How Hospitality is the Gateway: A letter from Australia
My husband Ray and I arrived in Orange, (about 250 kms west of Sydney) in 2018. We were looking forward to retiring outside of the fast pace of Sydney city life. We hoped Orange, with a population of about 48,000, would offer country hospitality and friendliness.
At first our hopes were fulfilled, even at the local gym everyone was friendly, welcoming, and had time for a cuppa [cup of coffee/tea] after class. However, when we first attended St. Mary’s Catholic Church it was not welcoming at all. Everyone seemed in a rush to get in and then get out of Mass. This was a shock.
So, we went to the Uniting Church in Orange to see if this was just the culture of the churches in town. It could not have been more different. At the Uniting Church, we were welcomed at the door, introduced to people, offered a cup of tea/coffee after service and even a dinner invitation from the minister. I was also asked personally if I would like to attend a weekly Bible study. The hospitality was wonderful and made us feel at home.
But, despite the wonderful hospitality at the Uniting Church, we missed attending Mass.
An Easy Yoke: A Focus on Rest
For those in the Northern Hemisphere, August marks the peak of summer, a time when many–including priests– schedule their “break.”
But this rest can often equal a burn-out coma or an overscheduled “holiday” only to return to the same hamster-wheel pace.
Father Peirluigi Vajra CRS, a DR coached Parish Priest at Our Lady of Lourdes in Perth, Australia, shares his journey in experiencing rest as something more than just “not-working”. Like many priests – his workload is great, and rest does not come easily. But in his 28 years as a priest, he has come to recognize the profound value of prioritizing rest.
Faith on Fire: A Focus on the 2023 DR Australasia Conference
The conference started with a priest-only session led by Father James Mallon. During the hymn ‘Here I am Lord,’ DR staff member Anushka Peiris recalls standing in the back watching. “I just had such a grateful heart in that moment for all our priests.” Cheryl Surrey agrees, “Looking around at these sparkling wet eyes looking back at you… you could have cut the atmosphere with a knife, it was so beautiful.”
Not Alone on the Journey: A Story from New Zealand
A year ago Father Sherwin’s blood pressure was unstable. Within 5 weeks he had lost a significant amount of weight. Then an ECG showed that he had had a minor heart attack. Next, his childhood asthma came back, and he struggled with diverticulitis. A diagnostic journey began as he was sent from one specialist to the next, through test after test.
All of this happened within a year of Father Sherwin becoming the new Pastor of St. Mark Catholic Mission Parish in Pakuranga, New Zealand. “This is where Divine Renovation came in,” he says.
At the Door: A Story from New Zealand
Emily Sit would define herself as a door stop.
From the function of the pews to the beauty of the stained-glass windows, the church building is a metaphor for the diversity of the gifts of the people that make it up; the people who transform it from a building to the Church. Just as each support beam and every floorboard are needed for the building to be whole, so too, the Church: people individually gifted, collectively called.
And Emily is a door stop.
