For some, Easter is a day. For us it is a season. For St Augustine it is a sacrament.
Recently it seemed that Australia had a ‘Swift’ mania moment, with the visit of the American singer Taylor Swift. While knowing nothing about her music, the effects of her visit on so many are extraordinary.
Get The Southern Cross delivered straight to your inbox twice per month.
Thanks for signing up to the Southern Cross newsletter.
There is something refreshing that happens when a new year begins. It presents the opportunity to participate more deeply in God’s mercy as we set the counters back to zero and begin again. We can rule the line under the previous year and deepen our hope that the new year will be better, or at least different. We may express this hope in making new year resolutions; we may express this in just wanting this year to be better than last year.
Where is God? Who is God? These are questions that the heart of every human being asks at some stage of their life. We answer them in various ways.
My dear sisters and brothers in Christ, greeting from Rome. As I write these words, the first session of the XVI Synod of Bishops still has a full week to run.
‘You are part of Australia and Australia is part of you. And the Church herself in Australia will not be fully the Church that Jesus wants her to be until you have made your contribution to her life and until that contribution has been joyfully received by others.’ These words, spoken by Pope John Paul II, now a saint, on November 29 1986 in Alice Springs, form part of a longer address he gave that day to Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders in Blatherskite Park. Even though he did so 37 years ago, they are well worth reading and meditating by every Australian Catholic, particularly in the lead up to the referendum on October 14.
Get The Southern Cross delivered straight to your inbox twice per month.
Thanks for signing up to the Southern Cross newsletter.