Mission and Identity
- Italian Heritage Mass and the Feast of St Anthony of Padua
- Pius and Mercy Youth Mass
- Heart and Silence Meditation - Year of Prayer
- 1 Peter 4:10 Winter Appeal - Assistance Needed
- Refugee Week - Open Hearts
- Freedom Feast Fundraiser - this Sunday evening
Italian Heritage Mass and the Feast of St Anthony of Padua
‘O Santo Antonio, prega per me!’ It was a beautiful experience on Sunday morning for St Pius X to join the dynamic Parish of Our Lady of Dolours Chatswood, along with Loreto Normanhurst and Mercy College to celebrate a bilingual Mass in honour of St Anthony of Padua.
Scores of families with Italian heritage gathered from these four communities to celebrate faith, family and food!
Thank you to Fr David Ranson and the parish team for another successful faith community-building celebration.
Pius and Mercy Youth Mass
Following the community celebrations on Sunday morning with the Italian Heritage Mass, Sunday evening saw another celebration in the Pius and Mercy Youth Mass. Sublime music from Mr Balboa and Mr Almendras enveloped the student-led ministry, actioned through leading the readings, serving on the altar and as Eucharistic Ministers.
After being fed spiritually, we were fed physically with pizza on the forecourt. It is an enriching experience to see our young people smile, laugh and enjoy the winning combination of faith, food and friendship.
Heart and Silence Meditation - Year of Prayer
‘Heart and Silence’ - The second meditation in the series on Prayer developed by Fr David Ranson explores ‘prayer as the movement of our very being’.
This beautiful meditation will enrapture you in a poetic journey to the ‘womb of our spirit’ where the ‘radical silence of God’ and the ‘prayer of the heart’ springs forth.
This meditation peels back our misgivings about silence to reveal it as the ‘most important expression of the Word of God’
Another exquisite pilgrimage into prayer, the secret recesses of the heart and beautiful surrender. Thank you once again Fr David, and Anthony Costa from Ministry Media.
Please enjoy this meditation below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&si=9YaROcfrS-EE0B2D&v=8LRr8f3SiDY&feature=youtu.be
1 Peter 4:10 Winter Appeal - Assistance Needed
Thank you for the generosity shown thus far towards the 1 Peter 4:10 Winter Appeal. Please assist us with one last generous push of donations as we seek to support St Vincent de Paul and Jesuit Refugee Services. All donations will be collected in homeroom, with donations being coordinated in the College Foyer. Thank you in advance for your generosity:
Refugee Week - Open Hearts
This week we mark Refugee Week. In a highly polarised geopolitical landscape, those who are displaced are more at risk than ever. As a Catholic learning community in the tradition of Edmund Rice, we are called to reflect on the Holy Family.
At the age of 14, having newly given birth to Jesus, the Holy Family had to flee to Egypt as refugees to escape the persecution of King Herod that would have led to their deaths, if Joseph had not had the courage to flee to a distant land.
May the reflection and prayer below bring into perspective our need to witness the face of God in all who are displaced and be moved into action for advocacy to serve their needs, and for our hearts to be open and welcoming:
Every family is a holy family, if you look closely enough,
Because every person bears the breath of God.
Isn’t that the wonder of the incarnation?
It’s Joseph who waits in a cold parking lot,
Hoping for a day’s work to feed his family.
It’s Mary who cradles a crying Jesus
Under the blue tarp of a refugee camp.
It’s Joseph, too, who changes your oil,
Mary who scrubs your toilet,
Jesus who plays hide and seek
In the crowded aisles of your laundromat.
Just as the holy family sought admittance to an inn,
So these holy families seek admittance to our hearts.
May we not only gather them in,
But may we accept their welcome, too.
And as we dine together, at their table, at ours,
May we know that the bread we break is sacrament,
The communion between us—something sacred.
Open our hearts so that we may provide hospitality for all who come in search of refuge.
Give us the courage to welcome every stranger as Christ in our midst.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.
Blessed Edmund Rice, Pray for us.
St Pius X, Pray for us.
Live Jesus in our hearts, forever”
Freedom Feast Fundraiser this Saturday evening
Our Lady of Dolours is hosting an exotic feast as a ‘Freedom Feast’ fundraiser to generate sufficient funds to bring a mother and three children to Sydney from Iran after their father was killed by the Taliban.
Below is the link to buy tickets. It would be wonderful to generate a St Pius X table.
Please consider being part of this transformative initiative:
In this week of focus on those who are displaced, may we be ever grateful for this community, our homes, our sense of belonging and safety.
God bless,
Mr Daniel Petrie - Assistant Principal, Mission and Identity