THERE is a season for all things under heaven, and for Ray and Glenda Pradella there’s a colour pattern and floral arrangement to match. The couple has been arranging flowers at St Stephen’s Cathedral in Brisbane for 52 weeks of the year for the past 22 years, quietly slipping in and out every Friday morning with fresh bouquets to match ... Read More »
FR Josh Whitehead has a surfboard lined up and he’s ready for his three-year placement in Caloundra parish. So far his ministry and the surf have had an inexplicable link. He learned to surf on his pastoral year in Maroochydore in 2017 before his Advent placement in Burleigh Heads. “I’m looking forward to getting back into surfing,” Fr Whitehead said. ... Read More »
THE ancient sounds of didgeridoo and clap sticks – not a church organ – broke the silence in Brisbane’s St Stephen’s Cathedral for the start of midday Mass last Sunday. And a group of young male Aboriginal dancers and Torres Strait Islander drummer accompanied the entrance procession. They, along with Indigenous people from around Brisbane, were there for the annual ... Read More »
THE small Micronesian nation of Kiribati in the central Pacific Ocean is home to 110,000 people. Of that number, 96 per cent are Christian and 56 per cent are Catholic. Azure blue waters and white sand encircles the islands of Kiribati; however, the tropical paradise is juxtaposed against thatched huts, unsophisticated sewerage and extreme privation. The nation is among the ... Read More »
A very popular series of articles in the Reader’s Digest was entitled “The Most Unforgettable Character I Ever Met”. It focused on men and women who had captured the attention and enriched the lives of the contributing authors. My own short list of unforgettable characters would include Bill Watson – a man whom I met only rarely but whose memory ... Read More »
ONE of my favourite places is looking up at the magnificent Resurrected Christ – freed from the cross beam – high above the main altar of St Stephen’s Cathedral in Brisbane. On Holy Thursday night I was at the cathedral for the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. The choir was magnificent and, during the washing of the feet, they sang ... Read More »
CHURCH services in Sri Lanka were cancelled, but worshippers took to the streets in a show of solidarity for the hundreds killed and wounded in Easter Sunday terror bomb attacks. “Yes, they are praying in the streets – this is a sign of courage,” Brisbane Dominican Father Pancras Jordan said after speaking to Church communities in his homeland. He said ... Read More »
FROM its impoverished beginnings in one room of a convent to a chorus of 800 voices overflowing a cathedral 90 years later, the story of Brigidine College, Indooroopilly, has been one of strength and gentleness. Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge celebrated the college’s 90-year anniversary Mass at St Stephen’s Cathedral on February 8, with Dominican Father Pan Jordan, Fr Neville Yun ... Read More »
HISTORIC St Stephen’s Cathedral is set to become the new centrepiece of Christmas celebrations in Brisbane, with a free light and sound spectacular each night the last two weeks of Advent. People of all ages are expected to gather on the grassed courtyard outside the cathedral to witness “Lights of Christmas”, a visually exciting multi-media show projected onto St Stephen’s ... Read More »
The Catholic Leader Keeping Faith with You
