Faith and Mission
As we conclude another school year, we extend our gratitude to our entire community for your incredible support of our Faith and Mission fundraising initiatives. Your generosity and engagement have made a real difference, enabling us to stand in solidarity with those in need and live out the Gospel call to love and service.
This year, through your kindness, we have supported several organisations:
- Caritas: Addressing global poverty and injustice.
- Jesuit Mission: Empowering communities through education and development.
- Mary Ward International: Advocating for women's empowerment and social justice.
- Shopfront’s 1000 Meals Project: Providing meals for the vulnerable.
- LifeLink: Helping those in need in the Perth Diocese.
- St Vincent de Paul Society: Assisting families experiencing hardship.
- CARAD (Coalition for Asylum Seekers, Refugees and Detainees): Supporting displaced individuals in rebuilding their lives.
Our support for these agencies gives witness to our shared concern for our neighbour and our commitment to upholding the dignity of all people.
As we journey through Advent, let us prepare our hearts for Christ’s coming with hope and compassion. Advent reminds us to focus on the true meaning of Christmas: God’s boundless love for humanity. May this season inspire us to share that love in our homes and our world.
Thank you for being part of this mission. We wish you and your families a blessed Advent and a joyful Christmas.
Janeen Murphy
Deputy Principal Faith and Mission
Vale, Fr John Prendiville SJ
Fr John Gerald Prendiville SJ died on Saturday, 30 November, in Claremont, Western Australia. He was 95 years old and the longest-serving Jesuit in WA.
John Prendiville was born in Perth on 13 March 1929 and did his secondary education under the Jesuits at St Louis’ School, Claremont, in the first years of its existence. He crossed the country to join the Jesuits at Loyola College, Watsonia in 1945. In his years of formation he gained a BA Honours degree from The University of Melbourne. After teaching for a couple of years in the new College of Saint Ignatius in Adelaide, he went to study Theology at the University of Innsbruck, where he was ordained in Trinity (University) Church on 26 July 1958.
After completing his formal Jesuit training, in 1960 John moved to Campion Hall, Oxford, where he gained an MA (Oxon) in Modern History at the University of Oxford. Thereupon he embarked on an STD in Patristics at Heythrop Athenaeum, Oxon, while simultaneously teaching Church History at the regional seminary of Corpus Christi College, Glen Waverley (Melbourne). He went on to become Rector there for three years at a critical time in the years after Vatican II, as seminary formation was being rethought.
After those reforming years in Melbourne, John was based in the West for the remaining fifty-three years of his life. The Prendiville name was very well known there, as his uncle had been Archbishop of Perth from 1935-68. At first John was Rector at St Thomas More College within the University of Western Australia, where he also lectured (1972-74), then he moved to the Jesuit community at Southwell House, Claremont, and became the director of the Catholic Pastoral Institute of WA, a position he held for seven years.
Subsequently he lectured there in Scripture and Church History and at its successor, Edith Cowan University, as well as at Murdoch University. He retired from teaching at the end of 2000, but continued to write, notably his published reflections on the Sunday readings. In 2013-17 John was a priest in residence at Holy Rosary Parish, Nedlands, before retiring to Mercy Place Mont Clare at Claremont.
A most distinguished Louisian, John was a cultured, urbane man, he was cherished for his wisdom, humour and bonhomie.
Sacraments
Do you have a child in Years 2, 3 or 5?
Parishes have begun enrolling for their 2025 sacrament programs. Children must be enrolled in a parish program, even though they will be prepared for the sacraments in their Religion classes.
Each Parish has their own unique Sacrament program. Information from from some local parishes, including Nedlands and Subiaco is provided below.
NEDLANDS – HOLY ROSARY
Enrolment evening for parents/carers
Friday 7 February, 6:00pm.
Parish Centre, 45-47 Tyrell Street, Nedlands.
SCARBOROUGH – IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY
Enrolments close: second week in February.
See here for enrolment information and for details on each of the sacraments.
SUBIACO – ST JOSEPH’S
Expressions of interest for the 2025 sacrament program close at the beginning of February.
Further information here.
elaine.eng@stjosephssubiaco.org.au
Parents often have questions about the Sacrament program, so don’t be afraid to ask:
- Your parish priest or Sacrament Coordinator
- The Archdiocesan website: Parishes & Mass Times
- Mary-Anne Lumley mary-anne.lumley@johnxxiii.edu.au 08 9383 0513
Advent & Christmas
Many families seek out ways to meaningfully celebrate the season of Advent and Christmas together.
Some parishes local to the College have shared their Christmas schedule, including ‘children-friendly’ Vigil Masses on Christmas Eve.
CITY BEACH – HOLY SPIRIT
- Christmas Eve Vigil Mass at 6:00pm
- preceded by carol singing at 5:30pm
DOUBLEVIEW – OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY
- Christmas Eve Vigil Mass at 6:00pm
NEDLANDS – HOLY ROSARY
Tuesday 24 December
HOLY ROSARY - Christmas Eve Vigil Mass at 6:00pm, preceded by carol singing at 5:30pm
CARMELITE MONASTERY - Christmas Eve Vigil Mass at 7:00pm
Wednesday 25 December 2024
HOLY ROSARY - Christmas Morning Mass at 9:00am, preceded by carol singing at 8:30am
CARMELITE MONASTERY - Christmas Morning Mass at 8:00am
Second Sunday in Advent
This Sunday is the second of the four Sundays in Advent, and in some parishes the second candle on the Advent Wreath will be lit. Jesuit, Fr Richard Leonard, shares this reflection on the gospel.
In this gospel, John the Baptist encourages his followers to be patient, as the wait for salvation will soon be over. The Israelites longed to see the day when the Messiah would come. Each generation hoped and prayed that they would be the one to witness the appearance of God's anointed. The Jewish people still hope and pray for this event in every generation.
But Jesus did not come as many expected. Some thought he would arrive in a dramatic event and the end of the world would occur. Others expected a regal entrance or a political overthrow of the Romans. Luke's Gospel repeatedly points out that the very people who longed for the day to see the Messiah missed out because they were looking for the wrong signs.
John the Baptist is the first to see Jesus for who he really is for the world. He recognises that Jesus' sacrificial love can fill our valleys, lay mountains low, make crooked paths straight and rough ways smooth.
Advent is not a season where we have to pretend that we do not know Jesus is coming and then put on mock surprise at Christmas. Advent is the season which celebrates a 'patient yes'. Every year all of us in the Church stand in a queue and remind ourselves of how blessed we are to have seen our salvation in Jesus. We remember the faith of those who longed to see what we see and to know what we know. And we cultivate our patience for life's valleys, mountains and crooked paths where sometimes we can feel Jesus' absence more than his presence, where only when we look back we can see he was with us all the way.
So, as we all wait together in line this Advent let's say yes to all that salvation holds for us: yes to God's personal love; yes to Jesus' kingdom of justice and peace; yes to every opportunity to serve the Gospel and yes to knowing that our God is a companion to us at every step of our journey, even in the most unexpected ways.
Scottish poet John Bell expresses it this way:
'Light looked down and saw the darkness.
"I will go there", said light.
Peace looked down and saw war.
"I will go there", said peace.
Love looked down and saw hatred.
"I will go there", said love.
So he,
the Lord of Light,
the Prince of Peace,
the King of Love,
came down and crept in beside us.'
© Richard Leonard SJ