Changing lives one stamp at a time
December 7, 2022
Each month, Pope Francis asks for our prayers for a specific intention. For the month of December, the prayer intention is for volunteers and not-for-profit organisations:
Volunteers make an amazing contribution to organisations and communities around the world. Through the gift of their time and passion, they are able to make significant change for the organisations they work with.
Click here to continue reading
John Altham has been volunteering for the Mary MacKillop Today stamp collecting initiative since 2001 and was recently recognised for his dedication with a 2022 Cook Community Award.
Over the past 21 years, John has helped raise in excess of $485,000 by collecting and sorting stamps from church groups, family, friends and other community volunteers keen to support the work of the Sisters of Saint Joseph. This year alone over $42,000 has been raised which has been directed to funding programs for poor communities in Peru.
The Cook Community Awards, for residents living in the Cook electorate of southern Sydney, recognise people who give up their time to selflessly contribute and volunteer. John received his award for ‘his selfless work and dedication to the Mary MacKillop Used Stamps Appeal’.
A humble man, John says he is just one grain of sand on the beach and that the Community Award belongs to everyone who is part of the Used Stamps Appeal.
“I first learned about Mary MacKillop as a child growing up in Western Australia,” says John. “I admire the way she went about her work and got things done. I have always been inspired by her.”
“John is a quiet man who goes about his volunteering in a selfless manner,” says Sister Helen Saunders who works with John on the program for Mary MacKillop Today. “He does such good work for us in sourcing used stamps and we are so appreciative of his hard work and dedication.”
Congratulations John for receiving a much-deserved community award!
St Mary MacKillop’s Human Right of Way
We commemorate Human Rights Day on 10 December 2022.
The presumed inalienability of human rights continues to be at odds with the realities of its accessibility in our contemporary context. There is a false assumption that we as a collective society have achieved justice for all. Unfortunately, many marginalised voices in our community remain silenced or unheard. The human rights ecosystem has been stifled by policy making and implementation that often fails to capture the needs of those for whom human rights are most unattainable.
Mary MacKillop and Advent
During a recent trip to Melbourne, I attended Mass at St Francis’ Church in the city. This is a special church as it is Victoria’s oldest Catholic Church, where Mary MacKillop’s parents were married, and where Mary had the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and First Holy Communion.
Visiting St Francis’ Church, which was a significant church in the life of Mary MacKillop and attending Mass there on the first Sunday of Advent, inspired me to reflect on the season of Advent and how it relates to Mary MacKillop.
Sprouting Change – planting across boundaries
It was a great community day at the recent launch of Sprouting Change – Planting Across Boundaries at Holy Spirit Catholic College Lakemba.
Kaleidoscope: Celebrating Advent
November 18, 2022
Traditionally, Advent is thought of as a time of waiting. What happens in that waiting space? Perhaps it is a time of seeing the way patterns of hope, desire and longing disperse, change and reform so that we become aware more deeply of the plans God has for Creation.
The kaleidoscope is a wonderful instrument. Originally designed as a children’s toy, it is more than that. The instrument uses the same particles in each new pattern created. With only a touch of a finger the patterns formed by those particles change and new patterns of beauty emerge.
In the Footsteps of Mary MacKillop 2022
There is a quote on Mary MacKillop’s tomb which reads, “We are but travellers here”. Mary was very aware of life as a journey, made up of many smaller journeys, both actual and metaphorical.
The one great journey is that of moving toward the fullness of our relationship with God, which we call ‘heaven’. The Australian National Pilgrimage: In the Footsteps of Mary MacKillop is one of these smaller journeys.
The Time Has Come
We mark the anniversary of the meeting of Pope John Paul II with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Alice Springs, Northern Territory on 2 December. Sr Joan shares a reflection.
Thirty-six years have passed since Pope John Paul II stood in the swirling red dust on the outskirts of Alice Springs and spoke to a delighted group of Aboriginal women, men and children. He was wearing aboriginal colours. He affirmed their culture and spirituality. He knew their pain. The Pope told a parable of a tree ablaze in the bushfires, leaves scorched, bark seared and burned while inside the sap still flowed and the roots held strong. He told these people that the ‘genius and dignity’ of their race must never disappear. They understood.
Listening to Biblical Light
In late 2021, a friend who’s a theology lecturer showed me a basic Bible books diagram that he’d put together for his students. Then he asked me, “have you thought about creating a book of the Bible artwork?” My first thought was “not really, I mean, I’m no biblical scholar, how in the heavens would I… ?”
Soon, providence struck, and other people asked me about Bible resources around that time. So, I prayed, and the project stayed in my heart. As time passed, my love of stained-glass windows and traditional etching also stayed in my heart, moving me to think…
Why don’t I create an artwork poster for the Catholic Bible in stained glass and etching?