World Teachers’ Day 2019

If I was Premier for this year’s ‘World Teachers’ Day’ I would hang special banners from the Harbour Bridge and Parliament House.

These banners would show a teacher drawing material from another period or place which they would be unravelling with the help of several children and young people who in turn would be forming their own shapes.  The learning process thus represented has teachers drawing on their knowledge of the past or present; they then place their foot in the world of their students and translate this knowledge into the students’ context and language.  This requires suitable method and appropriate language so that together in an atmosphere of trust, problems can be solved, and creations developed for today and tomorrow.

I must state my bias in writing this article. I am a teacher. I love and respect and am challenged by this role. I still have on-going relationships with some students I taught more than 50 years ago. I have taught every class from Year 3 Primary to Senior Secondary where I revelled in Maths Science and Religion. I also taught at University in Pre-Service Teaching courses as well as Postgraduate Courses and supervision of Doctoral Students. All of this involved me in much discussion of the role of teachers and their issues at all levels that were continually changing and which I followed up from an academic point of view in research.

The teacher always needs to be conscious of the student’s response to the learning process.  I found I needed to watch the eyes of my students, especially in Maths, any lack of understanding or interest would immediately show there. I often needed to find a new way to focus their attention and sometimes take them along a different pathway, if my first approach didn’t reflect any awareness or enthusiasm.

I was very lucky I taught at a time when I knew and was trusted by my students and their parents and was indeed supported by them. I am very angry and concerned when I read about teachers today being attacked physically by their students or suffering from forms of anxiety attacks or mental illness, because of the growing stress of the classroom, or the behavior of the students, the lack of support of the parents, or even the administration of the School.  The media seems to speak so negatively about teachers in terms of their ability and indeed their value. A teacher’s salary doesn’t suggest to the next generation it is a valued field of employment.   I am not saying all teachers are perfect, but I have seen many dedicated young teachers give up their career within a few years and I know students and society are the losers when this happens.

I had the privilege over many years of serving on Syllabus Committees for both Science and Religion Studies and thus worked with so many skilled, creative and committed teachers. It is of the essence of good teachers that they will share their ideas and experience with others as they try to create a framework for teachers and students to use. Teachers are good organisers and able to plan and to see various ways to approach issues with an open mind. It is appropriate that on this World Teachers’ Day we may recall a Teacher who helped/challenged us or our children and, if possible, acknowledge them and encourage a new generation of teachers.

Pat Malone rsj

Image: Photograph with thanks to Mount St Joseph Milperra, NSW. Used with permission.

Social Justice Sunday 2019

The concept ‘Social Justice’ is very wide, including all societies everywhere, and indeed all creatures and our planet.

We are increasingly aware of this global reach of social justice, depending as we all are, on how we treat our common home, as well as one another. In this age of fast-growing technology, we have more opportunity than ever before, to know how our actions and the actions of communities, states and nations are affecting others, and the oppressive conditions in which many people have to eke out an existence. Through a multitude of media devices, we are often brought face to face with the truth that the poor are carrying burdens made heavier, by the life style of those who have far more than they need. The world is an uneven and for some, a very unfair place.

Whether it is the plight of asylum seekers, homeless people, abused children, low lying islands already feeling the destructive effects of climate change, families too poor to send their children to school, whole groups desperate in the face of starvation, the millions fleeing from war, the unemployed and underemployed who can’t afford to buy a home, prisoners who are wrongly convicted, families whose breadwinner is in gaol, farmers living with the anxiety of drought, women living with domestic violence, trafficked women and men… our hearts are moved to compassion.  We want so much to be of help, only to feel a sense of helplessness.

In the words of the 26th Josephite General Chapter 2013, we feel ‘the desolation in ourselves and beyond, we hear the cry of earth, the cry of children’.

Whenever and wherever a measure of social justice has been achieved, to right wrongs, to improve the conditions of disadvantaged people, it has usually been done through the actions and advocacy of people who have had the vision to see, that things could be and should be otherwise. They’ve gone through a transformation of consciousness. Their powers of love have been raised.

Such advocacy is more possible, when groups belong to a network, and through collaboration, gain and disseminate knowledge, persevere through opposition and failure, utilise the skills of the members as well as those of others to gather information, and plan strategies to challenge the unjust and often cruel situations.

Australian Catholic Religious Against Trafficking of Humans (ACRATH), is an example of such a network. The members collaborate in the difficult task of supporting individuals who have been brought to Australia to work on farms, for example, with the promise of a fair wage and fair working conditions, but many of whom have been denied justice on every level, a flagrant example of trafficking of humans.  Some have had to return to their country, with less money than they had, when they arrived in Australia.  They have had to face their families and relatives, with this humiliating embarrassment, making the situation even worse. Some had to borrow money to pay for their fares to come to Australia…

Continue reading Sr Margaret Keane’s article (PDF)

Margaret Keane rsj

View the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference 2019-2020 Social Justice Statement

Thumbnail image: Five people holding each other’s hands by rawpixel.com obtained on Pexels. Used with permission.

Mary MacKillop in Austria

Since 2007, the Apostolic Sisters of the Family of Mary have been organising a four day Youth Meeting and this year, they chose St Mary MacKillop as their Patron.

This event coincided with Mary MacKillop’s Feast Day being held from 8 – 11 August in Kundl, Austria. Thirteen years ago, young Catholics from the Austrian state of Tyrol, had the desire to gather together young faithful people at a youth festival. This was the start of an extraordinary journey with incredible graces, which the Lord poured into the hearts of so many of those who attended these meetings.  Throughout the years, the fruits have been visible. Some youth have joined the priesthood or religious life, while others found their future spouse and eventually were married. It’s truly amazing how young people continually open their hearts to God and find strength in a new or renewed friendship with Him and also amongst each other.

The theme of this year’s meeting was taken from the verse Jn: 12,28, “Father, Glorify Your Name.” Approximately 200 young people from Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Slovakia accepted our invitation and traveled to the beautiful little town Kundl, which is surrounded by mountains, to celebrate their faith. Amongst other things, Holy Mass, Adoration, conferences, testimonies, workshops, confession, sports, and the rosary, worked together to create a very special and holy atmosphere. God also blessed us with beautiful summer weather and much joy during this time.

Father Maximilian Maria Schwarzbauer, priest and missionary of the Community “Work of Jesus the High Priest,” spoke in his conferences about the fatherly love of God. His joy was truly contagious. It was no surprise that the resounding round of applause at the end of the meeting seemed to have no end.

Religious sisters of the missionary community “Family of Mary”, helped throughout the meeting with music, workshops and personal talks with the youth. They used their talents and gifts to spread the Good News and helped the young people to deepen their personal relationship with God.

One thing was very obvious at our meeting – we love the saints! During the last of couple years, Sr. Elisa Foidl, wrote seven beautiful musicals, each depicting the life of a different saint, including, Saint Gabriele Possenti, Blessed Charles of Foucauld, and Saint Don Bosco. These musicals were performed by the youth and were attended by adults, other youth, family members and the faithful from local parishes, thus allowing hundreds of people to witness God’s great work in the lives of the saints. The musicals have continued to be a great success.

At the beginning of each New Year, the team organizing the event, randomly draws a patron saint whom they ask to be their patron and intercessor for their summer meeting. This year, as we came together and asked the Lord for our patron saint, we were truly amazed, when we picked Saint Mary MacKillop, as we discovered that her memorial coincided with the first day of our meeting, 8 August. We know this is no coincidence and are so very grateful to God for this sign of His grace and love.

With Saint Mary MacKillop’s homeland being Australia, which is more than 20 hours by plane from our homeland of Austria, it is amazing how this saint has found a place in our hearts. Our two countries not only share similar names, Australia/Austria, but above all, a love and veneration of this truly amazing saint.

We send a big hello to all of you in Australia and unite ourselves with you in prayer, through the intercession of Saint Mary MacKillop.

Barbara Thielen
Member of the organisational team “Liebesiegt”

Feast of The Exaltation of the Cross

The Feast of The Exaltation of the Cross – 14 September

I have a friend who exalts the Cross all year round. She is Sr Dorothy Woodward rsj of the Sisters of St Joseph of Lochinvar, NSW. Since 2006 she has painted over 700 crosses for Catholic Schools and Parishes.

A Cross’s significance is carried almost automatically, its shape alone being enough to remind many of Jesus. As the signature marked upon the bodies of the baptised, the Cross holds a sense of Christian belonging for many. It is like a ‘north-south-east-west’ blessing from across God’s universe, “in the name of Father, Son and Spirit”.

A Cross denotes the death and sacrifice of Jesus, executed in consequence of all he had said and done to free people from fear, judgement and exclusion.

For the believer, the Cross proclaims how Jesus accompanies human beings on the ‘crosses’ of their own painful experiences. The Cross shows how, by example, Jesus’ life saves human living from the miseries of selfish, competitive and abusive patterns of power over others. His way of responding to God’s call was authentically human and Godly. His compassionate, merciful, inclusively healing ways of relating with others reveals all that.

The Cross proclaims that his life was not only taken cruelly, but given freely ‘for us’, as he invited others to be ‘at-home’ here on earth and forever with the God he called Abba.

Dorothy’s crosses are not blank. They also carry carefully selected images of human life and meaning-making in particular contexts. They express the fulfilment of Jesus’ promise:

Consider one example, the Cross painted for St Joseph’s School, Merriwa in the Upper Hunter.

It pays respect to the Wiradjuri people’s presence on the Land long before the pastoralists settled in the 1820s, and it draws attention to ancient hand-prints still visible near Merriwa. It hints also towards ongoing sorrow for past experiences of inter-cultural pain.

The Cross features St Anne’s Catholic Church built between 1879-81, and the emblem of the Lochinvar Sisters, the founding teachers of St Joseph’s School from 1885, just 2 years after their young Order’s own founding.

Pastoral life is depicted through images of wheat, cattle and sheep farming and horse breeding, all subject to the sometimes-painful rhythm of seasons and fluctuating markets.

Finally, there is an honouring of the community’s joyous annual celebration of itself in the “Festival of the Fleeces” with its unique “running of the sheep” in red socks knitted by willing locals.

Whilst Dorothy’s Crosses do tell of Jesus’ life and death in human history, they also exalt the eternal Christ’s presence in the real circumstances of the here and now, the past and future of people’s lives.

In her artistry, Dorothy gives expression to that famous stance beginning Vatican II’s Pastoral Constitution, The Church in the Modern World:

Virginia M Bourke rsj

Image: The Cross painted by Sr Dorothy Woodward for St Joseph’s School, Merriwa provided by Sr Virginia Bourke. Used with permission.

In Footsteps of Founders, Honouring Tim Fischer

Honouring our Founding and remembering Tim Fischer, Boree Creek, Riverina, NSW.

On Saturday 31 August, on a sudden impulse, we decided to drive from Leeton to nearby Boree Creek for morning tea. With the moving State tribute to Tim Fischer still fresh in our minds, it seemed like a good idea to honour him by going to experience the place he grew up in and loved.

We were thoughtful on the way. Golden canola stretching as far as the horizon. Young wheat too, firm and strong.

Julian would have loved this, besotted as he was with the beautiful, always aware of the Presence of the Creator in the created. A sense rises inside: “We are experiencing his type of amazement!”

Click here to continue reading

The Time is Now and We are Here

I’ve been thinking about this quotation a great deal in recent days, as we’ve witnessed the Australian Prime Minister ignoring the pleas of Pacific Islander peoples, and simultaneously been encouraged to celebrate the Season of Creation. Perhaps the most challenging dilemma facing us however is the call to take action in the worldwide climate action on the 20 September.

Begun by young Swedish student, Greta Thunberg, the School Strike 4 Climate Action invites students (and indeed all people across the world) to join in rallies and marches on 20 September to express concern for the climate crisis facing us.

The time is truly now and we are here. The dilemma is – How are we to respond?

There is little doubt that the School Strike 4 Climate Action has created dilemmas for many schools and families. The idea of encouraging young people to strike runs counter to many of our beliefs about the importance of education, and the need for religious and educational groups to support the law.

It is hard however, to argue with the fundamental message of the young activists, that they are taking action because governments won’t.

The Josephite Justice Network supports the young people who will take part in the strike and Josephites will join them and their families on the 20 September. There are a number of reasons we have come to this decision:

• Laudato Si’ reminds us of the critical time in which we live – the imperative to celebrate the beauty of creation, and the associated call to commit to doing something about the climate crisis facing us
• Pope Francis constantly calls the world to conversion towards caring for the state of the planet
• Australian farmers (through drought, floods and bushfires of record severity), our Pacific neighbours, and the Great Barrier are already experiencing the negative impact of the climate crisis
• Even as we witness the acceleration of climate change, we know that it is those who are most defenceless who are most immediately affected
• Climate change is a clear global threat and the Australian Government is refusing to act
• The demands of engaged young people are both indisputable and informed, and need to be respected
• We believe that it is imperative, at this time, to support efforts being taken to counter the denials and rampant inaction of the government.
• Choosing the format of a strike will alert Australians, in ways no other action has, to the crisis facing our world
• It is our belief that we, as religious educators and inheritors of the Mary MacKillop tradition, need to back the initiatives of young people on the issue of climate change, and that includes supporting the global climate strike
• When we’re dead and gone, it will be the present generations of young people who will bear the brunt of this crisis.

Josephites will be participating in the school strike on the Friday 20 September. In Sydney, if you wish to join us, we will be on the Art Gallery side of the Domain at 11:45am. Other states and countries will inform you of their plans or you can find out here. We encourage all those who are part of the Mary MacKillop tradition to support those taking part in the global strike.

We can express our support in a number of ways. We can support the rallies and the importance of safe, non-violent and appropriate action. We can express our concern for the impact of climate change and engage in conversation in our families and communities. We can hold prayer rituals and liturgies on 20 September to celebrate the beauty of creation and lament the devastation being caused by our refusal to combat the climate crisis. We can continue to find and speak hope in the efforts of the prophetic witnesses among us.

If you wish to engage further, the following could be helpful:

• Leonardo Di Caprio exposes the reality of climate change in the National Geographic documentary
• The young Swedish student, Greta Thunberg, who initiated the School strikes, is a prophetic voice for action in the current crisis in in her Ted Talk in January 2019.

Neither modern society nor most governments acknowledge at this time that the carefully balanced web of life can’t be exploited without critical consequences.  As Christians and as Josephites, we believe that we are impelled to act.

Jan Barnett rsj
Josephite Justice Co-ordinator

Image: Earth justice sign by John Cameron obtained from Unsplash. Used with permission.

A Day in the Life: Sounds of Pastoral Ministry

Pastoral care is a ministry full of sound. Sounds can be heard in many ways, most certainly through the ears and through the heart.

My ministry in pastoral care and graphic design/marketing at Mount St Joseph, Milperra requires me to listen in many ways. No two days are the same. Each day I walk into the day with an open grateful heart. So, how does this happen, what does it sound like?…

At 5am I hear my alarm clock burst forth with its rhythmic chimes. Next, I read the scripture of the day, hearing my heart connect to God’s word, my thoughts chug forward like a kayaker padding one stroke at a time (some mornings the paddling is slower than others!). Opening my heart to Gods word gives me a focus. I make a conscious choice not to look at email or other messages on my phone. Soon, I usually hear my shoes lacing and my feet touching the pavement, I gaze at the stars and thank God for the gift of this day. I run, reflect on scripture, pray for those in need and simply listen to where my heart is being drawn. As Mary MacKillop reminds us: “Listen to the whispering of God to your own heart.” Making time to listen gives me space to re-centre and enter the day with my heart being raised to God, open and ready to Listen.

It is near impossible to describe an average day in a secondary school. For me, it’s a joy to step into the unknown. And if you try to plan too much, well, you’re kidding yourself! As I drive to school I may listen to an audiobook, podcast, music or simply have silence. Many faith traditions focus on listening and opening to God. We can follow our Christian roots back to Judaism remembering the Shema prayer (Listen here): To hear each day with vulnerability, truly listening with courage to God in our lives today. We see instruction to listen and how to live faith in Deut 6:4-9 in a form of law on the heart.

My key soon unlocks my office door, click, my eyes adjust to the light, my computer boots up, emails chime through. Soon, I hear the hot water hit my cup, I usually chat with a staff member or two as we paddle through the early morning. Soon, “good morning” streams in my ears while I stand outside greeting our students and staff. I’m conscious to remind my heart to hear the sound of courage and kindness. Sometimes a conversation follows, I might hear the sound of teenage girl chatter, or feel my heart smile for all the beautiful faces walking through our school gate.

Walking the halls between meetings, popping in on classes, ………

Jane Maisey rsj

Continue reading the article here:

Sounds of Pastoral Ministry (PDF)

Australian National Pilgrimage

Each year since 1994, the Sisters of Saint Joseph have offered the people of Australia the opportunity to go on pilgrimage, “Walking in the Footsteps of Mary MacKillop”.

Several weeks ago I received a phone call from a person who was interested in participating in the national pilgrimage entitled “In the Footsteps of Mary MacKillop”. One of the questions asked was about the itinerary and what a typical day during the time of pilgrimage would consist of.

As the conversation unfolded, it became clear that in the enquirer’s mind the words pilgrimage and tour were synonymous. This however, is not the case. There is significant difference between the two words. To a degree the day-to-day routine does look as though people are tourists enjoying a trip. There is the getting on and off the coach; meeting new people; journeying with an interesting combination of personalities; receiving information about significant sites; opportunities to purchase mementoes of places visited. This is however, where the similarities end.

So what then is a pilgrimage? It is a journey to a sacred place which takes the pilgrim out of her or his usual day-to-day routine into a sacred time and space. Some would say that the time of pilgrimage is a liminal time, “an in between time”, a graced time allowing for the possibility of transformation in a pilgrim’s life.

As Macrina Wiederkehr writes in her book Behold Your Life:

Each year the Sisters of Saint Joseph offer people the opportunity to journey in the footstep of St Mary MacKillop, by visiting places of significance in her journey of listening and responding to her God. This journey is an invitation to see, listen and reflect on Mary’s relationship with God and her ability to trust implicitly in God to provide in all things. The journey will be filled with challenges, joys, disappointments, frustrations, unexpected delights…. God is there gently calling the pilgrim by name to enter more deeply into relationship with

Mary as guide and inspiration.  Pilgrims are invited to reflect on where they see God in their journey; to what is God calling her or him and how they respond in trust to God as did Mary.

Returning from the time of pilgrimage the pilgrim is changed. She or he is open to responding more deeply to the word of which each is a part; more aware of the presence of God with and in them and in all creation.

Our pilgrimage for 2019 commences in Melbourne on 22 October and concludes in Sydney on 2 November. If you would like to join us please email us for further information and/or to request an Application Form.

Information is also available on the Mary MacKillop Place website.

Annie Bond rsj