Advent is slipping away: one week more and then Christmas. The candles of the wreath have changed colour: violet to rose and soon to Christmas white or gold, and we’re moving through the advent themes represented in the candles: hope, peace, joy and love, writes CRA President Br Peter Carroll FMS.

Australian Religious are preparing to sign on to Pope Francis’ ‘bottom-up’, global networking initiative, inspired by his encyclical Laudato Si’, to engage Catholics around the world in taking practical steps towards a lifestyle of ecological integrity for a sustainable future.

This year many people are approaching Christmas Day both with longing and a little hesitation. For two years the things that we take for granted at Christmas have been under threat. Family gatherings and reunions have been limited by restrictions. So have the buying of gifts, travel over holiday time, and gatherings at the beach. This year it is easy to feel the pull between going back with greater enthusiasm to what we did before and the desire, fuelled by the discoveries we have made during the lockdowns, to find new and perhaps more simple ways of celebrating Christmas, writes Fr Andrew Hamilton SJ.

What a wonderful collection of reflections we have had on Saint Joseph to mark the 150th year of St Joseph being declared Patron of the Universal Church. Launched on 8 December 2020, this special year concluded on 8 December 2021, writes Sister Monica Cavanagh RSJ.

A generous $100,000 donation from a member of the Catholic community has helped turn a new, Northern Sydney house – a work of the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul - into a ‘real’ home for five women with disabilities.