Saint Nicholas (Santa Claus)
2020-12-06 00:00 - 23:59 (Australia/Sydney)
Children all over the world know him and love him. In Germany, he’s Kriss Kringle. In France, he’s Pere Noel. British children call him Father Christmas. Of course, you know him as Santa Claus.

He’s got another name – it’s an ancient one that goes back hundreds of years. It’s one of the very first names people called him: St. Nicholas. St. Nicholas was the bishop of Myra which is in the country we now call Turkey. Nicholas was loved for one reason. He loved. He loved God and God’s people so much that he would do anything for them.

St. Nicholas showed his gratitude for God’s gifts by giving to others. What gifts can your family share with those in need?

Source: Loyola Press.

1965: Vatican II Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes ('Joys and Hopes')
2020-12-07 00:00 - 23:59
“The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the people of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ.” (#1) – Second Vatican Council, 1965

The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes was promulgated by Pope Paul VI on 7 December 1965. Read an introduction to Gaudium et Spes here.

The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
2020-12-08 00:00 - 23:59

Our Lady of Guadalupe
2020-12-12 00:00 - 23:59
“The feast in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe goes back to the 16th century. Mary appeared to Juan Diego dressed as an Aztec woman to show her love and compassion to an oppressed group of people. Mary had heard the prayers and pain of these people, and she came to give them hope. Mary’s visit to Guadalupe is a reminder that God will remember his mercy for all people. In Mary’s song of joy, the Magnificat, she praised God because he has put down the mighty, exalted the lowly, filled the hungry, and sent the rich away empty. People honor Our Lady of Guadalupe because they recognize her motherly concern for them.” Loyola Press

1831: Founding of Sisters of Mercy by Catherine McAuley
2020-12-12 00:00 - 23:59
Catherine McAuley was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1778. In 1824 she used her inheritance from an Irish couple she had served for twenty years to build a large House of Mercy where she and other lay women would shelter homeless women, reach out to the sick and dying and educate poor girls. The House on Baggot Street opened in 1827. To give these efforts greater stability, Catherine and her co-workers founded a new religious congregation. On 12 December 1831, she and two others professed their vows as the first Sisters of Mercy. Before her death on 11 November 1841, Catherine founded convents and works of mercy throughout Ireland and England.

Source: Mercy International Association

Saint John the Cross
2020-12-14 00:00 - 23:59

Christmas Eve
2020-12-24 00:00 - 23:59

Christmas Day
2020-12-25 00:00 - 23:59
“The face of God has been revealed in a human face. It did not appear in an angel, but in one man, born in a specific time and place. By his incarnation, the Son of God tells us that salvation comes through love, acceptance, respect for this poor humanity of ours, which we all share in a great variety of races, languages, and cultures. Yet all of us are brothers and sisters in humanity! Our differences, then, are not a detriment or a danger; they are a source of richness. As when an artist is about to make a mosaic: it is better to have tiles of many colours available, rather than just a few! The experience of families teaches us this: as brothers and sister, we are all different from each other. We do not always agree, but there is an unbreakable bond uniting us, and the love of our parents helps us to love one another. The same is true for the larger human family, but here, God is our ‘parent’, the foundation and strength of our fraternity.” Pope Francis, Urbi et Orbi, Christmas Day, 2018.

2005: Pope Benedict's XVI's encyclical Deus Cartias Est ('God is Love')
2020-12-25 00:00 - 23:59
Prayer of Pope Benedict from Deus Caritas Est

Holy Mary, Mother of God,
you have given the world its true light,
Jesus, your Son - the Son of God.
You abandoned yourself completely,
to God's call
and thus became a wellspring
of the goodness which flows forth from him.
Show us Jesus. Lead us to him.
Teach us to know and love him,
so that we too can become
capable of true love
and be fountains of living water
in the midst of a thirsty world.

Benedict XVI, Caritas Deus Est, n 42

Read full text of Deus Caritas Est (‘God is Love’) by Pope Benedict XVI.

1987: Pope John Paul II's encyclical Sollicitudo Rei Socialis ('On Social Concerns')
2020-12-30 00:00 - 23:59
“Pope John Paul II’s 1987 social encyclical Sollicitudo rei Socialis marks the twentieth anniversary of Populorum Progressio. Sollicitudo rei Socialis is also known by the English title On Social Concerns. It was the first major Catholic Social Teaching document to mark the anniversary of a social encyclical other than Rerum Novarum.” Source: Social Spirituality

Read an introduction to Sollicitudo rei Socialis

Read full text of Sollicitudo Rei Socialis

World Day of Peace
2021-01-01 08:00 - 17:00
Pope Paul VI instituted the World Day of Peace in 1968. It is celebrated each year on 1 January and the Pope issues a special World Day of Peace Message for the occasion.

The theme for the World Day of Peace Message 2021 is A Culture of Care as a Path to Peace. Pope Francis begins by reflecting that 2020 has shown us “how important it is to care for one another and for creation”. Hence he proposes a culture of care “as a way to combat the culture of indifference, waste and confrontation so prevalent in our time”.

In the Message Pope Francis traces how care and protection, love and compassion permeate the Christian story from creation, throughout the life and ministry of Jesus, in the early church and as the “beating heart of the Church’s social doctrine” today.

The full text of the Message is available here. Download our Discussion Guide here.

You can find Pope Francis’ World Day of Peace Messages here.

St Francis de Sales
2021-01-24 00:00 - 23:59
St Francis de Sales is the patron saint of journalists.

Fake news is not new as Dr Margaret van Heekeren noted at the launch of the Social Justice Statement 2019-20.

‘A week after Easter, 85 years ago in 1934, the then Pope, Pius XI, gave an historic audience to all foreign press correspondents in Rome – about 73 journalists, responsible for providing news from the Vatican to more than 5,000 newspapers around the world. Described as an ‘innovation’ by the London Times, the papal audience can also be regarded as a political move. As historical research reveals, the Vatican had, by this time, long been the subject of fake news, much of it shared on wire services around the globe. Throughout the early 1900s fake stories included a proposal to edit the Bible, the false report of a petition by French priests calling for their vow of celibacy to be dispensed and even an invented interview with Pope Pius X.’ Margaret van Heekeren, Launch of the Social Justice Statement 2019-20.

1959 Pope John XXIII announces intention to convoke the Second Vatican Council
2021-01-25 00:00 - 23:59

World Interfaith Harmony Week
2021-02-01 08:00 - 2021-02-07 17:00

St Paul Miki & Companions
2021-02-06 00:00 - 23:59

Word of God Sunday
2021-02-07 08:00 - 17:00
The Word of God Sunday is devoted to the celebration, study and dissemination of the Word of God. We will celebrate it in Australia for the first time on 7 February. So our podcast, The Revolution of Tenderness, will consider the Word of God in Catholic Social Teaching. With help from Scripture scholars, we will explore passages of Scripture that are quoted in Catholic Social Teaching documents.

Episode 1 features Professor Mary Coloe.

St Josephine Bakhita
2021-02-08 00:00 - 23:59
St Josephine Bakhita was kidnapped as a child and sold into slavery. Her feast day is now observed as the International Day of Prayer and Awareness Against Human Trafficking. The video below outlines her story.

Download Resources

The Diocese of Parramatta, which includes a significant Sudanese community, has prepared a range of resources for the celebration of the feast of St Josephine Bakhita. They include a poster, social media tile, bulletin notice, homily notes and prayers of the faithful. Catholics in the Diocese of Parramatta are encouraged on this day to pray for all those affected by the crimes of modern slavery and human trafficking, and the people that volunteer and work to eradicate this crime. Join them by downloading resources here.

The following prayer was prepared by Australian Catholic Religious Against Trafficking in Humans.

Prayer for All Who are Trafficked

We pray for all who are trafficked. We ask, Lord, that you strengthen the fragile-spiritedand broken-hearted.We pray earnestly that all who suffer the loss of freedomand the indignity of being used to serve the need and greed of otherswill be freed and find freedom in a home where they are respected.Let them experience a love that is tender and good. We pray for all who exploit others,that their evil deeds will be exposedand that their hearts will be changed.We pray for ourselves, who live in safety and peacewith more than we needand for all who work against trafficking in humans:give us the wisdom and courageto stand in solidarity with all who suffer lack of human dignity.Help all who work against human trafficking to find waysto ensure for all the freedom that is your gift to all of us.We make our prayer through Christ Our Lord.Amen. https://acrath.org.au/prayer-for-anti-trafficking-advocates/

World Day of Prayer for the Sick
2021-02-11 00:00 - 23:59
Prayer Card from Catholic Health AustraliaDownload

The World Day of Prayer for the Sick was initiated by St John Paul II in 1992. It coincides with the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.

Pope Francis’ messages for the World Day of the Sick can be found here.

Catholic trivia: did you know that Pope Benedict XVI announced his decision to resign as Pope on this day in 2013 citing his failing health as the reason?

1979: Redemptor Hominis (Redeemer of Man) encyclical issued by St John Paul II
2021-03-04 00:00 - 23:59

2011: Fukushima Earthquake and Tsunami
2021-03-11 00:00 - 23:59
On this day an earthquake and tsunami in Fukushima Prefecture in Japan killed 18,500 people. Damage to a nuclear power plant in this event caused widespread contamination and the displacement of thousands of people. Reflecting on these events, the Catholic Bishops Conference of Japan called for the abolition on nuclear power:

We, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Japan, appeal to all people who share our common home called Earth that we join hands, rise together and act in solidarity to end nuclear power generation. For that purpose, we turn first to the Catholic Church throughout the world, seeking cooperation and solidarity. Then, building on that, we hope to develop a global solidarity that transcends religions, races and nations. Catholic Bishops Conference of Japan

2013: Election of Pope Francis
2021-03-13 08:00 - 17:00

St Patrick
2021-03-17 00:00 - 23:59

2019: Death of Deacon Boniface Perdjert
2021-03-18 00:00 - 23:59
Deacn Boniface, a respected Elder and the first Aboriginal permanent deacon, passed away in 2019. As the national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council’s tribute page for Deacon Boniface says:

His words and actions spoke loudly to the members of the Wadeye Community – of which he was a deeply loved and respected Elder – but also to the Catholic Hierarchy with whom he shared his wisdom on many official occasions. http://www.natsicc.org.au/a-tribute-to-deacon-boniface.html

On the first anniversary of Deacon Boniface’s death we share for your reflection these words that he wrote in the later 1970s:

God did not begin to take an interest in people with the incarnation of his Son, nor with Abraham. My people existed here in Australia thousands of years before Abraham. In all that time God was with my people. He worked through their culture. He was saving us despite human weakness. He was preparing us for the day when he would see the features of Aboriginals in the image of his Son. So i must recognize, I must use the things of God that are in my culture. I mus use them in his service. If I do not do this, my faith and my service are shallow. They are pretending. They belong to someone else, not me. God has asked us t love him with wjhole mind, heart and soul. So i must give myself to God as an Aboriginal. This is what God wants or he would not have made me what I am. http://www.natsicc.org.au/a-tribute-to-deacon-boniface.html

1866: Beginning of Sisters of St Joseph at Penola, SA
2021-03-19 00:00 - 23:59

St Oscar Romero
2021-03-24 00:00 - 23:59

1967: Populorum Progressio (On the Progress of Peoples) encyclical issued by St Paul VI
2021-03-26 00:00 - 23:59

St Isidore, patron saint of the internet
2021-04-04 00:00 - 23:59
In 1997 Pope John Paul II declared Isidore of Seville the patron saint of the internet. Isidore was a scholar with encyclopedic knowledge. In his writings he sought to collect, systematize and synthesize all existing knowledge.

Speaking at a General Audience on 18 June 2008, Pope Benedict XVI, highlighted how Isidore combined contemplation and action. He went on to quote Isidore:

Therefore let the servant of God, imitating Christ, dedicate himself to contemplation without denying himself active life. Behaving otherwise would not be right. Indeed, just as we must love God in contemplation, so we must love our neighbour with action. It is therefore impossible to live without the presence of both the one and the other form of life, nor can we live without experiencing both the one and the other. http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2008/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20080618.html

Prayer Seeking the Intercession of St Isidore

Almighty and eternal Godwho has created us in thine imageand bade us to seek after all that is good, true and beautiful,especially in the divine person of Thy only-begotten Son,Our Lord Jesus Christ,grant we beseech Thee that through the intercession of St Isidore, bishop and doctor,during our journeys through the internetwe will direct our hand and eyesonly to that which is pleasing to Theeand treat with charity and patience all those soulswhom we encounter.Father, we ask you this, through Christ Our Lord.Amen

World Youth Day
2021-04-05 00:00 - 23:59
World Youth Day is celebrated every year in local churches and every two or three years at the international level. The theme for 2020 is “Young man, I tell you, arise!” (Lk 7,14). Lisbon, Portugal will host the next international gathering for World Youth Day in 2022.

1963: Pacem in Terris published by Pope John XXIII
2021-04-11 00:00 - 23:59
The encyclical Pacem in Terris is known in English as Peace on Earth. It was published in 1963 in the wake of the Cuban missile crisis. You can read an introduction to the encyclical and find a link to the full text here.

Pacem in Terris focuses on issues of peace in a nuclear age. It revisits the application of the just war theory criteria in the light of the development of these new weapons of mass destruction. It examines the relationships among human beings, relationships between citizens and public authorities, relationships between states, and finally, relationships among the people and states in the international community. It sets out rights and duties in all of these areas. While Pope Pius XII was so disappointed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that he passed it over in silence, John XXIII welcomed and affirmed a broad range of human rights in this encyclical. It was seen as a Catholic charter of human rights. Sandie Cornish, Introduction to Pacem in Terris.

Prayer

Jesus, Prince of Peace,
banish from our souls
whatever might endanger peace.

Transform us into witnesses
of truth, justice and love.

Enlighten the minds of rulers
that they may care for their peoples
and guarantee them the gift of peace.

Inflame our desires
to break through the barriers that divide us,
to strengthen the bonds of mutual love,
to learn to understand one another,
to pardon those who have done us wrong.

Jesus, Prince of Peace,
through your power and inspiration,
may all peoples welcome each other to their hearts
as sisters and brothers.
And may the peace they long for
ever flower and ever reign among them.

AMEN

An Advent Prayer for Peace, by Sandie Cornish, adapted from Pacem in Terris n 171

1841: Death of St Peter Chanel in the New Hebrides (Vanuatu)
2021-04-28 00:00 - 23:59
St Peter Chanel was a Marist priest and the first martyr of the South Pacific. Read more about his life here.

Prayer to St Peter Chanel

You left your homelandto proclaim Jesus, Saviour of the world,to the peoples of Oceania. Guided by the Spirit of God,who is the strength of the gentle,you bore witness to love,even laying down your life.Grant that, like you,we may live our daily life in peace, in joy,and in fraternal love.May your prayer and examplecall forth from our midstmany workers for the Gospelso that God’s Kingdom may reachto the ends of the earth.Amen.
