Caritas Australia invites you to join us on a first-time interactive journey throughout the world with our Advent Calendar, which for the first time available as an iPhone App which can be downloaded here http://www.caritas.org.au/advent/index.html

With the touch of your phone, no matter where you are, this year you and your family can follow the Jesse Tree through Advent and reflect and pray with hundreds of unique communities around the world and hear the powerful stories they have to tell.
The Advent Calendar 2011 gives you the original pictures and stories of our partners and invites you to Reflect, Act and Pray with them throughout this most spiritual of periods on the Catholic calendar.
“We know how busy your lives are, we know how active many of you are over the Christmas period,” Caritas Australia CEO,” Jack de Groot said.
“We also know how important the meaning of Christ and Christmas are to you, so we are very pleased to be able to offer a type of Advent Calendar that you can take with you wherever you go.
We bring you together in solidarity with people like Balaneeshta. Just 18 months ago, floods covered one-fifth of Pakistan and Balaneeshta’s family scrambled up a steep mountain to escape raging waters. Her house was swept away.
Initially Caritas partner, CRS, provided her family with emergency supplies, like buckets and blankets. But, soon afterwards, CRS helped her community to build sturdy houses on higher ground.
“I was so happy to see the building material. I thought, ‘It’s really true’,” Balaneeshta tell us.
You are then invited to Reflect, Act and Pray with people like Balaneeshta with your iPhone, or at home with your family.
“This is a tremendous story of solidarity and your willingness to come together in the name of God and the common good,” Mr de Groot said.
“But this is also an opportunity to engage with many of our wonderful partners, all around the world.
“The traditional Caritas Australia Advent Calendar is still there for you on our website this Christmas and we would very much like it become a part of your home at this special time.
“The new Advent Calendar iPhone App is a fresh way for our brothers and sisters in the Australian Catholic community to rekindle the spirit of Christmas – Act for Justice and stand in solidarity with the poorest of the poor.

You can find the both the traditional Advent Calendar and the iPhone App at www.caritas.org.au/advent
Media contact: Ryan Heffernan 0408 869 833