Liturgy

Community Mass

All are welcome in the Chapel on Friday mornings at 8:00am for the College Community Mass. A special welcome is extended to new parents or parents for whom Mass is less than familiar; it is a joyous, user-friendly celebration.

Students in Year 10 prepared the Liturgy this morning with grace and commitment – thank you Year 10. Next Friday, the liturgy will be prepared by students in Year 8.

After Mass finishes, around 8:30, the celebration continues with coffee in the Circle of Friends Café. Parents are most welcome to stay.

Community Mass details

College Chapel
Fridays in term time
Starts: 8:00am and concludes 8:30am

SACRAMENT PROGRAM

Updates for some of our local parishes

Saint Thomas Apostle, Claremont

Confirmation Friday 27 August

Reconciliation October

Please note that, due to current COVID restrictions on maximum capacity, priority for enrolment will go to families who are in the parish of Saint Thomas Apostle. Please see http://www.johnxxiii.edu.au/view/parent-resources/parish-sacraments

Enrolment forms are available from silvia.kinder@iona.wa.edu.au

St Mary Star of the Sea, Cottesloe/Corpus Christi, Mosman Park

Confirmation Sunday 7 November

Information Day: 5 August, 4-5pm Parish Centre

Enrolment information and contact details for the Sacrament Coordinator may be found here.

If you would like further information about the Sacrament Program:

If your nearest parish is not listed, search the Archdiocesan website;
Check the information available on the College website here
Contact Mary-Anne Lumley mary-anne.lumley@cew.edu.au OR phone 9383 0408

GOOD NEWS for the Feast of Pentecost

John 20:19-23

The Gospel reflection for this week is by Joe Tedesco, from an article in Pastoral Liturgy (vol 51, 2) 2021, published by the University of Notre Dame, and used with kind permission. Joe has been involved in tutoring and teaching theology for over ten years at the University of Notre Dame Australia and at the Centre for Faith Enrichment in the Archdiocese of Perth.

Even if one is not a fan and does not watch them, many would be familiar with a sort of ‘reality TV’ show where participants go through some major transformative process. Whether it is to lose a significant amount of weight, to undergo some makeover or to endure some other life changing event, one thing that is common to them is the attention placed on the family and friends as the participants are ‘revealed’ after the great transformation with the looks of wonder and amazement making for great television. The gathered friends and family express fascination and bewilderment, with phrases such as “I can’t believe it’s them” often being heard among onlookers as they struggle to catch up to the new ‘transformed’ participants before them.

A transformation of major proportions is witnessed in the reading which is at the centre of today’s celebration. The events of Pentecost depict a group of followers who are transformed from a hushed small band in fear of authorities who had killed their teacher and leader, to a group making bold orations to people from all over the world. The large crowd gathered who witnessed the Spirit filled disciples seemed similarly bewildered and fascinated, as should we.

This transformation, and what follows, is testament to the power of the Spirit which is celebrated on Sunday – the feast of Pentecost. The Spirit promised by Jesus that gifts us with the best of all things becomes the fuel for the life of the Church. Many recognise that one of the greatest miracles of Pentecost is not so much the wild wind and tongues of fire or that the apostles are able to be understood by all those people, it is that this small band are able to breakout from their confines and speak at all. The Spirit transforms them from an inwardly focused, hunkered down, seemingly defeated group, to proclaimers of God’s word to anybody and everybody. Filled with such giftedness, it begins a process where the Gospel is spread to the entire world with billions coming to know the love of God.

Like followers of Christ in those first days following the Passion, we all can feel a bit defeated at times. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a particularly challenging time for many people including Christians who had our ministry, ways of worship and sacramental activities impacted in all sorts of ways. It has left us feeling frightened and disconnected from some of the most important things in our life. Even putting COVID aside, it is not uncommon to hear talk of how living the Christian life can feel more and more challenging in a world that seems to be indifferent to a believing faith at best and occasionally even hostile. These pressures, real and perceived, can accelerate a sense of wanting to turn inward. To see the Church as a refuge where we hide from the world that seems scary and uncertain.

Pentecost is a celebration that flies in the face of such fears – and this is so not in an onerous or confrontational manner, as if we have to ignore our fears and uncertainties, ‘toughen up’ and face the world. It is precisely because those early Christians did not have to rely on their own strength that allowed them to turn from being inwardly focused and fearful, to outwardly focused and, through whom, the whole Church would spring forth. Pentecost is a celebration that Jesus’ promise to be “with us until the end of time” (Matt 28:20) is made true through the Spirit, and this love of God poured out is able to give us all we need to face our world.

The Spirit is not only sent to help us turn outward, to live the life of Christ in the world, it also allows us to speak in ways that makes sense to our world. The apostles speak and the people begin to hear words in their own tongue, in language that is understandable. The Spirit is still at work, and it is in the Spirit that people will hear words, see actions and experience people of character in ways that are worth listening to, that draws out interest and that sparks hearts into life.

We do not necessarily have to become literally multi-lingual to boldly live our Christian lives in the world, that is not generally how we experience the Spirit. However, we can be confident that it is in the Spirit that the Church and its many parts and members can make sense to a world that will always be desperate to experience the love of God. This will not be a singular voice. Like the diverse languages depicted in Acts, these ‘voices’ will have different shapes, sounds and looks about it. A multifarious outward focused appearance seems a necessary product of the Holy Spirit…

Our only responsibility is to engage the gifts of the Spirit; to reflect on them, foster them and exercise their power trusting that the Holy Spirit, not us alone, does indeed renew the face of the earth.