The 8th of February is the Feast of St Josephine Bakhita – the Patron Saint of Human Trafficking. She was a Sudanese nun who lived very traumatic experiences of human trafficking at a young age. Over the course of 12 years after being kidnapped, she was sold, bought, and given away a number of times, beaten, incapacitated, whipped, cut, and suffered well over 100 physical scars from all this abuse, as well as the emotional and mental scars that would follow.
Education is a human right, a public good, and a public responsibility – UNESCO
15 years ago, the United Nations General Assembly marked the 24th of January as the International Day of Education. The purpose of this day is to raise awareness about the importance of inclusive and equitable quality education for all and taking the necessary steps to achieve this. This year’s theme is ‘to invest in people, prioritize education’. Let’s take a look at the facts from the UNESCO website.
St Agnes (Saint Agnes of Rome) is known as the patron saint for young girls. She was martyred at the age of 12 or 13, for her strong belief in God, and denied all requests for marriage. She is often pictured with a lamb, symbolising her purity. We celebrate her feast day on the 21st of January.
On the 31st of December 2022, the world lost an extraordinary human, Pope emeritus Benedict. His final words “Lord, I love you.”, will be remembered by all. His funeral will take place on the 5th of Jan, 9:30 am Rome time, held in St Peter’s Square, and will be presided over by Pope Francis. He will be buried in his vestments that he wore in 2008 for World Youth Day, celebrated in Sydney.
“Fellow Worker in the Truth” – Benedict XVI’s Episcopal motto.
With Christmas approaching quickly, we are seeing many symbols that we often only really see at Christmas time, such as Christmas trees, candy canes, wreaths and the combination of red and green. There is though a very important Christian symbol, that has an extensive amount of meaning – the Nativity Scene.
On the 10th of December each year, we set aside this day to reflect on the principles that form the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which sets certain rights that are the basic and minimum set of human rights for all citizens.
December the 8th, we celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Many people assume the Immaculate Conception refers to the conception of Jesus, but it is in fact the conception of Mary herself.
This year, Advent begins on Sunday the 27th of November. During the time between then and Christmas, we prepare for the coming of Jesus. To assist you help your students prep for the coming of Jesus, we have created this interactive Advent calendar to allow you to engage through personal prayer and reflection. Please see below.
World Youth Day is the largest gathering of youth in the world, seeing thousands each time, and in past years, millions. Australia was fortunate enough to host WYD in Sydney, in 2008. Although its Catholic identity is clearly evident, WYD opens its doors to everyone, no matter how close to or distance from the Church they are.
