Hello for another week, coming to you from a very hot Melbourne. We are hunckered down in the air-conditioning trying to keep ourselves from melting! Hope that you, wherever you are in Australia and even New Zealand, are surviving ok and that your electricity hasn't decided to pack it in. Burnout. It seems to be … Continue reading Around the Web – Week 3, 2018
Vice driven decisions begin slowly, like a small snowball, as it begins its descent down the steep slope. Then, as vice feeds upon vice the snowball grows to gigantic proportions and travels at extreme speed before it crashes spectacularly at the base of the mountain, causing untold damage to village below. Our culture, like the … Continue reading Cultivating Virtue Unearths Life’s Purpose
Welcome to the first Around The Web for 2018. We let the page go a little quiet over the Christmas/New Year break after all our frenzied activity during Advent. We hope you had a blessed Christmas and feel ready to tackle whatever it is that 2018 throws at you! As we are still within the … Continue reading Around the Web – Week 1, 2018
Last week, we connected the Gifts of the Magi to the Child Jesus, and myrrh as it was used in the Biblical text both medicinally, in funerary practices. We also reflected upon the significance of myrrh in title of the women disciples of Jesus who are called in the Byzantine Christian tradition “The Holy Myrrh-Bearers. … Continue reading Frankincense and the Joy of Dedication
The birth of Christ has inspired musicians and composers through the millennia. There are many beautiful musical traditions in our churches and culture today, even if our current western culture sometimes gets a little confused as to when Christmas time actually begins! It is often a good way to connect with other Christian denominations and … Continue reading Around the Web – An Advent/Christmas Music Edition
Professor Nicholas Tonti-Filippini was a dynamo of generous encouragement with a mind and a heart to match. This month is the third anniversary of his death after a 25 year struggle with debility, pain and illness. At the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family he spent his last years spurring us all on to heighten … Continue reading Around The Web – Special Edition. In Memoriam Nicholas Tonti-Filippini
In 1991 the Australian political scientist, sociologist and historian, Paul Duffy SJ, concluded his major study1 of the role and nature of the media by arguing that if Catholics are to take the Gospel seriously, they also needed to take the media seriously. In his book, Paul Duffy proposed a three-point strategy. Firstly Christians needed … Continue reading Mindful Twittering
How often when we congratulate another’s success or admire someone’s latest acquisition, do we say ‘you're lucky’. In saying these words in some way we want to recognise that this person has been given some terrific gift, whether it be due to their own hard work and accomplishment or to some other circumstance. But do … Continue reading You’re So Lucky… I mean Blessed!
Over twenty years ago, St John Paul II wrote in his Apostolic Letter on the Dignity and Vocation of Women (Mulieris Dignitatem): ‘From the beginning of Christ’s mission, women show to him and to his mystery a special sensitivity which is characteristic of their femininity. It must also be said that this is especially confirmed in … Continue reading Our Patronesses
