Fr Julian: Man of Words – Letter Seven
August 7, 2019
Have you ever been into a large underground cave? This month Father Julian invites us to share his experience of exploring the caves of Mosquito Plains, near Naracoorte, South Australia in 1857.
Excursion to Mary MacKillop Place
Boundless, a young adults group from the Northern Suburbs of Sydney, recently visited Mary MacKillop Place, North Sydney to learn more about Saint Mary MacKillop.
With Saint Mary MacKillop’s Feast Day approaching on 8 August, I thought it was a great opportunity to organise and invite members of my young adults group ‘Boundless’ to an excursion to Mary MacKillop Place.
Sainthood Comes in Moments
August 6, 2019This month of August, during which we celebrate the 110th anniversary of Saint Mary MacKillop’s death, is a timely reminder that all of us are called to be saints – here and now! Mary understood this – and her entire life reflected this understanding.
In 1870, as an earnest 28 year-old, Mary shared her insights about living saints with her ‘own dear Mamma’:
Little could the youthful Mary have every imagined that she would become Australia’s first canonised saint so many years later!
In this month’s reflection from the Little Brown Book Too, the authors, Sue and Leo Kane, provide us with another reminder that Earth is meant to be full of living saints, and that our ‘Sainthood comes in moments’.
Sister Ethelberga, Mary’s nurse, said of her: ‘I never knew her to speak an unkind word to anybody. Neither would she permit any Sister to do so in her hearing.’
As we go about our days, we teach, not so much by preaching lessons, as by the way we are in this world. Our way of seeing things and people will come through in our responses. Mary knew this instinctively:
A very young Sister Laurence (who later became the third Superior General of the Sisters) once said to Mary: “Mother, I think you are especially kind to people who give you trouble and worry.” “Ah, you little rogue!” was the lovely reply of a compassionate and human Mary.
Sainthood comes in moments: of gentleness, of humour, of kindness, of times when we choose to do the loving thing. And for our ‘companions on the journey’, such moments help to keep their hope alive.
The above is an extract from The Little Brown Book Too (pages 32-33)
© Sue and Leo Kane 2011. Introduction Mary Ryan rsj.
Used with the kind permission of the publishers, St Paul’s Publications
Available online and from some Mary MacKillop Centres.
Download the print version of this reflection (PDF)
Pathways into Josephite Community and Commitment
August 4, 2019
National Vocations Awareness Week: 4-11 August 2019
Years ago, a young aboriginal boy, overhearing a conversation in our Josephite kitchen asked, “What’s a Chapter?” A sister replied, ‘It’s a kind of Nun’s Parliament!’ Though we chuckled, his question struck a chord and pushed us to a fuller, more reflective explanation:
Click here to continue reading
Pathways into Josephite Community and Commitment
Religious Life in a Time of a Paradigm Shift
National Vocations Awareness Week: 4-11 August 2019
Religious Life is evolving in a Context of a Paradigm Shift.
For me, Religious life has been a fulfilling, challenging, stretching, disillusioning, confusing, enlightening and personally transforming journey of the gradual discovery of the meaning of living to my full potential this ‘one wild and precious life’ [1] that I have been given. The phrase, ‘a vocation to Religious Life,’ when I joined the Josephites in the early 60’s meant to me the ‘giving of my whole self to God and to what matters to God’. The gospel call of justice for all peoples seemed simple and clear and with youthful enthusiasm, joy and trust I ventured forth with many others to be a gospel witness and to make a difference. Maybe in that attitude there was a hint of seeming arrogance of which I was completely ignorant at the time!
Behold, Vatican 2 Council (1961 – 64) called for Renewal in the whole of the Catholic Church including the renewal of Religious Congregations! This initiated us into the beginning of a paradigm shift in how we understood our Christian story, church, mission and religious life in a wholly different way. The Church and therefore Religious Life was now seen to be IN the Modern World not apart from it. Again, with youthful confidence I, with many others, became involved in Renewal Groups, new Catechetical approaches, justice and peace groups, theology courses/degrees and social justice action.
It turned out to be a journey of over 55 years where the new horizons and renewal could be described as bringing both ‘light and darkness’. In a paradigm shift everything changes. Reaction to the changes in society, Church and Religious Congregations soon became evident. The ministry of sisters was more concentrated on the individual’s passion and gifts as a response to the seen ‘need’ rather than belonging together as a group of sisters in a school or other mission. Sisters and others experimented in ways to be an ‘intentional community’ for mission. Others found their passion in justice ministry, pastoral ministry, spirituality ministry, administrative ministry, rural ministry and others. Sister-companions left to follow the gospel call in a different way, priests argued to have the option of marriage, young people explored other spiritualities or found the Church not relevant to their lives and most challenging of all the acknowledgement eventually came of Church cover-ups of Priest child abuse. I wavered, like many others, from certainty to uncertainty, trust to doubt and experienced the call of courage to stay in the ‘shadow’ or darkness where transformation often takes place. As the Psalmist says: ‘To God the light and darkness are the same’.
Katrina Brill rsj
Continue reading article here:
Religious Life in a Paradigm Shift
Beyond the Crossroads Book by Amy Hereford, CSJ, JD, JCD might be of interest
Photo by Ulrike Mai obtained from Pixabay. Used with permission.
In Search for A New Vocation Pathway
National Vocations Awareness Week: 4-11 August 2019
As I reflect on my discernment journey as a Covenant Josephite, I have come to realise that God’s call in my life manifested itself through my desire to respond to the needs I see in the world and my practical and joyful capacity in doing so. It is not simply a call to a way of life that only God wants for me, but also a way of life that I so desire. In this covenant relationship with God, I see myself as mutually responsible to the commitment that we (God and I) have both made. Affiliation with the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart has helped me to remain focused on God’s call for mission and be guided by the charism of Mary MacKillop in my everyday life. In my view, I believe it is by God’s providence that the Sisters of Saint Joseph are available to support this new pathway.
A question that I get asked often is why not either choose a vowed life or simply choose a single/married life? Why Covenant Josephite? Traditionally within the Catholic Church we are given an either-or choice. Those who are called to become vowed religious live in a separate community that is distinguished from those who are single or married. The vocation of a single or married life is often seen as a half-hearted devotion to God’s mission due to other life commitments. However, I believe that one can still fully devote oneself to God’s mission and bring it to other aspects of life whole-heartedly. For many Catholics it seemed difficult to comprehend a calling to fully devote one’s life without living in the conformity of a vowed religious life. As a result, I have found that spiritual formation, ministry and discernment support are often lacking for single and married people. With a heart that desires a deepening of my relationship with God, I began my discernment journey in 2009. After several failed attempts in finding a congregation that has a place for the vocation that God has whispered into my heart, I gradually came to know of the Sisters of Saint Joseph where a new vocation pathway called “Covenant Josephite” was shown to me. Through the support of a discernment guide and a discernment team that offered me the opportunity to explore with an open heart all possible pathways, I came to recognise my place as a Covenant Josephite and made my first commitment in 2016. Since then, the discernment journey has not ended but rather continued in a challenging way as God continues to lead me into a life that I have not planned for myself.
What does it mean to be a Covenant Josephite? This is a question I try to be mindful of everyday, before making a decision and for every circumstance in my work, social and family life, thus furthering the guidance of Mary MacKillop to, “Never see a need without doing something about it.”
What is the need in this very moment that is calling me, and will I be joyful in my response to it? In discerning my answer to this question, I believe is the place for my vocation.
Cecilia King
Photo of Winding Road Travel by JanBaby obtained from Pixabay. Used with permission.
Fairtrade Fortnight 2019
August 2, 2019Ethica and Fair Trade.
This year, Fairtrade Fortnight is held from 2 to 15 August. In Australia, the Fair-Trade market is small but growing. Consumers are becoming increasingly aware of how poverty can be reduced by buying ethically made fair trade products.
Fairtrade Fortnight gives us the chance to highlight the importance of choosing to buy fair trade whenever possible. To make the switch and make a difference in the lives of so many people. We can do it every day, starting each morning when we buy our cup of coffee – imagine the impact if we all had fair trade coffee and of course in your keep cup!
The majority of our artisan groups in Peru are from remote and rural areas where women have few opportunities to earn an income. Women are being educated, are helping their families, are leading by example for their children and are passing the rich traditions of skills and artistry from one generation of women to the next.
Ethicas commitment to the 10 principles of fair trade means our products:
- Provide opportunities for the women who create them
- Illustrate the fairness of our business practices through our long-term relationships
- Do not use any kind of child labour or forced labour
- Are produced in safe working conditions
- Advocate for and promote Fair trade
- Demonstrate accountability and transparency
- Are purchased at a fair price mutually agreed on with artisans
- Are free from discrimination based on ethnicity, gender or discrimination of any kind
- Are part of a wider commitment to the community through our grants scheme
- Are kind to the planet by minimising packaging.
Fair Trade means what you buy matters. By choosing Fair Trade products, you are making a difference in the lives of the people who make them.
When you buy an ethica product, our products have a card with the name of the person that made it.
Buy better, buy quality, buy fair trade – all these things can make a huge difference. Let’s all create more awareness and have a real impact in the world we want to live in.
As Emma Watson said:
Gina Bradley
National Manager
ethica
Saint Mary MacKillop’s Feast Day 2019
August 1, 2019Join us at Mary MacKillop Place, North Sydney on Thursday 8 August 2019 to celebrate the Feast Day of Saint Mary MacKillop.
Mary MacKillop Place is a site unlike any other because Australia’s first Saint, Mary MacKillop, lived, died and is buried here.
On 8 August each year, several thousand people come in pilgrimage to Mary MacKillop Place to honour St Mary of the Cross MacKillop in the celebration of Mass, by praying at her Tomb, and by sharing food and hospitality.
We invite you to join with us and other Pilgrims as we honour Mary MacKillop in a special way on 8 August, 2019.
Please find below, all the information you need to know:
Mass times: 8am (Mary MacKillop Memorial Chapel), 10am and 1pm (on Glen Roy Green (William Street entrance)
Chapel opening time: 8:30am to 4pm
(The Chapel will be open for private prayer and visits to Mary MacKillop’s tomb)
Museum opening time: 8:30am to 4pm
(On Feast Day, Mary MacKillop Place offers free admission to the Museum so that pilgrims may explore the story of St Mary and the foundation of the Sisters of Saint Joseph)
Gift Shop & Café opening time: 8am to 4pm
Entry to Mary MacKillop Place: 80 William Street, North Sydney
Wheelchair access: via the green gates, 7 Mount Street, North Sydney
There will be Mary MacKillop memorabilia and clothing stalls (including ethica wares) you’re invited to purchase throughout the day. Food and beverage stalls will also be in operation.
Public transport is recommended as parking in the area will be scarce. Click here for further directions.
After much planning and preparation on site, and hard work by Sisters, staff and volunteers, we look forward to welcoming you! You’re invited to share this event with your family and friends.
Flyer for St Mary MacKillop Feast at Mary MacKillop Place (PDF)