Rector's Report

Greetings to you all! 

The weather is beginning to change as we enter our colder winter months here in Melbourne. It is a time to rug up as we go about our daily activities. 

The liturgical season of the church has also changed as we have entered the period called ‘Ordinary Time’. Ordinary Time is the longest season in the Church’s year comprising thirty-three weeks. The colour of the vestment’s changes to green. This colour tells us much about its significance in the Church’s life. It is the rich colour of growth and new life. Ordinary Time deserves to be lived extraordinarily—in the depths of our own hearts, in our families and in our worshipping communities. Ordinary Time celebrates Jesus’ teaching and ministry. It gives us time to reflect on how we live as Christians. It is important for us to immerse ourselves deeply in the spirituality of Ordinary Time because it contains the essence of who we are in the ‘everydayness’ of our Christian lives.

Father Józef Cebula OMI

One of our college House Sports is named Cebula after Fr Joseph Cebula OMI. On June 13 we celebrated the 26th anniversary of the Beatification of Blessed Joseph Cebula OMI (1902 – 1941) as a martyr for his faith. Father Józef Cebula OMI was born into a modest family of Polish origin on March 23, 1902, at Malnia in southern Poland. He suffered tuberculosis as a youth. After an unexpected recovery, he visited an Oblate shrine where he shared his story with an Oblate priest. The priest advised Józef to study with the Oblates at the newly established Oblate minor seminary. At the age of 19 he entered the Congregation of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. Following ordination to the Oblate priesthood in 1927.

When the Nazis occupied Poland during the Second World War, they declared loyalty to the Church illegal. All Church associations were forbidden, and many priests were arrested. Fr. Cebula was forbidden to exercise his priestly ministry and obliged to work in the fields. But at night, the zealous priest celebrated the Eucharist and administered the sacraments in the surrounding villages, until he was arrested on April 2, 1941. He was taken to a concentration camp at Mauthausen in Austria. Fr. Cebula was a man of quiet prayer with a deep spiritual life. He radiated peace in the very middle of the death camp, The guards humiliated and mocked him. One day Fr. Cebula suddenly summoned up his strength and said, “It is not you who are in charge. God will judge you.” The Nazis ordered him to run, with a rock on his back, towards the camp’s barbed wire fence, where a guard shot him declaring that Fr. Cebula “was shot while trying to escape”. He died a martyr on May 9, 1941. His body was taken to a crematorium and burned. He was beatified by St. John Paul II in Warsaw on June 13, 1999, along with 108 World War II martyrs.

Farewell, Good Luck and Thanks.

It is time to say farewell Brs Benjamin and Emmanuel who have completed their priestly studies here in the Australian Province at St Mary’s Seminary, Camberwell. These young Oblates will now return to their home country of Nigeria for their ordination to the priesthood later this year. I take this opportunity to thank them for their friendship and presence amongst as fellow Oblates. I also acknowledge their pastoral ministry here at Mazenod College where they shared their vocational journey stories with our students and staff. During their various times at Mazenod they also gained some valuable pastoral experience which I am sure will be of benefit to them in their priestly life. 

Mazenod Exam Time

A sense of relief fell over the student cohort today with the completion of their first semester exams. Our students, your sons, gave a great witness as they persevered in achieving their personal best in their various subjects. 

On Friday June 6 I had the pleasure of concelebrating at the Confirmation of my grandniece, Penny Townsend in Sacred Heart Parish, Morwell. The Eucharist was celebrated by Bishop Gregory Bennet of the Sale Diocese and Fr James Fernandez parish priest.

Yours in Jesus Christ and Mary Immaculate

Fr Harry Dyer OMI