Reflecting on illness and death
April 27, 2022
Life blooms and suddenly…
Monthly, weekly, and sometimes daily, we hear news of the death of yet another treasured, loved, Sister and friend. Sadness grips our hearts and minds. It feels as though our dreams and visions for the future are slipping away. Could it be that this Congregation, founded by Julian and Mary, is undergoing transformation? Is something new emerging?
2022 Easter Message from Sr Monica
April 8, 2022
As Easter unfolds, we hear these words: Christ is risen, the light has dawned, and hope is born anew.
The Easter story invites us to travel with Jesus through the reality of death to new life. Like Jesus, Christians are called to surrender the pain and suffering of our world into the arms of our compassionate God. Our God walks with us as we respond to the misery, hardship, and pain of so many realities in the world today – the atrocities of war and violence, hunger and injustice, environmental destruction and the thousands of refugees walking their own journey to Calvary. Through the events of Holy Week, we experience intimacy and rejection, joy and sorrow, despair and hope, betrayal, and faithfulness.
Easter Reflections 2022
We share with you four reflections for Palm (Passion) Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
The Hope and Faith of Mary MacKillop
The massacre of the innocent, the ravages of war and the displacement of people engender fear, desperation, and a sense of hopelessness. We also feel the pain of the flood victims left homeless and poverty stricken. Devastation and hardship call upon every ounce of faith and hope we have, to claim and look forward to a brighter future.
A Letter to Mary MacKillop
To commemorate the anniversary for when Mary MacKillop received Constitutions of the Institute (Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart) and when Central Government was accepted on 21 April 1874, Sr Maria Casey shares what she would have written to Mary if she was alive today.
Justice Now: The Peril and the Promise, Daring to Hope
April 6, 2022
Josephite Justice Network Gathering: 11-13 March 2022
At long last with Covid restrictions eased, we, the Josephite Justice Network, were able to meet face to face.
Seventeen of us gathered at St Joseph’s Spirituality and Education Centre, Kincumber, New South Wales and were aware of many others who were unable to join us.
Voting for the good of the whole community
March 29, 2022
How would Mary MacKillop vote in the upcoming Federal Election? We will never know.
Nevertheless, as the author Sheila McCreanor points out:
Although Mary MacKillop’s language is couched in the values of her time, we can follow its spirit and appreciate its important message.
The Legacy of Julian Tenison Woods and the Earth Charter
March 22, 2022
In every generation, voices of prophets remind us that God has charged humans with the care of our common home, Earth. The examples of our first peoples, and of individuals like Francis of Assisi, Meister Eckhart and the Medieval Women Mystics come to mind. In our day, too, we cite Pope Francis in his encyclical Laudato Si’ as synthesising world-wide awareness that our treatment of creation has repercussions for good or evil.
Similarly, can we claim Julian Tenison Woods as a nineteenth-century Australian prophet, a precursor of the current call to respond to the health crisis of our planet, Earth?