Alice Springs and the smaller Central Australian communities of Harts Range and Santa Teresa rolled out their warmest welcome mats recently to cheer on Roby Curtis, from Brisbane’s Emmanuel City Mission, as he completed his epic walking pilgrimage from Brisbane.
Roby walked 2500km over nine weeks with his friend and colleague Jeff Hoffard, raising just over $1 million for people in Brisbane experiencing homelessness and helping to celebrate the 40th anniversary of St John Paul II’s landmark address to First Nations peoples in Alice Springs.
The Divine Word Missionary seminarians took a break from Dorish Maru College in Melbourne over winter and embarked on an epic pilgrimage to the spiritual heart of Australia – an experience which had a big impact on their hearts and their formation as missionary priests.
The pilgrimage took the students from Melbourne to Adelaide, Coober Pedy, Uluru, Alice Springs, Santa Teresa and Port Augusta. They were accompanied by Formator of Scholastics, Fr Linh Nguyen SVD and Vice-Rector of Dorish Maru College and OTP Director, Fr Yon Wiryono SVD.
A recent pilgrimage ‘In the Footsteps of Mary MacKillop’ was a profound experience for Fr Nick de Groot SVD, helping him to reflect not only on God’s constant presence throughout his missionary life, but also on the leap of faith taken by his migrant parents when they moved to Australia.
Fr Nick joined 20 other pilgrims from October 22 to November 2 on a journey that took them from Melbourne, where Mary, Australia’s first saint, was born, to Hamilton, Portland, Penola, Robe and Adelaide before flying on to Sydney for the final three days of visiting, reflection and prayer.
A group of 35 parishioners from St Mark’s Parish at Inala in Brisbane saw their faith come alive as they walked in the footsteps of Jesus during a pilgrimage to the Holy Land last month.
The group, led by Fr Stephen Pilly SVD, came from a range of different cultural backgrounds, including Vietnamese, Samoan, Filipino, African and Australian.
Life brings to all of us problems as well as success, despair and joy. In my recent pilgrimage to Greece and Turkey, in the footsteps of St Paul, I learnt many things about the Great Apostle to the Gentiles especially this - that St Paul had learnt to adapt himself to every kind of circumstances, even being in jail.
We all face the inevitability of loss, sickness, aging, and death in our human experience. We are, after all, humans, not gods.
An enthusiastic group of parishioners from St Mark’s Parish, Inala, celebrated the Jubilee Year of Mercy and the 60th anniversary of the Parish recently, with a pilgrimage to Marian Valley, at Canungra in the Gold Coast hinterland.
The Marian Shrine, a ministry of the Pauline Fathers, is one of the Brisbane Archdiocese’s designated pilgrimage destinations.
