The Light: Advent & Christmas Daily Reflections 2024 (On sale Now)
Advent is such a busy time of year and we so easily forget that—at its heart—it is meant to be a time of preparation, waiting and hope for the coming of Jesus into our world and lives.
To remind us of this, for over 15 years now, the Diocese of Wollongong has published an annual Advent and Christmas Program that provides an opportunity for us to be still each day, listen to God, and come to know that Jesus is the whole reason for our being. Like Mary proclaimed in her Magnificat:
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.” LUKE 1:46
The Advent Program is a pocket-sized book that includes daily reflections from the beginning of Advent to the Baptism of the Lord. The book also includes beautiful artwork from the Masters with accompanying artwork reflections.
These little books continue to grow in popularity with 25,000+ copies sold each year throughout Australia and increasingly around the world. The books are also given for free to thousands of inmates in prisons throughout Australia as an outreach program. Many customers buy bulk copies of the book for family, friends and work colleagues as an alternative to Christmas cards and gifts. We include a page in the book for you to write your gift message.
The books are on sale now!You can subscribe below to our Advent and Christmas Program mailing list and we will send you an email and links to purchase the books when they go on sale. You can also download samples of previous year’s books below.
Subscribe to the Advent Program email list
THE LIGHT: Advent Program 2024 (ON SALE NOW)
Embark on a spiritual journey of illumination this Advent and Christmas with The Light: Advent and Christmas Daily Reflections 2024—a comprehensive 88-page book of daily reflections designed to deepen your spiritual journey from the beginning of Advent (1 December 2024) through to the Baptism of the Lord (12 January 2025), offering profound insights and contemplative thoughts that invite you to explore the depths of your faith and anticipate the joy of God’s presence in the world.
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Us and we and our means the Catholic Development Fund.
You means the customer(s) who signed the direct debit request. Your financial institution is the financial institution where you hold the account that you have authorised us to arrange to debit.
Debiting your account
By submitting a direct debit request, you have authorised us to arrange for funds to be debited from your account according to the agreement we have with you.
We will only arrange for funds to be debited from your account:
As authorised in the direct debit request; if the debit day falls on a day that is not a business day, we may direct your financial institution to debit your account on the following or previous business day. If you are unsure about which day your account has or will be debited, please check with your financial
Changes by you
If you wish to stop or defer a debit payment you must write to us at least 5 business days before the next debit day.
This notice should be given to us in the first instance.
Your obligations
It is your responsibility to ensure that there are sufficient clear funds available in your account to allow a debit payment to be made.
If there are insufficient clear funds available in your account to meet a debit payment:
you or your account may be charged a fee and/or interest by your financial institution;
you or your account may be charged a fee to reimburse us for charges we have incurred for the failed transaction;
you must arrange for the payment to be made by another method
Please check your account statement to verify that the amounts debited from your account are correct.
Dispute
If you believe that there has been an error in debiting your account you should call us on 1800 047 703 and confirm the details in writing with us as soon as possible so that we can resolve your query quickly.
Accounts
You should check:
with your financial institution whether direct debiting is available from your accounts offered by financial
your account details which you have provided to us are correct by checking them against a recent account statement; and
with your financial institution before completing the direct debit request if you have any queries about how to complete the direct debit
Warning: if the account number you have quoted is incorrect, you may be charged a fee to reimburse our costs in correcting any deductions from:
an account you do not have authority to operate; or
an account you do not
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We will keep any information (including your account details) in your direct debit request confidential.
We will make reasonable efforts to keep any such information that we have about you secure and to ensure that any of our employees or agents who have access to information about you, do not make any unauthorised use, modification, reproduction or disclosure of that information.
However, we may use your contact details to provide information about the fund. Should you wish this not to be the case, please advise the fund in writing.
Our diocesan logo is theologically rich and very succinct. As a hand, it depicts our mission as a diocese and as individuals within the diocese, of bearing (bringing, carrying) Christ’s love to one another and to the world around us. In this, we are the hand of Jesus Christ, and we are offering ourselves to him so that he might work through us.
We can be the bearers of his love only as a response to his call and in the strength of his grace. We are reminded of this in two ways—through the symbol of the dove (the Holy Spirit) also present in the logo, and by the incorporation of the cross that segments the logo. The presence of the cross is a reminder that bearing the love of Christ will inevitably cost us if we live it authentically. However, in the way that the Cross is the portent of redemption and life—an echo of the tree of life in the book of Genesis—so becoming bearers of the love of Christ will also bring us to life.
The four fingers of the hand also represent the four regions of our diocese. The first is bluerepresenting the beautiful water of the Shoalhaven. The second is a blue and green combination representing the waters and escarpment of the Illawarra. The third is greendepicting the hills and plains of the Macarthur. The fourth is dark green illustrating the forests of the Southern Highlands.