinvar to spark discussion, inform, and inspire people of hope.
Blinded By Our Might focuses on the recognition that humanity is the most powerful species on the planet. Our species is now regarded as “having turned into highly dangerous beings, capable of threatening the lives of many beings and our own survival” (Pope Francis 2023, para. 28).
Tolerance
November 16, 2024
The International Day for Tolerance is commemorated annually on 16 November.
I don’t tolerate a blowfly in my soup. I don’t tolerate a flat tyre while driving.
If Mrs Kafoops comes along and starts to sound off about a neighbour, I could do more than tolerate that: I could join in the character assassination. However, I could also not tolerate it, and quietly say something good about the person being denigrated, or in other ways let Mrs Kafoops know that I don’t agree.
What I must do, however, is show tolerance to Mrs Kafoops.
Julian Tenison Woods – No Ordinary Man
November 15, 2024
The early years are widely recognised to be the most important years of a child’s life. From all accounts, real love between parents and children was shown in the Tenison Woods family.
As Sr Isabel Hepburn recalls in No Ordinary Man, Julian Tenison Woods ‘mostly remembers himself as very happy in a world very bright without any dull days. All his memories of the earliest stages of life are those of a golden summertime, the horizon bounded by sunlight’. (p. 15) Noting also that the country enchanted Julian. ‘The fields, the trees, the sheep, the cattle were simply delightful to me. I thought the sight of green trees, the blossom of springtime, or the smell of new mown hay were amongst the most enjoyable things in life.“ (p. 14) From this rich foundation, the rest, as is said, is history.
Prison Ministry
November 9, 2024
Each year on the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary, the Catholic Church in Australia marks Prison Sunday, bringing attention to the plight of prisoners and highlighting the important work that prison chaplains undertake. (Catholic Australia) For this day, this year observed on 10 November, Marcia Cox rsj shares a reflection on her experience in prison ministry.
How did I become involved in Prison Ministry?
I wasn’t asked to do it.
I didn’t seek it.
I wasn’t even thinking of it.
How you ask did it happen?
Praying with Mary MacKillop in November
November 8, 2024
In this month of November, we traditionally remember the dead and depending upon our theology, we pray for the dead, to the dead or with the dead. A friend of mine has a strong belief and practice of praying to someone who has just died for a special situation. In current theology on the Communion of Saints, we are more likely to pray with the dead and our revised Litany of Mary MacKillop invites us to do just that.
Given all that, Mary MacKillop was more likely to pray for the dead, and she had plenty of opportunities to do so since seven members of her family died during Mary’s lifetime.
Feast of All Souls
November 2, 2024
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 of an insect or animal, but I have had the privilege of sitting with a friend as she died and holding her hand as she travelled that last journey.
As we celebrate the Feast of All Souls on 2 November, I am reminded of the fact that, in a way, I still hold the hand of those I have loved in whatever stage of the journey they happen to be after death. To this celebration I bring two basic beliefs. First, I believe in the Communion of Saints. As Christians we share the life of Christ and are made one Body with him. This union reaches beyond death into eternity. United, we are still one Body – we still hold each other’s hand; we pray with and for each other; we nurture their love in our hearts.