Liturgy

Community Mass

Celebrations of the Liturgy on Friday morning are always a joy – thanks to enthusiastic participation of students and their families; the energy of the choir as they lead us in singing, competent altar servers and Father Rodrigo’s warm-hearted presiding. 

Parents are always welcome to join – with or without your children! There are no reserved places and everyone is invited. For those able to stay, there is coffee in the Circle of Friends Café after Mass.

Next Friday’s Mass will be prepared by students in Year 7.

Community Mass details

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

Good News for the feast of the Assumption of Mary

This Sunday the Church celebrates the feast of the Assumption of Mary. The following reflection is reprinted with permission and from a longer article by Professor Gerard Moore, who is the Principal and CEO of Broken Bay Institute – the Australian Institute of Theological Education. 

… The ancient church long speculated on the ‘dormition’ of Mary, her falling to sleep and incorporation as the first of the people of God to be taken up completely, in all her humanity, into the fullness of the life of God.

The feast then celebrates a number of events and concepts. First and foremost, the Mother of God is at the centre of our deliberations on what it means to be taken up into Christ. She is the first member of the human family to follow Jesus in the annihilation of death and the advent of eternal life. The contribution of Mary to our own faith and the transformation of the world is acknowledged in the liturgy. 

The proclamation of the feast is itself an admission of the hope fuelling our church and ecclesial life that all things do not stop with death but come to a new beginning in an even greater expression of love. In this, Mary has not ‘escaped’ death, but rather she is privileged to allow us to understand that there are things greater than death that are in store for us. 

And yes, it is true that our ultimate life is with God, but again the Virgin Mary is celebrated for her faithfulness on earth, in this world of pain and suffering where it matters, rather than for an attainment that goes beyond who we are and the way we live in the world. 

The readings for the feasts of Mary are not always straightforward, and their application to the life of Mary is far from clear. What is important here to recognise is that the great feasts of Mary are of necessity about salvation in Christ. 

In the passage from the First Letter to the Corinthians, Paul speaks of Christ as the first fruits of those who will be raised beyond death. As in Adam death came to all, yet in Christ all shall be brought to life. Death is the final enemy, and in Christ it is no more. With the feast we are able to see Mary as reaping the benefits that await all humanity, the first of the many. 

The Gospel account of the visit to Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist who foretells the birth of Christ, puts the spotlight on Mary and her role in salvation. As Elizabeth speaks to her now pregnant cousin, we see her fidelity to God and her fidelity to God’s plan. Within this matrix of obedience to God there is too a glimpse of Mary’s own generosity in her visit to her elderly cousin. 

The second half of the Gospel, the hymn of praise we know as the Magnificat, captures our attention. Here we hear sung aloud Mary’s praise of God and her understanding of the divine vision. In her proclamation of the greatness of God and the divine mercy, she extols the care of God for the lowly and the hungry, protecting them from the proud and the rich. And as she declares that God is faithful, we are struck by her own commitment to God: she is that faithful servant whose acceptance of the role asked of her allows all humanity to be taken up into Christ. 

As in the feast of Mary’s Assumption into heaven, we can see that she has already sung the meaning of heaven on earth. Life in God, broken and thwarted here on earth, is fulfilled completely when we are fully within the life of the Trinity. 

EXTRACT FROM:  Moore, Gerard. "The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary - 15 August 2021." Pastoral Liturgy 51, no. 3 (2021): 1-5. https://researchonline.nd.edu.au/pastoral-liturgy/vol51/iss3/19