Third Sunday of Lent - Luke 13:1-9 -
Veronica Lawson RSM is a Sister of Mercy and a biblical scholar based in Ballarat. She is probably best known for her weekly gospel reflections which have a global circulation and for her 2015 publication The Blessing of Mercy: Bible Perspectives and Ecological Challenges which proved to be a valuable resource for the Year of Mercy. She was the first woman to be elected President of the Australian Catholic Biblical Association.
Veronica volunteered to teach Biblical Studies when it was introduced into the secondary school curriculum in 1965, her first year of teaching. It was not possible at that time for a Catholic woman to study for a theology degree in Australia. While teaching at secondary level, she attended part-time theology and language classes (Greek and Hebrew) at the Redemptorist Seminary in Ballarat. Subsequent studies at the University of San Francisco, at the Ecole Biblique in Jerusalem and at Trinity College Dublin provided Veronica with the formal qualifications required for a life-time engagement with the Word of God in diverse contexts (with University students, seminarians, interfaith and ecumenical groups, teachers, priests, religious and parishioners). Her study tours of Bible Lands formed part of the graduate program in theology at Australian Catholic University for some twenty-five years. Invitations to conduct workshops in Pacific Island countries, in Kenya, France, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste and Pakistan are among her most valued learning experiences. She plans to resume her regular ecological theology sessions in March 2022.
