Liturgy

Community Liturgy

Thank you to the students in Year 8 who prepared our Mass this morning.

Year 7 students will be preparing the first Community Liturgy for Term 2, on Friday 3 May.  Year 7 families are very welcome, especially those who are new to the College.  If you have not previously attended Mass or are not Catholic, just come to the Chapel at 8:00am.  There are no reserved seats or special places and all the responses are on a PowerPoint.   

Community Liturgy summary

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

This year the great feast of Easter falls during the middle weekend of the school holidays.  For Christians around the world it is the highlight of the liturgical year. Parishes will celebrate special liturgies, commencing with Palm Sunday the weekend before. 

Many families like to celebrate these liturgies as part of their Easter festivities, and some of our local parishes have sent details of their services Holy Week. This information is also on the College website – and will be updated over the next week.

Sacrament Program

FAQS

What happens in the Sacrament Program?

Children in Years 3, 4 and 6 prepare to celebrate, respectively, the sacraments of Reconciliation, Eucharist and Confirmation in their own ‘home’ parish. 

How are the children prepared?

The Religion curriculum in Catholic schools includes a unit of work on the sacrament in the relevant year level. Once the students have completed the unit of work they are awarded a certificate, which is required by the Parish.

Some parishes provide additional classes for students attending Catholic schools.

Last, but not least, parents are the children’s first teachers in Faith. The program in the Perth Archdiocese is ‘family-focused, parish-based and Catholic school supported.’

When will the sacraments be celebrated?

Each parish is different; refer to your local parish for dates and times. Some information from local parishes is provided below – and you can find more detail on the College website.  

Why are there differences from parish to parish?

Each parish is a unique Faith community and the Parish Priest responds to the needs of the parish, within the context of the wider Church. No two parishes are the same – so there will be some variation in how the parish Sacrament Program is administered. As a regional College we are enriched by families from a diversity of parishes.

If I have a child in Year 3, 4 or 6, when should I enroll in my parish program?

Parents are reminded to enroll their children in parish Sacrament programs as soon as possible

Parish updates from Local Parishes

A brief summary of dates are provided below. For more detail, please check the College website or approach the Parish Priest or parish sacrament coordinator directly.

CITY BEACH: Holy Spirit

For families already enrolled in the program, the schedule is on the College website.

Further information: http://www.holyspiritcitybeach.com/

CLAREMONT: St Thomas Apostle

Celebration of the Sacrament

First Communion:            Sunday 5 May 9:30am

Confirmation:                    Friday 9 August 6:00pm

Reconciliation:                  Wednesday 23 OR Thursday 24 October after school

Further information:       Silvia.kinder@cewa.edu.au

COTTESLOE: St Mary Star of the Sea

Registration for all Sacraments

Further information:       cottesloe@perthcatholic.org.au

Registration Form:     

DOUBLEVIEW: Our Lady of the Rosary

Celebration of the Sacrament

Confirmation:                   Saturday 8 June at 6:00pm Mass

First Communion:           Saturday 21 September at 6:00pm

                                                Sunday 22 September at 10:00am

Reconciliation:                 Saturday 26 October at 5:00pm

Further information:       doubleview@perthcatholic.org.au

FLOREAT/WEMBLEY: St Cecilia’s/Our Lady of Victories

Upcoming dates:        Thank you to those families who have completed the enrolment process. For those who have yet to do so, please provide us with your nominated dates with regards to workshops, reconciliation, rehearsals, etc. Email the Parish Office.  Further info: http://www.floreatwembleyparish.org.au/resources/Floreat-Wembley-Parish-Sacramental-INFORMATION-PACK-2019.pdf.

NEDLANDS: Holy Rosary

Celebration of the Sacrament

Reconciliation:                  Term 2 – date to be finalised 

First Communion:            Sunday 16 June 2019,  8:45am Mass 

Confirmation:                    Saturday 3 August 2019, 6:00pm Mass 

Further information:       Nedlands@perthcatholic.org.au

SHENTON PARK: St Aloysius

Registration form

Available from parish website:

Celebration of the Sacrament

First Communion:            Sunday 30 June 2019,  9:30am Mass 

Confirmation:                    Sunday 22 September 2019, 9:30am Mass 

Further information:       http://shentonparkcatholics.org.au/parish-life/sacramental-program/

Contact: John Edwards 0438 527 050

SUBIACO: St Joseph’s

Expression of interest for all Sacraments

Contact: Bart Welten

sacraments@stjosephssubiaco.org.au

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 the 5th Sunday in Lent

John 8:1-11

The reflection for this Sunday’s Gospel is part of a 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.

There is a tough phrase at the end of the Gospel we have just heard; 'Go and sin no more.' It's like a sting in the tail, standing in contrast to the compassion of Jesus in his encounter with the woman. Yet, on closer inspection, it is the most important phrase in the story. And that's saying something because this dramatic event is the only one in the Gospel where Jesus confronts sexual sin, where only the woman is dragged from the scene of the crime to answer the charge of adultery. Is it any wonder that in some early manuscripts of John's Gospel this story was left out, its authorship questioned? The dangerous memory of Jesus' compassion toward the woman was too strong in the minds of John's community for it to be excluded, however, and so it remains as an inspired text for us to make our own. It is sometimes very important to hear Jesus say to us, especially in the area of our sexuality, 'I do not condemn you.'

So often, however, we want Jesus to leave it at that. But Jesus goes further. He tells it as it is. If any of us want life and want it to the full, we have to stop doing the destructive things that get us into trouble in the first place. It does not matter if it is drinking, gambling, eating, working, stealing, sexual dysfunction, being into pornography, being violent at home or any other type of obsessive compulsive behaviour, there is little point in being sorry for the consequences of our weaknesses and not changing the pattern of behaviour that leads us to ruin each time.

Twelve step programs enshrine the wisdom of today's Gospel in how they help us to own up to the destructive behaviour of our lives and yet give us hope to live beyond our worst moments.

Steps four to ten say:

Step 4. I have made a searching and fearless moral inventory of myself.

Step 5. I have admitted to God and to another the exact nature of my wrongs.

Step 6. I am entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

Step 7. Humbly ask God to remove my shortcomings.

Step 8. Made a list of all persons I had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.

Step 9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible except where to do so would injure them or others.

Step 10. Continued to take personal inventory and when I was wrong promptly admitted it.

The thing I like best about these is that they are pro-active. They alert us to the fact that the best pathway to know healing and forgiveness is not to be passive, but to be active and admit our own faults and work to heal them. Some of us may have been given a tough hand from life's deck of cards, but we do not have to be passive victims, never able to changes the cycles of destructive behaviour. If the steps work and we trust today's Gospel then we can be happy, healed and forgiven because we heal and forgive others.

Jesus bestows great dignity on the woman by saving her from being condemned to death, but even more so he knows that it does not have to be like this and so challenges her to turn her life around.

May we hear the same challenge in this final week of Lent. No matter what we have ever done, sexually or otherwise, we are greater than our worst moments. Jesus loves us enough not to condemn us, but to give us the Eucharist so that we might find the strength and hope to stop doing the things that destroy us and to live a life that leads to peace and joy.

© Richard Leonard SJ