John XXIII College Newsletter

Liturgy

 

November is the month in which the Church especially remembers and prays for ‘all souls’ – our loved ones ‘who have gone before us, marked with the sign of faith’, and we will especially remember our beloved dead at Community Masses during November.  Next Friday, alumni from Loreto and St Louis as well as John XXIII are especially welcome to attend Community Mass as we remember former friends who have died. Thank you to the alumni who are preparing next Friday’s liturgy. 

Parent Rosary

Thank you to parent, Vince De Luca, who led the Rosary after Community Mass today. The next parent Rosary will be on Friday 27 November, straight after Community Mass. 

FAQS

What is the Rosary?

The Rosary is a Catholic devotion.  More detailed information on praying the Rosary can be found here: https://www.usccb.org/how-to-pray-the-rosary

 

I have never prayed the Rosary before.

Don’t worry. It is a straightforward format and will be led by a parent who is familiar with the form.

 

I don’t have Rosary beads.

Beads are an optional extra.  The heart of the Rosary is the story of the life, death and resurrection of Christ, according to scriptural sources. It is this contemplation which is of greatest importance.    (In any case, the beads are in groups of 10 – and for centuries people have used their fingers!)

 

When is the Rosary happening?

Friday 30 October and Friday 27 November 8:35 – 8:45 am, College Chapel. 

 

For any queries please contact Mary-Anne Lumley: mary-anne.lumley@cewa.edu.au

 

Community Mass Summary

  • Every Friday in term time
  • 8:00am – 8:30am
  • College Chapel
  • All students, families, friends, alumni and staff are welcome.

SACRAMENT PROGRAM

Sacrament Preparation

In the Archdiocese of Perth, the model for Sacrament preparation is ‘family-focused, parish-based, and school/PREP* supported. The Policy was formalized in 2014, and outlines how family, parish and school work together. 

*Parish Religious Education Program

Sacraments 2021

Parishes are now planning for celebrations of the sacraments in 2021. Parents are encouraged to enrol their child in their ‘home’ parish once enrolments open.

 

Cottesloe/Mosman Park 

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

 

Subiaco

Enrolment information will be available in November.

 

Enrolment information from other parishes will be updated as it becomes available. 

If you would like further information about the Sacrament Program

Updates from local parishes for 2020 

SAINT THOMAS APOSTLE, CLAREMONT

Reconciliation  4 and 5 November, 3:30-4:30pm

Contact: silvia.kinder@cewa.edu.au

 

STANDING IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD AND ALL HIS SAINTS

by Vron Smith

 

The first home football match at Sunderland AFC (in my earlier life I used to have a season ticket) around Boxing day has always had significance for me. Before the match kicks off there is a minute’s silence during which the crowd of around 30-40,000 fans are invited to remember those who have died - the season ticket holder that used to sit next to you week in, week out who is no longer there, those who were killed in national tragedies and particularly our own loved ones. It is a poignant moment and everyone together in the stadium holds the deep mix of so many emotions that just are – love, anger, sadness, relief – because of their loss. It is profoundly uniting, a sharing by people, who in other circumstances, would pass each other by on the street. In that simple minute of silence it brings those people to us once again, to be present to us in a way that changes us. We are not unaffected by our remembering of them.

 

I would go further. It is not just that I remember those I have loved and lost but that, with the grace of the Spirit, I experience them as still loving and still present to me, in ways perhaps that only imagination can help capture. It’s a perception that Ignatius encourages those making the Exercises to engage with. Three times during the Exercises Ignatius invites the person praying to begin by placing themselves before the heavenly court – God, the angels, all the Saints -  and it’s usually when there is some serious seeking of graces to be done, life-changing stuff. Michael Ivens says that ‘it serves to accentuate the solemnity of the exercitant’s situation.’

 

I sometimes imagine standing before all those who have gone before me in love, the famous Saints and the little ones, my dad, my brother, the angels etc. and that can seem gulp-making. But what I have come to know and experience more deeply as time has gone on, is that they’re all rooting for me, for us. They are on my side and want for me what God wants for me and that takes any tremble away. They are there for me and I am never without their love and care and prayer. As Pope Benedict put it, ‘Each one of us can say: “Surrounded, led and guided by the friends of God … I do not have to carry alone what, in truth, I could never carry alone. All the Saints of God are there to protect me, to sustain me and to carry me.”’

 

The communion of saints is, for me, deeply consoling to be part of. As we look forward to celebrating the feast of All Saints in the next week, may I tentatively invite you (if you haven’t already) to imagine yourself standing with them (and with me), and to realise just how much you are supported and loved.

 

 

 

GOOD NEWS for the FEAST of ALL SAINTS

 

This Sunday, 1 November, the Church celebrates the feast of all saints. Father Michael Tate provides the reflection on this Sunday’s Gospel, which is ‘The Beatitudes’ (Matthew 5:1-12).  Rev. Prof. Michael Tate was a Senator for Tasmania from 1978-93 and Ambassador to The Hague and the Holy See from 1993-96. He is currently Vicar-General in the Archdiocese of Hobart and is an Honorary Professor of Law at the University of Tasmania where he lectures in International Humanitarian Law.

 

THE BEATITUDES … A CALL TO ACTION

 

In the tradition of Moses on Mt Sinai, Jesus goes up a mountain, a traditional Jewish sacred site. As we might expect, we receive a revelation as to how God intends that human beings should live together.

 

Jesus doesn’t start in a fantasy dream world of perfection. Jesus looks at the world as it often is for many people, perhaps for most people around the world.  First, ‘the poor in spirit’: those suffering grinding poverty, a destitution which can crush their spirits, a lacking of the necessities of life such that their whole personality, body/mind/spirit, is impoverished.

 

Then ‘those who mourn’: especially, perhaps, those whose grieving comes from the too early death of someone they love, someone ravaged by illness, or traumatically killed in accident or conflict. Then ‘those who are gentle’: so often denied a fair share of the earth’s resources which are taken by the strong and belligerent. Then ‘those who hunger and thirst for justice’, for individuals and even for whole societies.

Jesus astonishes the crowd by saying that such people are ‘Blessed’. How can this be? Certainly, it is paradoxical. 

 

The answer lies in Our Lord’s emphasis on the community, the new society, the new people he is establishing under the reign of God: what he calls ‘the Kingdom of God’. Those in such wretched circumstances will have things set right, will experience a great reversal of their situation, but only if other people in this new group of the followers of Jesus:

- do everything possible to lift the poor out of the poverty which crushes their spirit,

- do everything possible to comfort those who mourn,

- do everything possible to make sure the gentle share in the earth’s resources,

- do everything possible to satisfy the craving for justice,

- do everything possible to prevent persecution or at least to strengthen those undergoing such torments.

 

These are the saints in their millions over the centuries, and Our Lord describes the personality traits of those saints who have helped make the Beatitudes a reality in the lives of human beings.

 

‘The merciful’. The Hebrew word for mercy is closely allied to the word for womb. To be merciful is to be as caring as a mother would be towards the child of her womb. Our Lord is attempting to build up a community of followers as maternal as that. Saints, acknowledged and unacknowledged, measure up. How do we measure up?

 

‘The pure in heart’. This does not refer to ritual or sexual purity. It refers to people in whom there is no duplicity or hypocrisy. They are people of integrity. Our Lord is attempting to build up a community of followers as whole-some as that. Saints, acknowledged and unacknowledged, measure up. How do we measure up?

 

‘The peace-makers’. Here, Jesus is not so much emphasising the noun: ‘Peace’ as he is emphasising the verb: ‘makers’. Saints, acknowledged and unacknowledged, measure up. How do we measure up?

 

So, when we read the Beatitudes, we should not read them as a message advocating a passive ‘suffer your lot because there is pie in the sky’. The Beatitudes are a call to action, a call to the followers of Jesus to be maternal, to be comforters, to be whole-hearted, to be active in overcoming those divisions which are unjust and destroy people, whether individuals or societies.

 

Saints, acknowledged and unacknowledged, measure up. How do we measure up?  The authentic measure of humanity is Jesus Christ. Our Lord measured up superlatively. We know He was finally measured out on the Cross.  We ask him to measure us mercifully, for we will fall short of His full stature. 

 

But every time we say the ‘Our Father’ we do pledge ourselves to help construct this new society where the Beatitudes can come true: ‘Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’

 

Image: John Nava: ‘The Communion of Saints, – one of a series of tapestries in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles.