The Catholic Wrap-up: But only up to a point
Yes, it is a quandary. You will be reading this in early March, after the Royal Commission’s Case Study 50, also called ‘the Catholic Wrap-up’, has finished. If I were to write nothing about it for this edition, that would seem very strange.
Dinia’s Story: Love your neighbour
With the support of Caritas Australia, women like Dinia are overcoming the challenges of poverty in the Philippines.
Catholic schools: great learning, great communities
Great schools create bright futures and for over 180 years, Catholic schools throughout the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle have educated thousands of students.
Calling a CatholicCare midwife!
Recently I received an email with the subject ‘Baby’. It caught my attention. Intrigued, as no one I knew was expecting a baby, I opened the email. The message that followed was succinct but powerful.
Exam results do not measure success in life
Q My son Jack has completed his first term of Year 12 and his anxiety levels are climbing. He has set himself high standards and wants to proceed to university. I want to support him and would appreciate some strategies, including how best to prepare him for the HSC exams.
Sisters give and receive joy in Forster Tuncurry
Josephite Religious Sisters Louise McDonell and Kathryn McCabe have lived in community together for 16 years and have become an integral part of the Catholic Parish of Forster Tuncurry. They have represented a continual Josephite presence in our community since the Sisters of St Joseph first came to the parish in 1958 to establish Holy Name Primary School at Forster.
Keeping Mercy in focus with the sweet taste of honey
The parishes of Taree and Wingham are operating a small-scale project to keep alive the message of the Year of Mercy.
“Volunteers always receive more than they give.”
In these days of digital communication, such ‘vintage’ items as a parish bulletin could be thought to be outmoded, but in fact a bulletin notice was the catalyst for Taree’s Maria Rohr to take a step away from her comfort zone.
Let's play; the possibilities are endless!
Albert Einstein believed that “Play is the highest form of research.”
Lachlan says,” When I play I use my imagination. You can do anything with it, because anything can happen in your imagination.”
Mia says, “You can share your imagination by whispering it in someone’s ear.”
Cloudy with a chance of insight
According to the Gospel writers, the Transfiguration was a cloudy occasion, as was the Ascension. The poet, Wordsworth, associated clouds with loneliness and clouds have frequently been favoured as subjects by painters.
Was the Holy Lamb of God on England’s pleasant pastures seen?
I want to begin with a few definitions of Anglicanism...
Mercy’s out of the box and it’s not going back!
For we who worship in the mainstream Christian churches, Matthew’s gospel is shaping our lives this year, definitively revealing Jesus as the living presence of God among us.
Families, not orphanages
During the ten years I worked in humanitarian and development programs in Asia and the Pacific, I saw increasing numbers of children in orphanages and began to ask ‘Why?’, knowing that orphanages no longer exist in Australia.
Experts warn against following overseas experience with euthanasia
The practice of euthanasia and assisted suicide overseas has been a disaster, with so-called safeguards failing and doctor-assisted killing on the rise, and not just for the terminally ill, says world-renowned ethicist Professor Margaret Somerville.
Grieve in writing, because it just might help
It was a clear intention of the Director of the Hunter Writers Centre, Karen Crofts, to use the verb ‘grieve’ in naming the Grieve Writing Competition. This title is the perfect clarion call for those who, for a multitude of emotional and creative reasons, unveil their deepest and most personal feelings about loss and grief through writing.
