That human beings are created “imago dei” is a central theme in Christianity (and Judaism). The belief conveys the fact that God’s love is written intentionally into human beings: in our ability to think, to make moral and other decisions and in our ability to form loving relationships with others. One of the problems we … Continue reading Saint Edith Stein: The Splendour of Friendship
~ This year Anima have been working with the Dominican Sisters of St Cecilia based here in Melbourne on a series of talks on what it means to be a woman in Christ with intelligent fidelity. The series, called "Lamps Alight", is held monthly at the parish of Keilor Downs in the west of Melbourne. … Continue reading Dignity of Women and the Order of Love – Lamps Alight
More than three decades have passed since Pope St. John Paul II asked that as part of the universal call to holiness, all would “acknowledge the indispensable contribution of women to the building up of the Church and the development of society.” As we emerge from the isolation and dislocation if the last years - … Continue reading Lamps Alight – Retreat this Saturday and More lined up for 2023
"Shhhhhhhhh! Nanna is saying her prayers!" My siblings and cousins and I had come inside the house with our boisterous game; not an unusual thing for us to do. It was her everyday habit to pray in her room after lunch for an hour or so. It was sacrosanct. It was ordinary How do we … Continue reading The worth of a Grandmother’s Prayers
The role of a mother is vast: a mother tends, nurtures, encourages, teaches, forms, corrects, cares for, protects, provides, calls forth, cleans, orders, cuddles, and repeats - every day, week in week out, month in month out, year in year out - for years!! Much of this activity is done alone. Much of her work … Continue reading Mothers need Mothering
Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum - Lk 1:38 FIAT. Such a small word meaning ‘let it be done’. It almost sounds weak and submissive, where could it possible fit into our world of Power-House Women? Surely, this phrase of ‘let it be done’ is more of a last resort - ‘I give up. Whatever happens, … Continue reading The Freedom of a Fiat
When Mary MacKillop was canonized in 2010 I was working at a Catholic bookshop in Melbourne. In the months leading up to the canonization the shop was inundated with every kind of Mary MacKillop piety that you can imagine. There were candles, key rings, bookmarks and medals but for some reason, in my mind, the … Continue reading This World is Not My Home – The Feast of St Mary of the Cross
In the modern Western Church calendar the 26th July is kept as the Feast of Saints Joachim and Anne, the grandparents of Jesus Christ and the holy parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary. For many centuries all over the Catholic and Byzantine world, St Anne has been one of the most intimate and popular saints. Wherever … Continue reading Grandmother of Christ – The Tradition of St Anne throughout the ages.
What do you get when you put a fiery redheaded Texan woman, her husband, their unlikely conversion to Catholicism, and their six children together? You get One Beautiful Dream, which tells the shambolic and endearing journey of Jennifer Fulwiler in writing her conversion story Something Other Than God. Yet her latest release is more than … Continue reading Cultivating The Passion In Your Heart is Not An Impossible Dream – Book Review
When Pietro Molla was first approached for his wife’s cause for canonization, he was very surprised. He replied, “Look, I know I married a fantastic woman. But she was so normal!” Their son, Pierluigi, later reflected that his father came from a generation where saints got their status from miracles and supernatural feats. Pietro’s wife, … Continue reading The Saints In Our Lives – St Gianna, the Saint of the “Ordinary Time”
