I have enjoyed reading many blogs that have had the 7 facts meme so I thought I would have a questions post.
If you have anything you want to know about me, my family and the Australian way of life, now is your chance to ask away.
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Please pray for a cure for Type One Diabetes
Our sons Tom and Christopher and our daughter Amelia are type one diabetics. We pray everyday for a cure. We do not want one by illicit means though so don't support any organisation that contributes to Embryonic Stem Cell Research. Click on the photo of Tom and Christopher to read about why I am against using Embryonic Stem cells for a cure.
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Tom's and Christopher's insulin pump
New book: Faith Quilt.
All proceeds from sales of "FAITH QUILT" going to "Casa de Amor Children's Homes in Bolivia" and "Sarah's Covenant Homes in India" Two truly extraordinary organisations that take in the most needy children and give them a place of love and security to call home.
17 comments:
I so enjoyed your email with the news and answers to my questions about your part of the world! Being pen pals and Sisters in our Faith is such an enormous blessing! Wouldn't it be the best if we could meet some day? Who knows! Enjoy your school break and cook something special for me and tell me how it comes out!!
Love you,
Abbey
Oh Abbey,
If you are ever able to come down under, we would welcome you here. I love the contact I have with other Catholic women over the internet. They are encouraging to me.
If we don't meet here, we can hope to meet in heaven one day.
PS, if I ever get to come to The United States I will definitely look you up and hopefully we can meet.
I have a question for you...
I've tagged you on my blog -- will you do the meme? :-D
Okay, here is one: describe church life in Australia! I don't mean the ins-and-outs of politics but what is going to Mass like where you live?? Are there weekday Masses?? Devotions (Rosary, etc)?? Study groups??
Our parish has weekday masses regularly. There is a group that meet once a month to pray the rosary and a women's theology group. I haven't been able to get to either the rosary group or the theology group. The theology group is following a program from one of the Queensland diocese. I am not sure which one.
Our parish doesn't have a regular confession time scheduled. The priest will hear confession but we have to make an appointment for it. My impression is that many of the parishioners are very ignorant of church teaching and it wouldn't surprise me if many of them haven't ever read any papal encyclical.In the last year we have had the third rite of reconciliation during lent and Advent. At the weekday masses, there is a hand full of older retired people and me with the children. On Friday night, Mass is at 5.45 and there will be a couple of sister's there but still the majority of people will be older retired ones.
Queensland, eh??? Interesting! Who leads the Theology Group??
We have Rosary before every Mass and Benediction after Mass on Fridays. Reconciliation is Saturday morning and before the Vigil for half an hour. I personally think an hour a week is not enough time for Confession but such is life. No Third Rite in Melbourne but I know that country diocese have need of it. But I am way too old-fashioned to even consider it! :)
The theology group was started a couple of years ago by the parish assistant. She was working full time then and ran all the sacramental preparations. She no longer works at the parish and as far as I know another parishioner has taken over leading it.
What is the hottest weather ( temperature)you have experienced? And what is the coldest?
Do you have a desire to travel outside of Australia? If so what country would that be?
What are Aussie's most known for?
God Bless!
Kathleen,
I will answer you. I have a few things to do now and my daughter wants to get on computer so I am not ignoring you.
God bless
Therese
I think a lot of us from the states refer to Australia as "down under". Is that ok or does it bug you guys?
and
Is Catholicism a large religion in Australia or relatively small in comparison to another? Which is the most "popular" religion in your country?
Fun post. Very interactive, great idea.
Kathy,
We have very hot summers here. It can be as hot as 113 here on an extreme day. In winter the mornings are very cold with the coldest being around 26. Our winter days are very warm though and will get up to around 64 or so.
I would love to travel outside Australia. My dream holiday would be a trip to the Vatican and visits to some of our Ladies Shrines. Especially, Fatima, Lourdes and Knock. I would also love to come to America and meet all my online friends.
Australians are generally very friendly people. If someone from a different country needed help with directions or anything else I think most would help them. We enjoy BBQ's and socializing. Football is a big sport here and many Australians would follow a team in The Australian Football League. I follow the Crows.
Melissa,
I think most Australians like being called from Down Under. It probably is a term of endearment for many.
I had to go searching for statistics of Religions and this is what I found.
Go here to read stats
70% of people describe themselves as Christians.
Of those 70%, 26% of them are Catholic.
I understand that Aussies love horse racing. Have you ever gone to the races?
Is there Latin Mass in your parish? Would you go if there was?
Shirley,
Growing up, horse racing was a big part of my family. My father was particularly fond of going to the horse races.
I wrote about it here
There is no Latin Mass in our whole diocese as far as I know. If we had one, I would be there. I really would like to see what one is like. They have a regular one in Adelaide that maybe we will be able to get to sometime when we are in Adelaide.
Therese
what would be your casual appraisal of americans as a society - not your obviously great blogging friends, but as a whole?
many of us fear the devil resides here more than many other places - many in our society seem to welcome him and his minions.
i love your family portrait - i use one as the banner header on my site.
if you check it out, i'm the tall old guy in the center of the back row - wife and me; three children, their spouses; three grandchildren.
pix was taken almost 2 years ago at a surprise dinner our children arranged for us on our 40th wedding anniversary - so we are OLD now.
My casual appearance of Americans is very limited outside Blogs and online Catholic Communities. From what I have seen though it looks like to me that many Catholics are either very faithful or very unfaithful. There seems to be no middle ground which I really like. It seems to me that with Americans you know if someone is faithful or if they are not. Over here, it is harder to tell I think.
Thanks for the compliment about the family portrait. Fr. Speekman took that photo. Unfortunately two of our children were at work that day so it only had the 5 younger ones in it. I am hoping to have a family photo taken on Mother's day.
the party is my wife's birthday & retirement party -she retiring from teaching at a Catholic middle-school [6th,7th, and 8th grades]
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