Faith and Mission

This week, Pope Leo XIV made a pilgrimage to Montserrat, a thousand-year-old monastery set high in the mountains near Barcelona. There, he prayed before the Black Madonna, Our Lady of Montserrat, entrusting his ministry and the mission of the Church to her care in a world longing for justice and peace.  

This place holds special significance for our community. Montserrat is where St Ignatius of Loyola spent a night in prayer before the Virgin and laid down his sword, leaving behind his former life as a soldier. This simple but courageous act marked the beginning of his conversion and the path that would lead to the founding of the Jesuits. 

Last year, I had the privilege of visiting Montserrat with other staff from Jesuit schools on an Ignatian Pilgrimage. Standing before the Black Madonna, we were encouraged to think of the following: what do I need to let go of, where is God calling me to grow, and how can I be more fully a person for others?

This experience reminds us that the invitation to growth, reflection and service is shared by us all, wherever we find ourselves in our journey.

The Black Madonna, lovingly known as La Moreneta, has drawn pilgrims for centuries. In this sacred place, the Pope spoke of welcome and belonging, saying, 

Thank you to Catalonia for having received so many people from other countries, because it teaches how to integrate everyone into a single family.

Pope Leo’s words speak powerfully into Refugee Week next week. His reminder that communities can become 'a single family' invites us to see refugees and asylum seekers with dignity, compassion and hope.

As a community, we can live this message by engaging in our food drive for CARAD and supporting those in our local community seeking welcome and a new beginning. In doing so, we respond to the call of the Gospel to stand with others in justice and love.

May we have the courage of Ignatius to lay down what holds us back, and the generosity to be people of hope, compassion and service.

Janeen Murphy

Deputy Principal Faith and Mission

Community Mass

Thank you to students from St Louis House for their beautiful preparation of this morning’s Eucharist. Thank you also to Fr Tri Nguyen CSsR from the Redemptorist Monastery for celebrating with us on the feast of the Sacred Heart. 

At next Friday’s liturgy, there will be a blessing for students and staff who are heading off on the ‘Arts Tour’.  Music students will be preparing this Mass, to which everyone is welcome! 

If you have any questions. contact, Mary-Anne Lumley.

Community Mass details 

• College Chapel
• All welcome!
• Fridays in term time
• Starts at 8:00am; concludes at 8:30am.

Sacraments

Parents often have questions about the Sacrament program, so please don’t hesitate to ask. Below are some useful points of contact: 

• The priest or sacrament coordinator in your local parish
• The Archdiocesan website: Parishes & Mass Times

• Mary-Anne Lumley: mary-anne.lumley@johnxxiii.edu.au  or via phone on 

  08 9383 0513

Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Insight into the Sacred Heart of Jesus and why we celebrate this feast can be found in the writings of two Jesuits: French priest, Fr Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ (1881-1955) and Rev. James Hanvey SJ, who is currently Master of Campion Hall, University of Oxford. 

‘There is a heart of the world, and that heart is the heart of Christ.’ 

Teilhard de Chardin SJ

Alive with love: the Sacred Heart of Jesus[1]

… Images of the Sacred Heart can be found in many of our churches. Once it was a familiar feature of many Catholic homes, as were the particular prayers and practices that went with it. Fashions in devotions change as they do in everything else. 

The Church, however, has a faith-memory; it can keep important truths and insights alive and renew them. The form and imagery may change, but devotion to the Sacred Heart remains always central in the Church’s own life and heart. This should not surprise us. 

The devotion is more than a series of prayers and practices. It is something experienced and contemplated. It is nothing less than our participation in the love of God made real in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ.

James Hanvey SJ

[1]Alive with love: the Sacred Heart of Jesus | Thinking Faith: The online journal of the Jesuits in Britain