At a time when COVID19 has taken 50,000 lives – including 20 Australians – so far and isolated us in our homes like frightened apostles, we can be rather anxious, even morbid.

This is not the first time that the public celebration of Mass has been impossible in Australia. In fact it’s the fifth time. For the Aborigines of the East coast of Australia, ‘first contact’ with Christianity was the arrival of James Cook’s expedition exactly 250 years ago next month.

Armageddon. There have been many signs of it lately: drought, bushfires, dry lightning, hailstones, now plague.

Armageddon. There have been many signs of it lately: drought, bushfires, dry lightning, hailstones, now plague. COVID-19 has killed, infected or isolated people, and put much of ordinary life on hold.

Ecology, ecowarriors, ecoterrorists, climate change campaigners, climate change deniers, environmental science, even environmental ethics.

We all know the stories of St Joseph: the long telling of his family tree; the Betrothal to the Blessed Virgin; the Annunciation by an angel in a dream; the journey to Bethlehem

At last month’s Academy Awards Joaquin Phoenix was awarded best actor for his performance in the psychological thriller Joker.

New beginnings. The first Christians experienced the encounter with Christ as so inside-outing that they compared it with being born again

In the lead up to Mary MacKillop’s canonisation journalists and faithful asked: what is a saint, who decides and how? Is MacKillop someone we all can be proud of, or only Catholics or Josephites?