Faith and Mission

Special Blessing for Fathers

God of Abraham, Moses and Aaron;

of Zachary, father of John the Baptist,

of Joseph, foster-father of Jesus,

listen to our prayer:

Bless all who ‘father’ and protect new life in any way,

these ‘fathers’ who teach and guide,

who encourage and lead.

Invite them to the table of your eternal feast,

these ‘fathers’ who work hard to provide for the life

that has been entrusted to them.

Embrace them warmly in the intimacy of your love,

these ‘fathers’ who lift up with strength

those who are helpless and dependent.

Bless them today with all good things:

with health, with laughter, with joy and with love,

with pride in their ‘children’ and with the support of many friends.

May all ‘fathers’ who have protected and guided the life of others

be themselves held securely one day in your strong embrace,

there, for all eternity, to rejoice with their families and friends.

Amen.

Father’s Day Mass and Morning Tea

On Wednesday 6 September in the College Chapel, there was a wonderful turn out for the annual Father’s Day Mass and morning tea. The Mass was concelebrated by Fr Bill Ousley OMI, Fr Michael McMahon OMI and Fr Joe Antony OMI. Fr Bill, in his homily, told us that September has been dedicated by Pope Francis as the Season of Creation. This year's theme is "Listen to the voice of creation". The Season of Creation is a special time for all Christians to pray and work together to care for our common home. Pope Francis defines the Season of Creation as "an opportunity to cultivate our ‘ecological conversion’". Fr Bill reminded us of how fitting it is that the first Sunday of the Season of Creation lines up with Father’s Day. After Mass the fathers and their sons shared a lovely morning tea, prepared by the Mazenod Canteen. The Year 12 students had also prepared some potted vegetable seeds for the dads and their sons to take home and plant.

Friends of Wilkins Road Bushland

Penny Hussey will lead a walk through our bush, identify plants and other interesting information.

On Saturday, 16 September

From 9:30 to about 11:00 am

Meet at the substation. 

Corner of Lewis and Wilkins Rd, Kalamunda

Bring a hat or raincoat (depending on the weather) and water bottle.

Wear enclosed footwear.

Mazenod students who attend will receive 90 minutes towards their Christian Service Learning. Please RSVP to wallis.damian@mazenod.wa.edu.au

Flower Roster Volunteers

Morning Mass 

Week day Masses begin at 8:00am in the College Chapel. However, Wednesday morning Mass begins at 8:10am. These Masses are assigned to a group of students who are involved in their preparation and focus on a particular theme or feast day. Below is a table outlining this term’s Wednesday Masses to which everyone from the Mazenod community is extended a warm invitation to attend.

Term 3: Wednesday Masses

We are All Neighbours to Each Other!

Having shared with the people of Marseilles some examples of the pitiful plight of the Catholics in Ireland, Bishop Eugene calls on them to help alleviate the effects of the potato famine in Ireland - especially because it is affecting a people with a long and heroic history of faith.

Are they to be abandoned today? Can their cries of distress, resounding in our continent from across the sea, find us insensitive?... we who have been preserved, at Marseilles especially, from the afflictions sent this year to other countries, let us try to merit the continuation of the prosperity of our city by lending a helpful hand to a people whose woes, in their immensity, almost surpass the resources of a great state.

Let us try to prevent, as far as we can, a numerous people, a people of confessors and martyrs, from being exterminated by famine.

Then to counteract the excuse that because there was plenty of poverty to be alleviated in Marseilles, why be concerned about poverty in another country:

Let it not be said they belong to an empire other than ours. That would be completely unworthy of Christian charity for we are all, as long as people dwell on earth, children of our Father in heaven and neighbours to each other... 

Bishop Eugene's Circular Letter to the people of Marseilles, 24 February 1847

REFLECTION

It was said of St Eugene that he had a heart as large as the world. Here we see one example of his concern for the poor and most abandoned in every part of the world, and his desire that his Oblate Family and the members of his diocese in Marseilles have a similar expansive view of Christian charity.

“It is at times such as this that we show our true spirit of giving and of brotherhood of revealing the good Samaritan in all of us.”  (Jo Bonner)

Damian Wallis

Director of Faith and Mission