Being on Sabbatical

23rd October, 2017

Travelling to London, Paris and Rome provides an Australian with the opportunity to be at what seems to be the centre of the world. These are rich and diverse cities - culturally and historically at least. Despite security becoming stricter, opportunities abound for visitors to see in these cities the changing impact of the leadership and creativity of monarchs and church leaders across the centuries.

While our literature continually offers us new analyses of this history, seeing these places with our own eyes and knowing some of the background, gives us the chance to reflect on what it must have been like to live during these times, the challenges these people faced and how much they differ from the challenges of today, technologically to consider just one difference. 

At a time when our global community seeks to decide whether it wants to nurture the global or retreat to the national, as exemplified in whether or not to accept refugees, I wonder how we can help governments tackle these issues anew. We tourists love discovering and understanding, for example studying the colours in stained glass windows and even thinking about what these colours symbolise, listening to the stories behind such creations, as well as the histories associated with the buildings that house them.

Following requests for photographs showing elements of my journeys, I thought I would share some.  They can be found at our Marist Blog here: http://www.johnmcmahon.id.au/john-mcmahons-sabbatical/

John McMahon