The Communion of Saints
You, Dear Reader, know many things that I don’t. You know, for example, whether Trump won the American election, or at least whether there has yet been a final result. I am stuck in the past, in October. I don’t even know the result of that other first Tuesday race, the Melbourne Cup. You know, but you can’t tell me. Not now, not as I sit here writing. What you know is still in the future for me, still uncertain.
Dry-land dreaming
Many people have felt all at sea coping with the pandemic. But spare a thought for the world’s seafarers. They have been stranded at sea for most of this year.
Call of the spirit answered
"It felt like coming home."
Nicole Murphy describes her experience of completing initiation into the Catholic Church 36 years after being baptised.
Cure presents conundrum
The prospect of a vaccine against COVID-19 raises our hopes for a recovery from the hardships and inconveniences of living with a pandemic. However, it also presents us with some ethical questions worth careful thought. Let me mention just two.
Schools can counter pessimism
Hope is God’s gift to us. But because it is a virtue, it is a gift that has to be cultivated, nurtured and practiced … (Paul J. Wadell, 2016 in Hope: The forgotten virtue of our time)
Signalling virtue and unmasking vice
It’s not hard to stand out in a crowd. You don’t need beauty or fame. Just keep wearing your facemask when those around have given up on theirs.
Language of respect unites
When Judy met Mick in 1964 they began dating; however, she was not convinced they would last long.
Fratelli Tutti: Pope Francis delivers new teaching
Pope Francis has delivered a message to the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics and people of goodwill everywhere which aims to soothe the fear caused by the coronavirus pandemic and unite communities riven by racism, inequality and climate change.
Looking for the perfect match
The gift of blood can mean so much to so many. For Jennifer Boulton, it is the decision to go one step further and become a bone marrow donor that can be a truly life changing choice and one she encourages people to make.
Incarcerating youngsters is no solution
In 1996, I responded to a NSW Department of Juvenile Justice positions vacant advert for the role of Senior Youth Worker at what was then the Worimi Juvenile Detention Centre in Broadmeadow.
Restraint has its own power
Virtues are good habits or dispositions. They are ways of being that predispose us to doing the morally right thing.
