Christ Has no Body Now but Yours
June 13, 2020Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ.
While reflecting on the coming feast of Corpus Christi, this image captured my attention. Someone has put together into one picture a traditional image of the Last Supper with the Healthcare workers at Hopital La Pitié Salpêtrière in Paris.
My first glimpse brought to mind the words of St Teresa of Avila, ‘Christ has no body now but yours.’ We know that the medical ‘frontliners’ are breaking open the bread of their lives every day for others, reflecting Jesus words: ‘This is my body, given for you.’
Unlike the ‘frontliners’, those of us in isolation have had the time and space for solitude and contemplation. While these ‘bubbles’ may have been very contained, we have been taken right into the suffering of our world through a multitude of media. What a gift to help keep in balance personal need and that of those most suffering.
All around me in my ‘stay at home’ world I see people every day being the hands, heart, eyes and ears of Christ to each other. The ANZAC Day driveway gatherings provided a chance to meet neighbours for the first time; Sisters taking someone for a drive to see more than their own four walls; shopping lists taken by others and the goods delivered; creative ways of celebrating birthdays; facilitating the livestreaming of funerals so people can be ‘present’; the joy and frustrations of communal jigsaws, to name a few. These freely shared, loving acts of neighbourliness and kindness are flattening many curves of isolation and need. So, while not being able to gather for Eucharist, people are daily breaking open the bread of their lives with and for each other.
It is no surprise that this unique global experience has seen our connections across the world dramatically increase through the internet. I have been fed by the sharing of story, image, poetry, satire, song, music and cartoon – all gift to share with others. The creativity shown by many online has nourished solidarity and connection. Platforms like Zoom and Skype have provided new opportunities to bring a variety and a diversity of people together to pray, sing, discuss, celebrate and dream of a better, healthier future for humankind and our planet. St Paul talks of creation groaning and I can’t help but think that our planet is also singing because our standstill has given it a chance to breathe better. We are one body on and with this planet and we have all seen the dramatic impact this standstill has had the planet. Dare we engage in determining a better future?
In our Easter journey this year we, like Jesus’ followers, have had to ‘see’ with new eyes. In the face of extreme suffering we recognise Christ in the breaking of the bread of so many people’s lives. Let’s take these thoughts into this feast of Corpus Christi as we celebrate how each is and has been the feet, hands, eyes, voice – the Body of Christ.
Annette Arnold rsj
This YouTube of St Teresa’s words provides an opportunity for reflection:
Media Release: Sr Margaret Cleary Awarded Order of Australia Medal
June 10, 2020Sister Margaret Cleary of the Sisters of Saint Joseph awarded Order of Australia Medal in Queen’s Birthday Honours.
The Sisters of Saint Joseph are delighted to announce that Sister Margaret Cleary has been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2020 For Service to the Catholic Church of Australia.
Sister Margaret has been a part of the Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Joseph for over 57 years, having joined the Congregation in January 1963 and being professed in 1966. Having initially trained in education and working ministering as a primary school teacher, Sister Margaret has a natural passion for education and pastoral care and collaborating with Staff, Students, Families and Parishioners.
Sister Margaret went on to continue her work in education across a variety of parishes and dioceses in Queensland. She was Principal in Millmerran, Mundingburra – Townsville, Upper Mount Gravatt, Cloncurry, St. Peter’s Caboolture.
Following her teaching days, Sister Margaret worked diligently as a Provincial Councillor in Queensland before becoming a Congregational Financial (Bursar) Administrator between 2008 – 2013.
“I am honoured and humbled to receive the Order of Australia Medal,” said Sister Margaret.
Reflection on Mary MacKillop
June 8, 2020In 1873-1874 Mary travelled from Rome and then to London where the McDougalls invited her to stay at their house in Clapham Park and make herself at home during their absence. Mary then travelled to Paris and to her ancestral home the Braes of Lochaber in Scotland.
From there she returned to Fort William, where illness delayed her again for a few days before she could start for Fort Augustus. She was overjoyed to meet on the canal steamer the priest who had consoled her in her loneliness at Versailles. He paid her expenses and handed her over to her relative, Dean MacDonald of Fort Augustus, with whom she then stayed for three days. The story was the same everywhere – helpful priests and kindly welcomes in convents. … Fr Bissett gave her soul ‘the help and encouragement it sometimes so sadly needed.’
Extract from ‘Mary MacKillop: An Extraordinary Australian’ by Paul Gardiner sj (1993) pp. 140-141. E J Dwyer Pty Ltd Australia.
Let us ponder on Mary’s life during the long wait to hear from Rome about the future of the congregation.
- Imagine Mary’s delight and relief on meeting her relatives and visiting her ancestral home.
- What are your thoughts about Mary’s choice to move from comfort to cheap and convenient lodgings?
- How does Mary’s humour, devotion and resilience speak to you in this vingnette?
Mary MacKillop Saint for Australia and the world, pray for us.
Michele Shipperley rsj
Image sources:
[1] Cille Choirille Church and Graveyard by Dave Fergusson obtained from Wikimedia Commons. .
[2] Saint Mary MacKillop commemorative coin obtained from The Perth Mint Australia website.
So Small a Beginning: Part 3
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.
Keeping kids healthy during COVID-19
How you can keep kids healthy in Timor-Leste during COVID-19.
Many teachers and community leaders in Timor-Leste are currently not equipped to educate children and their families on basic health and hygiene practices that can prevent diseases like COVID-19.
Will you help keep kids healthy and fight COVID-19 in Timor-Leste with a gift towards our Health Literacy Program?
Your support will help stop the spread of Coronavirus, as well as other common preventable diseases in Timor-Leste, such as tuberculosis, malaria, dengue fever and diarrhea.
You can provide schoolteachers with lifesaving training and health education resource kits containing health promotion posters, lesson plans and activities, books on various health issues, and a CD with songs about health including handwashing. These are all in the local language, Tetun.
Your support makes it possible for teachers like Asatu, in rural and remote schools, to provide vital health and hygiene information to young students in a fun and interactive way.
You can donate now if you would like to assist children and their families in the poorest communities to stay healthy – during and beyond this current health crisis. Thank you!
Elizabeth Phegan,
Supporter Relations Group Leader,
Mary MacKillop Today
Life is Like the Seasons
Adapting After Lockdown.
With schools resuming regular teaching across Australia after weeks of lockdown, some children will look forward to seeing their friends but for many others, returning to the classroom after an extended period will be challenging, especially for children and young people who are currently managing other life challenges that impact their capacity to adapt to change.
The urgent nature of the global response to COVID-19 has brought with it fast and unprecedented change to family, school and work life. The largely invisible but highly pervasive threat of the virus has been a testing time for everyone – with high levels of stress and anxiety further amplified by the realities of restrictions and uncertainty about whether and when life will be ‘normal’ again. Read more of this article from the Centre for Children and Young People. Download the resource.
Now, following weeks (months for some), without social interaction with friends, peers, extended family and other trusted adults – children and young people may be experiencing a range of emotions and behaviours. The array of change and unpredictability can leave us feeling overwhelmed and anxious. These feelings are normal and expected during times of transition and change. As professionals in education and support roles, we play a critical role in helping the transition of students back to school. There are familiar and core concepts in the literature about how to best support children and young people during difficult times. Please have a look at this new resource researched and written by CYRA and Seasons for Growth program author Prof Anne Graham AO, Director of the Centre for Children and Young People, SCU. LINK to new resource.
Children and young people rely on trusted adults to help manage transitions and so we have prepared an easy-to-read factsheet to support parents, carers and professionals – Self-Care & Wellbeing: During Times of Uncertainty.
ONLINE LEARNING
To support professionals who are keen to train in the Seasons for Growth program, we have transitioned to a virtual training model and have received wonderful feedback! Professionals who have recently completed training have recognised the need for the program in our current climate and are already making plans to support the children and young people in their care as soon as they are able.
THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING US
We would also like to say thank you to all of you in the community and particularly the young people within the school communities who organised a fundraiser to donate funds to help those impacted by the bushfires. Your fundraiser will enable the ‘Stormbirds’ program to help bush-fire affected communities, like Glen Innes.
Your donation gives children access to the program, books and helps to train a Companion.
Fiona McCallum and all the Good Grief Team
How you can help young Aboriginal Australians
Help young people overcome social and emotional challenges.
Disengagement from education is a significant concern amongst community members in the Kimberley region of Western Australia and local service providers are struggling to meet the needs of young Aboriginal people through programs that are culturally relevant and safe.
Thanks to the generosity of people like you, Mary MacKillop Today can continue to work alongside Aboriginal communities helping young people engage with education.
Will you help young people to overcome the social and emotional challenges that make it incredibly difficult to engage in learning?
Please give today to support the Equine Assisted Learning program in the Kimberley, named Yawardani Jan-ga which means “horses doing healing.”
Delivered in partnership with the Telethon Kids Institute, the Yawardani Jan-ga program is owned and facilitated by experienced and qualified Aboriginal community members like Abby-Rose.
Josephite Charism
Never See a Need…. During a Pandemic.
Sisters, and those inspired by the charism of Mary MacKillop, have ministered in a Josephite spirit since 1866. They have been inspired by the words of their Founder Rev Julian Tenison Woods: ‘Never see a need without doing something about it’ and their ministries have been in many settings.
They have ministered with people in country, outback and city places in Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, Ireland, Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste, Peru, Brazil and Fiji. They have worked in educational settings, in healthcare, in parishes and prisons. Those, women, children and families, who are poor have been the main focus and concern of the sisters. These include Indigenous persons, asylum-seekers and refugees. In order to minister, the sisters have often been found visiting homes, hospitals, “camps” in the Kimberleys, jails or detention centres. As they have aged or situations have changed, sisters over the years, have become involved in other ministries such as Spiritual Direction, being a Director of a Board or pastorally caring for the aged or mentally ill.
They were ready therefore to respond to the changes in mid-March 2020, when the Coronavirus was declared a Pandemic and people were told to “stay at home”. Indeed, the need now was to keep oneself safe so as not to be a burden on medical staff, hospitals, religious communities or society and not to spread the virus. Many found themselves praying, gardening, cooking, reading or following a creative pursuit. At first, meetings and appointments were crossed out of diaries. Then new meetings on ZOOM or telephone, started to be pencilled in. New ways were found to communicate, meditate communally, attend Liturgies, do courses and support others.
Some sisters worked from home in Leadership, as School Pastoral Workers, Spiritual Directors, Supervisors, and attending or giving Inservices. Contact was made with parents who were home-schooling children, asylum-seekers, or those finding it difficult socially or financially. Many candles were lit, and contemplative prayer and Novenas were offered, especially for those in countries where the virus was claiming many lives and causing enormous pain. There was concern too, for our own Josephite Sisters and Associates in various places, including Peru and Ireland, and indeed, for people all over the world.
Mystic, Julian of Norwich, lived most of her life (1342-c.1415) with the terrifying ‘Black Death’ which raged for most of her life and killed 25 million people in Europe. In her homeland of England, it is estimated that one–third of the population died. Yet Julian trusted in and taught about God’s unfailing love and wrote “All will be well; every manner of things will be well.” Centuries later, Saint Mary MacKillop wrote: “We must often feel weary and tired and yet God brings us through all these things” (5 June 1874). Our sisters and ancestors experienced the Spanish Flu a hundred years ago.
Josephites, inspired by those who have gone before us, continue to minister in new and unexpected ways, wherever each of us finds ourselves in this age and time in history.
Denise Brosnan rsj