Liturgy

Community Liturgy

Community Mass is a joyful gathering of students, parents, staff and friends who make up the John XXIII College family. All are welcome, just come to the Chapel at 8:00.

Thank you to students in St Louis House for preparing today’s liturgy. Next Friday, Year 7 students will prepare the final Community Mass for this semester. Many Year 7 families are new to the College and you are warmly invited to attend – even if you have not previously experienced a Catholic Eucharist. Our weekly liturgy is one of the places where the College especially experiences itself as a community and communion of students, families and staff. For those who can stay, there is coffee in the Circle of Friends café after Mass.

Community Liturgy summary

Where: College Chapel
Time: 8:00am – 8:30am
When: every Friday in term time

Sacrament Program

CONGRATULATIONS

… to all the students who are celebrating sacraments in their parishes at this time. Let us keep all these students and their families in our hearts and in our prayer.

If you have any other questions about the Sacrament Program:

Contact your Parish Priest or Sacrament Coordinator.
Contact Mary-Anne Lumley, Parish Liaison Mary-Anne.Lumley@cewa.edu.au or 9383 0513.
College website
Information for all parishes may be found on the archdiocesan website http://www.perthcatholic.org.au/Parishes_and_Mass_Times.htm?cms%2Erm=List

GOOD NEWS for: 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time

“Jesus resolutely set his face towards Jerusalem. I will follow you wherever you will go.” – Luke 9:51-62

The reflection for this Sunday’s Gospel is an extract from a longer homily by Jesuit priest, Fr Richard Leonard. Fr Richard Leonard SJ is the Director of the Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting, is a member of the Australian Catholic Media Council and is author of Preaching to the Converted, Paulist Press, New York, 2006.

No matter how much we try to ignore it, or play it down, the call to simplicity of lifestyle and detachment are important elements in the teaching of Jesus and the way he lived his own life.

In Luke’s gospel and in his second volume, The Acts of the Apostles, the obligations of the haves to the have-nots are regularly underlined. Scholars think Luke's gospel keeps this teaching most alive because it was a community divided by wealth.

In today's Gospel this obligation is put in its starkest form. To 'bury the dead' in first-century Palestine sometimes meant having to take on their responsibilities – farm, fishing or family. To have 'nowhere to lay one's head' gave as much freedom then as it does today; and to be detached, without regret, has always been a sign of God's kingdom.

… While Jesus' words have a radical edge which must not be blunted, if all Christians everywhere were to live this teaching literally we would constitute a family of happy but homeless people, surrounded by decomposing loved ones! There is no dignity in poverty and most people who are poor, while they can be rich in the best human values, do not want to stay poor. What they deserve, and what all Christians should want, is economic and social justice. We are not at liberty to follow Jesus and watch the rich get fatter and all-consuming while the poor pay the price for unchecked greed.

Some Christians are given the gift of living very simply and to the degree that this gift brings life to them, and those around them, it is a wonderful sign of God's kingdom. All the rest of us, who struggle to embrace this gift, or a desire to ever want it, must face up to the challenge of Jesus' teaching here. But it's not just about money. We are also called to detach ourselves from memories, which can be cluttered with anger and revenge; from the demands of work which keep us from being with those we love; and to be generous with our time, talent, hospitality and compassion.

Previous generations strayed from the demands of this gospel. Grand cathedrals, courtly behaviour and princely mansions were meant to reflect on earth the reign of God. These are our legacy … may our generation show the kingdom of God most visibly in the way we live simply, fight for justice for all people everywhere, and the detachment we have to everything but the essentials.