Archive for August 2012
2012 September
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Read MorePrayer Space
One of the best ways to help your children grow in faith is to teach them to pray. There are many ways to pray as a family and it is good to have both regular routines and variety.
Read More2012 August
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Read MoreFamily Rituals
Rituals are tremendously important in family life. Many of our fondest memories of our childhood relate to family rituals, like long Christmas lunches, Sunday walks on the beach, buying ice-creams after Mass, praying the Rosary or reading bedtime stories together. Rituals nurture the emotional and spiritual health of the family. They promote belonging and intimacy…
Read MoreReclaiming Halloween
Like it or loath it, there’s no escaping the marketing presence of Halloween. Parents are wise to approach this festival with caution. The practice of trick-or-treating can lead children into a mind-set of greed and an expectation of free handouts. Further, the association of Halloween with pagan ritual can feed an unhealthy fascination with the…
Read MoreA Mother’s Heart
For more than forty years I have been honouring my mother on Mothers’ Day, yet it has never really occurred to me to honour the woman who is both perfect mother and heavenly mother: Mary. She truly is ‘blest among women’ for she surpasses all the wonderful and loving contributions made to my life by…
Read MoreUnderstanding the Trinity
The Feast of the Trinity always follows on the Sunday after Pentecost and represents a central belief of our faith. While there are three distinct and individual divine persons, they are so deeply bonded by their love for each other that they operate with one mind and heart. We often refer to the ‘mystery’ of the…
Read MoreSt Pope John XXIII’s Prayer for Fathers
Saint Joseph, Guardian of Jesus and chaste husband of Mary, you passed your life in loving fulfillment of duty. You supported the holy family of Nazareth with the work of your hands. Kindly protect those who trustingly come to you. You know their aspirations, their hardships, their hopes. They look to you because they know…
Read MoreCouple’s Corner September
How Mums can Draw Forth the Best from Dad Despite that fact that nagging is totally ineffective in motivating the men in our lives to do want we want, we women are sometimes slow learners! Instead of trying a different strategy, what do we do? We nag harder, louder and more shrilly. And when this…
Read MoreThe Daddy Difference
Studies have highlighted the impact of fathers as distinct to that of mothers on children’s development. By Marilyn Rodriguez A person is singing in my dream, very loudly, and doesn’t stop. Then I realise it isn’t singing, it’s one of my children calling out in the night. I untangle myself from bed and stagger, half…
Read MoreSt Mary of the Cross Mackillop
For the first time, on August 8, 2011, the universal Church will honour Australia’s first saint, St Mary of the Cross MacKillop. It has always been her feast day, but from this year the liturgical observance of this feast will be raised to a ‘solemnity’. What is a solemnity? A solemnity is the highest rank…
Read MoreFeast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
A look at scripture and tradition can take us back to the feast of the sacred heart of Jesus and give our devotion new life. Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is not nearly as popular today as a couple of generations ago, when almost every Catholic at least knew about the nine first…
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