Summer 2017

The Society of Jesus in Victoria, Jesuit Communications Christmas Raffle 2017 Drawn on Thursday 7 December, 2017 (Permit No 10679/17 issued 29 August, 2017).

So many of our happy memories seem bathed in sunlight and warmth. Summer is a time that allows us to enjoy the outdoors, as the long lazy days of January follow the Christmas rush with holidays, and we make plans and resolutions for the year to come.

While travelling with my young brother and sister-in-law in North Cornwall in early 2003 on a bitterly cold January day, I went into a shop in the beautiful little fishing village of Padstow to look at some antiques. 

Jesuit winemaker Brother John May SJ has retired after more than 50 years at Sevenhill in South Australia. He is now living in Sydney, but there's a place there for him to make one final return to his home of so many years.

Dear Charlotte, Recently, your Mimi and I were talking about family history.

Margaret Kennedy fcJ died suddenly on 13 March while she was holidaying at Sorrento. She was in her ninetieth year and had given seventy years of service to education as an FCJ Sister.

In Advent, amidst the tinsel and noisy bustle, we invite you to pause and reflect on the great mystery of God's love for Creation - so deep, and so tender that God chose to enter the world as one of us. We pray to discern God's traces in our shadowed world.

Christmas is a time for homecoming. But for adults, it is also edged with sadness. No matter how happy is the celebration it is always edged by longing for the Christmases of childhood.