Laudato Si’ Webinar: Part One

In May 2015 Pope Francis launched his encyclical with the subtitle “On Care for our Common Home” and the title “Laudato Si’” which are the opening words for a hymn composed by St Francis of Assisi in the 1200s.

For our time, this document is both relevant and important, since it highlights the priority that respect for the environment should have in Catholic life, and integrates the notion with what is central to our understanding of humanity’s relationship with God.

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So Small a Beginning: Part 1

Sr Marie Foale speaks about the beginnings of the Institute of St Joseph for the Catholic education of poor children.

She believes that as a young Josephite growing up, she had a sense that one day Mary MacKillop and Julian Tenison Woods had made a spontaneous decision to found an order.

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Julian Tenison Woods: A Life – Chapter 4th

Chapter 4th

Soon after his arrival in Hobart, Mr Woods found circumstances quite different to his expectations… Though he remained only a few months in Hobart, his amiable conduct and fervent piety made a lasting impression on many persons…Mary MacKillop

…Julian – after staying a short while in Victoria – went to Adelaide to join his brother, Mr J.D. Woods, who says ‘A few weeks rest was quite sufficient to satiate a man of energetic habits like Julian, so he accepted an engagement as sub-Editor and reporter on the “Adelaide Times”… His pen pictures were always pleasant reading, whether he compelled attention by graphic description, made one laugh by the charm of his wit and keen sense of the comic, or shed tears over the sympathetic.  But the old yearning towards the church asserted itself anew…

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Ego to Eco: Part Four

Father Julian Tenison Woods was a Catholic priest who had made a great contribution to Australian Geology, Botany, Palaeontology and Zoology.

Today the ecology of the Earth is suffering. Pope Francis states that we are in a time where peoples of the world need to have an ‘ecological conversion.’

Although Father Julian had lived in a different time to us, he had recognised the importance of looking after the Earth.

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Julian Tenison Woods: A Life – Chapters 2nd & 3rd

Chapters 2nd & 3rd

After the death of Mrs Woods the family returned to England, and within a short time, Julian was taken into the establishment of the Times. He did not remain there long. Though gifted with great literary power, as his writings in later life prove, his tastes and tendencies took another direction…Mary MacKillop

He had become acquainted with the Rev. Francis Oakley, who had charge of the Catholic Chapel and Schools at Islington, London… Under Canon Oakley, he took partial charge of one of the schools in the suburbs, for the children of the better classes… He remained in this position about a year and a half…

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Ego to Eco: Part Three

Father Julian Tenison Woods was a Catholic priest who had made a great contribution to Australian Geology, Botany, Palaeontology and Zoology.

Today the ecology of the Earth is suffering. Pope Francis states that we are in a time where peoples of the world need to have an ‘ecological conversion.’

Although Father Julian had lived in a different time to us, he had recognised the importance of looking after the Earth.

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Julian Tenison Woods: A Life – Chapter 1st

Chapter 1st

It would seem fitting that a wiser head and a more practised hand should undertake to write the life of Father Tenison Woods. Perhaps a noble work on the subject may yet be produced: meantime, it is a ‘Labor of love’ to draw this unpretending sketch, which will have one great advantage – it will be strictly authentic… Mary MacKillop

The Rev. J.E.T. Woods was born in West Square, Southwark, London, on 15 November, 1832. He was the sixth son and seventh child of Mr James Dominick Woods, Q.C. and F.S.A. of the Middle Temple (and of Sydenham Kent), Barrister at law – and Henrietta Marie St Eloy Tenison, fourth daughter of the Rev. Joseph Tenison, Rector of Donoughmore Glebe, in the county of Wicklow, Ireland, and deputy governor and justice of the peace in the same county. The Rev. Joseph Tenison was son of the Bishop of Ossory, and grand nephew of Thomas Tenison, Archbishop of Canterbury.

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Ego to Eco: Part Two

Father Julian Tenison Woods was a Catholic priest who had made a great contribution to Australian Geology, Botany, Palaeontology and Zoology.

Today the ecology of the Earth is suffering. Pope Francis states that we are in a time where peoples of the world need to have an ‘ecological conversion.’

Although Father Julian had lived in a different time to us, he had recognised the importance of looking after the Earth.

Click here to continue reading