Faith and Mission

On Wednesday evening we held our Commissioning Mass for our pilgrims who will be departing for Cape York on next week. The Pilgrimage Program provides a unique opportunity for learning, service, prayer, and accompaniment. Grounded in Ignatian pedagogy, the program emphasises structured reflection, requiring participants to keep a personal journal. This practice helps them look ‘God in all things, and all things in God,' enhancing their understanding of the Gospel's call to justice and the Catholic Church's social teachings.

In preparation for this pilgrimage, students have dedicated ten hours to formation sessions, attended frequent meetings, and engaged in substantial fundraising efforts that support our previous Pilgrimage partners in Cambodia and India. The formation sessions are designed to immerse students in the gritty realities of the world, encouraging them to be informed, think critically, and engage constructively with issues of disparity and injustice.

On Monday, 24 June, 38 Year 11 students, along with staff members Liam Smith, Clare Galati, Ylenia Casadio, and Jordan Webber, will set off on an inspiring journey to Cape York, Queensland, as part of this year’s pilgrimage. During the pilgrimage the participants will learn about the rich culture of the land directly from its custodians. The goal is to facilitate personal connections and allow the pilgrims to develop a first-hand understanding of the challenges, idiosyncrasies, and beauty of modern life in remote Indigenous communities. This program offers pilgrims an authentic experience for growth and transformation and compliments our College's Reconciliation Plan. This is reconciliation in action.

As our pilgrims prepare for this journey, let's support them with our prayers and best wishes, trusting that this experience will deeply impact their lives and strengthen their commitment to seeking justice and serving others in the spirit of Christ.

Here is a clip sharing the Year 11 pilgrimage experience last year.

Janeen Murphy

Deputy Principal Faith and Mission

Community Mass

This morning students from St Louis House prepared and participated in our Eucharist.

Joyful music is a highlight of our Friday liturgies – thanks to Mrs Haydon, Mr Johnston and Chapel Choir. Next Friday, however, it is the music students who will be preparing the Mass – so we look forward to a celebratory liturgy for the last day of the semester!

Community Mass Details

Fridays in Term time
8:00am start – 8:30am finish
College Chapel

Sacrament Program

Congratulations to the following Year 4 students who recently received Holy Communion for the first time in their parishes:

Jemima Kendall
Kaelen Ong Seng
Alice Willox

Sacrament program information from some of our local parishes, including City Beach, Claremont, Cottesloe, Doubleview, North Beach and Subiaco, is on the College website – in the Parish Sacrament Programs section.

Further information:

Your parish priest or Sacrament Coordinator
The Archdiocesan website;
Email Mary-Anne Lumley mary-anne.lumley@johnxxiii.edu.au 08 9383 0513.

St Aloysius Gonzaga

Today, 21 June, is the date the Church celebrates the feast of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, otherwise known as St Louis. Last year on this feast, visiting Jesuit, Tony Lusvardi, gave this homily about St Aloysius and his connection to the College.

The readings for our celebration of the life of St. Aloysius Gonzaga tell us to show our love for God by keeping his commandments. Sometimes people talk about love and the commandments as if there were a contradiction between the two, but Jesus teaches us otherwise.

For Jesus, love isn’t a feeling. Don’t confuse love with romance, which can be produced with mood lighting and champagne. For Jesus, love is life-giving. God, the creator, first shows his love for us by giving us life. And Jesus, the Son of God, shows the power and depth of his love by giving up his own life so that we might have eternal life.

But life is a delicate thing. If you plant a garden, you have to know the right amount of water to give the seeds—too much and they’ll rot, too little and they’ll dry up. I’ve killed a few houseplants learning this lesson. If you just leave your garden alone to do whatever it wants, it will soon choke with weeds and die. Keeping plants alive sometimes requires trimming them. Nurturing life requires rules.

It’s the same with the commandments. These provide the direction necessary to live together as Christians over the long term. Jesus criticizes the Pharisees for being selective in which of the commandments they follow. They noisily follow those rules that are of benefit to them, but when it comes time to sacrifice for others, they find a loophole. They don’t put their whole selves into the love of God, which is Jesus’ most fundamental command: “love the Lord your God will all your heart with all soul and with all your mind.” And love your neighbor as yourself. No room for loopholes. No minimalism.

St. Aloysius Gonzaga, the patron of one of the schools that became John XXIII, followed these commands of Jesus to the very end. Aloysius was the son of a wealthy and powerful Italian duke, who wanted him to become a soldier and even gave him a set of pistols to play with as a child. Aloysius rebelled and entered the Jesuits, giving up his family’s wealth and power. He dreamed of being a missionary, but he had to give up that dream, too. Aloysius was less than 23 years old and had only been a Jesuit for a few years when the plague hit Rome. He wasn’t even ordained yet, but he set aside his studies and went out to Rome’s hospitals to care for poor plague victims who had no one else to care for them. He caught the plague himself and died.

But God gives life even after death. One of the schools that became John XXIII College was named for St. Aloysius Gonzaga. In a way that he himself would not even have thought possible, Aloysius did become a missionary, inspiring a school on a continent he never knew existed and watching over it with his patronage and prayers. He gave up his life, and but he gave life, too, life that continues to flourish in each of you to this day.

Father Tony Lusvardi SJ grew up in the USA. For the past seven years he has lived in Rome, firstly completing his licence and doctorate in sacramental theology, and now, teaching sacramental theology at the Gregorian University. Fr Tony was the Jesuit ‘Tertian’ at John XXIII College in 2023.