John XXIII College Newsletter

Liturgy

Community Liturgy

Our College celebrates Founders’ Time in August. However, in the ‘official’ church calendar, the feast of Pope Saint John XXIII is celebrated on 11 October (date of the opening of Vatican II). The College community will honour Pope Saint John XXIII in our first Community Liturgy for Term 4, Friday 12 October.  The Liturgy will be prepared by Year 9 students. All members of the College community are welcome – and especially Year 9 parents and friends.

 

For parents who like to plan ahead, the Term 4 schedule for classes/groups preparing the liturgy follows.

  • 12 Oct   Year 9
  • 19 Oct   Year 8
  • 26 Oct   Teachers
  • 2 Nov    2019 SRC
  • 9 Nov    Year 10
  • 16 Nov  Year 9
  • 23 Nov  Year 7
  • 30 Nov  Year 8
  • 7 Dec     Whole College end of year Eucharist (no community liturgy)

 

REGULAR COMMUNITY LITURGY

When: Fridays in Term Time

Time: 8:00-8:30am

Where: College Chapel

 

If you have any queries about Community Liturgy, please contact Mary-Anne Lumley:

Lumley.mary-anne@cewa.edu.au or 9383 0513.

Sacrament program

Do you have a child in Year 3, 4 or 6 and have not yet enrolled in the Sacrament program in your ‘home’ parish?

 

In the Perth Archdiocese the Sacrament Program is ‘family-focused, parish-based, Catholic school-supported’.

Some parishes (e.g. Subiaco and Claremont) are offering Sacraments in Term 4.  For further information:

 

GOOD NEWS for the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

‘…The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of humanity … All who wish to be first must make themselves the servants of all.’ Mark 9:30-37

 

The reflection for this Sunday’s Gospel is part of a homily by Jesuit priest, Fr Richard Leonard. Fr Richard Leonard SJ is the Director of the Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting, is a member of the Australian Catholic Media Council and is author of Preaching to the Converted, Paulist Press, New York, 2006.

 

It’s hard to see what the disciples don’t get when Jesus tells them in fairly plain language that because of the way he lives and what he says he will be put to death by the power barons of his day. The disciples seem to think the Passion is going to be an event out of Boy’s Own Annual, where the ensuing campaign will see greatness thrust upon them. In this context, Jesus takes the smallest and most vulnerable of people in their society and teaches the disciples that greatness comes through care of the least.

 

This is a powerful lesson. Greatness in the world – power, connections, wealth, influence, reputation and learning – only counts for something in the Kingdom of God when put at the service of the most vulnerable of our society. Greed, riches and pride are so alluring, so seductive for us in the Church, as much as for those outside it, that we need to regularly examine our consciences to assess the motivations and results of what we are doing, and why we are doing it. When I read today’s Gospel, however, I also feel sad. I cannot help but reflect on how unintentionally prophetic Mark was being in linking the prediction of Jesus’ passion with the status of a child.

 

The safeguards now needed in response to the criminal and scandalous behaviour of a very few leaders in the Church, means that many bishops, priests, religious and teachers can no longer follow Jesus’ example and take children in our arms. I fully understand why this is the case, but the fact that we have to be so careful about the care of our children and have strict protocols and legislation that covers such behaviour toward children is a necessary and, nonetheless, tragic moment. It’s also a moment for us to remember the passion of those who have had to endure the trauma of destructive behaviour. As the Jews say of the Holocaust, ‘to forget is to commit the same mistake again’. At its most basic level the latter part of today’s Gospel reveals what we would expect of Jesus – he likes children and they like him.

 

It’s amazing how a couple of pieces of information can sometimes change the way a scriptural story is read, and its importance for our lives today. We know from other documents of the same period as the New Testament that children in first century Palestine had no rights. They were possessions of their fathers, and they could be bought and sold, exploited and even killed without any recourse to the religious or civil law.

 

One way in which a child was publicly claimed in this society was that only their immediate family could touch them. The story, then, of Jesus embracing the child in public was in itself a social challenge to accepted customs. But it’s much more than that. In taking the children in his arms, Jesus declares that they are possessions of no one, but they belong to us all as gifts. In the family of God, children are accorded the dignity and respect we would give to God.

 

Today’s Gospel tells us that those who deserve our attention and esteem are the ones who are the least, the most at risk or those who put their talents and gifts at their service by making the world a better place for them. Just as he did in the market place of Galilee when he took the children in his arms, Jesus has a habit of turning our world’s values upside down.

© Richard Leonard