✝️Faith and Mission

We Are Not Alone

Fr Henri Nouwen

We are not alone. We have each other. Together we can carry each other's burdens and help each other break through our paralysis by sharing our helplessness and by leading each other to purity of heart on the road to peace.

“Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”

- Galatians 6: 2

A Call to Hope 

Pope Francis in his Lenten message: “Let us journey together in hope”, calls for a personal conversion of heart from each of us as we journey together through the season of Lent, towards our Lord’s Resurrection on Easter Sunday.

In his message, Let us journey together in hope, for we have been given a promise. May the hope that does not disappoint (cf. Rom 5:5), the central message of the Jubilee, be the focus of our Lenten journey towards the victory of Easter. As Pope Benedict XVI taught us in the Encyclical Spe Salvi, “the human being needs unconditional love.  He needs the certainty which makes him say: ‘neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord’ ( Rom 8:38-39)”. Christ, my hope, has risen!  He lives and reigns in glory. Death has been transformed into triumph, and the faith and great hope of Christians rests in this: the resurrection of Christ!

This, then, is the third call to conversion: a call to hope, to trust in God and his great promise of eternal life. Let us ask ourselves: Am I convinced that the Lord forgives my sins? Or do I act as if I can save myself? Do I long for salvation and call upon God’s help to attain it? Do I concretely experience the hope that enables me to interpret the events of history and inspires in me a commitment to justice and fraternity, to care for our common home and in such a way that no one feels excluded?

Young Vinnies State Gathering

Five senior members of the de Mazenod Vinnies Conference, Jeremy E, Julian P, Mitchell H, Matthew G and Alexander T  attended the State Gathering of Young Vinnies in Canning Vale on Wednesday, 26 March 2025. The gathering was a wonderful opportunity for our students and teachers to network with Vinnies members from other schools.

Students learned about the history of Vinnies and the various services that they currently offer the community. There was also an opportunity to tour the warehouse and the local Vinnies Store as well as to engage with adult members from various parish-based St Vincent de Paul Conferences. The group also participated in a hands-on activity, assembling comfort hampers for the homeless.

A big part of the day was networking with the other Young Vinnies conferences. While sharing our own ideas, we also came away with several new ideas. Overall, it was a wonderful day well spent, which reinvigorated and the reinforced the good works being done by the de Mazenod Vinnies students and staff.

Fourth Sunday of Lent

29 and 30 March 2025

Irene lives in the Kongolo Region in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and faced immense challenges after losing her father to war and raising her children in poverty. With support from Caritas Australia, Irene received vocational training in sewing and farming and can now support her whole family.

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Damian Wallis

Director of Faith and Mission