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.
“The best way to describe a megalopsychos is his body is not big enough to contain his soul – someone whose soul, whose capacity for goodness, whose compassion, whose virtue is so great that it just bursts out of them. Such people do exist, but they are very rare. And I met my first and only megalopsychos in Fr Leo Donnelly.” – Bishop Greg Homeming.
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Flanders fields is a well-known memorial poem, written by John McCrae, a Canadian doctor and teacher who served in WW1. It is often read aloud during services for Remembrance Day, which is coming up on the 11th of November (this year, on a Friday). For an in-depth explanation and analysis of the poem, view here.
All Souls’ Day, celebrated on the 2nd of November, is a day where Christian communities remember their deceased family and friends. In Catholic belief, the soul of a person goes to 1-of-3 places: heaven, hell, or purgatory.
There are more than 10,000 Saints recognised in the Catholic Church. To celebrate each one of them, on the 1st of November, we celebrate All Saints Day. This day is to venerate all the holy men and woman that were canonized by the Church. The first Saint, St Ulrich of Augsburg was canonised in 993, and more recently, St Carlos Acutis canonised in 2020.