International Women’s Day – Reflections Across Generations
March 2, 2023
International Women’s Day, celebrated on 8 March throughout the world, honours and recognises the achievements and contributions of all women.
This year, the theme Cracking the code: Innovation for a gender equal future, focuses on the role of innovation in the advancement of gender equality and the empowerment of women.
World Day of Prayer 2023
The movement aims to bring together women of various races, cultures and traditions in a yearly common Day of Prayer, as well as in closer fellowship, understanding and action throughout the year. In 2023, Taiwan is the particular focus.
Prayer is a powerful way of connecting with others for love, healing and compassion. Recently I was anxious about my infant grandniece who was undergoing a serious operation that could affect the rest of her life. Being too far away to be with the parents and child, I lit a candle and sent them blessings and prayers by phone. Their delight and gratitude were tangible.
While the allegory for the chaos theory is simplified with this saying that a small butterfly flapping its wings could, hypothetically, cause a typhoon, its application demonstrates how the universe is deeply interconnected. That a small faithful whisper of love, kindness, compassion or blessing can reach around all corners, countries and oceans is a phenomenon. Prayer is really powerful.
Concerning an Indigenous Voice to Parliament
February 23, 2023
This year, we will have a once in a generation opportunity to fundamentally change our story. Australians in 2023 are being given a chance to respond with a ‘yes’ in the referendum as to whether First Nations Peoples gain a voice in matters that overwhelmingly affect them.
How can we be a true commonwealth, a united and healed nation, without Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders having a voice to help inform policy and legal decisions that mainly impacts their lives?
Reporting on the Vagaries of Life
February 22, 2023
Report cards have always been a source of consternation for teachers, parents, and students of all ages.
People familiar with Mary MacKillop’s Portland story would remember the furore that arose from the efforts of Mr Cusack to impress the school inspector with some clever behind the scenes prompting and a quick switch of the more able students from Mary’s and Mary’s sister Annie’s classes. All to no avail when his deceit was uncovered. Strangely enough when Mary’s father Alexander exposed his folly loudly and vociferously through the local paper, the consequences fell down on Mary’s shoulders.
Tenth Anniversary of Te Kiritahitanga/Fusion
A document was received by the Sisters of St Joseph in Whanganui, New Zealand, and the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart in Sydney, Australia on 22 February 2013. Coming from the Vatican, the words brought into reality a journey which had started many years before for the Whanganui Sisters.
When the first four Sisters arrived in Whanganui in 1880 from Perthville in New South Wales, the difficult events of the previous years were very fresh in their minds. However, they held the founding charism of Mary MacKillop and Julian Tenison Woods close as they began their ministries in this new country. As the small group grew, this charism was nurtured and developed in all their works. The desire expressed by Julian that one day all would be united seemed an almost impossible dream at that stage.
Ash Wednesday: Gateway to Lent
Ash Wednesday, this year beginning on 22 February, is the gateway to the season of Lent. The anointing with ashes, which is the key element of this day’s ritual, is a reminder of our responsibility as individuals and as communities to keep alive the discipleship that our baptism committed us to. The ritual of baptism also involves tracing a cross on our foreheads, albeit with fragrant oils rather than burnt ashes.
The ash etched onto our foreheads on Ash Wednesday is grittier and dirtier and less fragrant than the oils of baptism. This ‘gritty’ image is a ready depiction of our lives today, as Lent is a call for us to get rid of some of the grit that is preventing us from fully living our baptismal potential.
Goodbye Gippsland
February 14, 2023
After 120 years of faithful, loving service, on Tuesday 31 January, 22 sisters including Victoria-Tasmanian Regional Leader, Sr Sue McGuinness, made their way to St Joseph’s in Warragul, Victoria for a farewell from the Diocese of Sale.
Sr Madeleine White’s move to Melbourne at the end of 2022 marked the end of the Josephite presence in Gippsland. At the time, Bishop Greg Bennet expressed a wish to celebrate with and thank the sisters for their service to the Diocese. This was a day of joy and celebration but also tinged with sadness. Bishop Greg joked that he had failed his KPIs by losing the three last sisters in the Diocese after he arrived.
“We Say Sorry” – National Apology to Stolen Generations
February 13, 2023
Today (13 February) we commemorate the first-ever national apology made by a Prime Minister (Kevin Rudd) to initialise in 2008 the Australian Federal Government’s rehabilitation, justice, and reconciliation agenda for Indigenous Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, and the tens of thousands of Aboriginal children who were forcibly removed from their families during Australia’s assimilation era.
The National Apology to Stolen Generations was a life-giving experience for all Australians who participated. The apology itself, with its strong foundation in the Young Christian Workers maxim of “see, judge, act”, provided a prophetic act of reconciliation.