Province history Part 2b

In 1892, the entire Province of St Joseph consisted of one hundred priests and forty brothers, and amazingly there were twenty-four of them present, for the opening of extensions in Goulburn that year! The original property had been called Ravenswood and had been built by the former mayor and Methodist minister, Francis Tait. The property including 55 acres was sold to the Passionists after Francis’ sudden death at age 49. Ravenswood was renamed ‘Presentation Retreat, Mary’s Mount’ and officially opened and blessed in 1890.

Establishment of a Province….11th July, 1922
It was a brave and generous decision of the Passionists in England and Ireland, to send men all the way to Australia in 1887 to begin Passionist life here. These were not the days of air travel, instant communication the internet. The only way to reach Australia was by ship, and such a journey could take anywhere between two (steam) to four (sail) months.
The telegraph (sending electric signals across wires) had been invented by then and there was a cable laid between Australia and England. Later, telegraph offices were established and among their duties was the task of announcing the time at 1pm each day! A telegraph message typically took seven hours to reach its destination and there was a limit on the number of words that could be sent, mostly determined by

Holy Spirit Province history…Part 1

Monday 11th July 2022 marks 100 years since the Passionist Province of Holy Spirit (SPIR) was established. However, the first presence of Passionists occurred 179 years ago when three Italian Passionists Raimondo (Raymond) Vacarri aged 41, Luigi Pesciaroli aged 34, Mauritizio (Maurie) Lencioni 28, and Swiss born Joseph Snell, aged 40, came to Australia in March 1843. Only Snell could speak English (and four other languages). They arrived in Sydney which at that time had a population of 40,000 people and three months later they travelled on to Brisbane which had a population of 800! Their mission was to work among aboriginals on Stradbroke Island twenty-five kilometres off the coast from Brisbane.

July 10th – Beginning to celebrating 100 years of Holy Spirit Province
As Erick advised last week, we will be celebrating 100 years since the Passionists formally established Australia as a Province. The edict from Rome confirming this was dated July 11th, 1922 and the official notice was given to our host Province at that time on December 16th that same year. These two dates will establish a period of remembering and celebrating. More details and historical information will be provided, but in short, the foundation began with the arrival of four Irishmen and one Englishmen from St Joseph’s Province, England, on November 21st, 1887. Other men followed, and in time local vocations emerged, so that by 1922, it was judged that Australia was ready to become our own Province.

Meeting of Provincial Council meeting

This week the Provincial Council has a planned meeting. So many such meetings could not be face-to-face over the past two years because of COVID. As we all know that each time they meet, they do so to pray and make decisions that can keep our Province going forward in line with its mission. Their decisions make an impact on each of us in the Passionist family. We pray that the Spirit may guide them. We give thanks for our council members, Tom McDonough, Denis Travers, Brendan Connell, Brian Traynor and Chris Monaghan

Greetings and welcome to this edition of the newsletter. We thank Tim for his effort and love he put into the newsletters for the past weeks. He has done an exceptional job on top of various other good works he does, not to mention his own busy life and professional ministry to the grieving. We look forward to welcome Brian back next week as we wish Tim a well-deserved and safe trip away.

Passionist News

Commemorating the Holy Spirit Province Centenary

From the provincial office: Leading to Last Sunday at the Province Feast Day and the following the logo below was sent with special thanks: …. “The theme for our Centenary is "the Journey Continues". Very special thanks to Sr.Karen Englebretsen CP, for designing our meaningful anniversary logo.”

Letter 120 (3rd June, 2022)

Greetings and welcome to this edition of the newsletter. This will be my last effort this time round as I am also going on a holiday for a couple of weeks. The next couple of newsletters will be sent out by Fr. Erick CP, so if you have any items of news or interest for those letters, please forward them to Erick. I believe that Fr. Brian will then resume editorial responsibilities following his time away and a Provincial Council meeting. Thank you to all of those who have been encouraging of my efforts, and who have sent items to be included in the newsletter.

Passionist News
This coming Sunday is the Province Feast Day and the following article has been supplied for your information:

Passionist Companions “Come and See”

A reminder of the upcoming Companions “Come and See” session to be held in a few weeks’ time at St. Paul Apostle parish in Endeavour Hills. The session, which will be facilitated by Srs. Brigid and Karen, will be held on Saturday morning, the 18th of June from 10.00 – 12.00, with a sausage sizzle to follow.

The Passionist Companions are a group of people who meet together monthly to reflect on the Passionist charism and support one another on the journey of life. There is a group who meet at Holy Cross and another group who meet in the parish at Endeavour Hills.

More information can be obtained by contacting either Gerard Daly at gerard.daly23@bigpond.com, or Oswyn Trindade at oswyn.trindade@gmail.com

This week, Sr Brigid was elected to the leadership team of her Congregation – the Sisters of the Cross and Passion. Brigid will bring vast experience, a deep spirituality and profound wisdom to her Congregation. The Cross and Passion sisters are striving to ‘lean forward’ into the future, and Brigid will certainly assist that movement. The members have elected Therese O’Regan CP from Ireland and based in England, as Provincial, Carmen Gloria CP from Chile, and Brigid CP. They will elect one more member of their leadership team. We extend our congratulations, good wishes and prayers to Brigid.

St Gemma Galgani – feast day Monday May 16th
Gemma was born in 1878, in Camigliano, near Lucca. She was eight when her mother died of TB. When she was seventeen, she nursed her brother Eugene day and night until he died in 1896, also of TB. Her father was a pharmacist and had been prosperous but these deaths, and a prolonged sickness of others in the family took all his money. Soon the family was reduced to poverty. The situation got worse when her father got cancer of the throat and Gemma nursed him until his death in 1897. So, before Gemma was twenty, experienced the sorrow of seeing both her parents and brother die.