Do you have a child currently in Year 2, 3 or 5? Next year the children will be respectively preparing for the sacraments of Reconciliation, Eucharist and Confirmation. While the students will learn the appropriate content in their Religion classes, they celebrate the sacraments with their family in their parishes.
The archdiocesan Sacrament Policy is ‘family-focused, parish-based, Catholic school supported’, so it is the right of the parents to enrol their child in a parish program – usually, but not necessarily the parish closest to home. Some of our local parishes have begun the enrolment process.
Please see here for schedules and other information which has been supplied by parishes.
During this season of Advent, some of our local parishes warmly invite families to some special celebrations. Please refer to details below:
Cottesloe Parish
ADVENT ~ PREPARING FOR GOD AMONG US
When: Thursday 12 December, 7:00pm
Where: Cottesloe Parish Centre
Presented by Rev. Fr Vincent Glynn, Notre Dame University lecturer—1 hour talk followed by some reflection time on scripture.
OTHER EVENTS – COTTESLOE/MOSMAN PARK
ADVENT ~ SECOND RITE OF RECONCILIATION
When: Thursday 19 December from 7:00pm
Where: St Mary Star of the Sea Church Cottesloe
CORPUS Christi MOSMAN PARK CHOIR ~ THE NATIVITY IN CAROLS
When: Tuesday 17 December 2019, 7:00pm
An invitation to everyone to come and enjoy Christmas Carols with the Corpus Christi choir and get into the spirit of Christmas. Followed by a light Christmas supper.
Claremont Parish
Fremantle Parish
Subiaco Parish
GOOD NEWS for the 3rd Sunday in Advent
Are you the one who is to come, or must we wait for someone else?
Matthew 11:2-11
The reflection for this Sunday’s Gospel is 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.
Have you ever been on a farm during summer? If you have you will know how precious water is. When I was a boy, I spent several holidays on an uncle's property. There were often six or seven city-based cousins there for the long summer break. It was great fun, but the one thing of which we needed a daily reminder was to be careful with how much water we used. We seemed to luxuriate in the shower for twice as long as our country cousins!
I can remember that when we arrived for one holiday, it had not rained in the area for nearly nine months. A few days later, just at dusk, the thunder rumbled, the storm clouds gathered and the heavens burst open. The rain poured down. Like in the movies, everyone inside the house just stood up and walked out into the rain. No one said a word. We stood in the rain and soaked it in. The earth was not the only thing in need of a drenching.
In today's letter from St James the metaphor of waiting for rain is given to us as a way of understanding what it was like to wait for Christ. It is a potent image for Advent. In this season each year we remember that humanity waited through a long, dry and exhausting period for the sign of new life in Jesus. For generations people looked to the heavens every day for a sign that today would be the day when God's salvation would come. Then, one night, in a way no one could have ever imagined, with no fanfare, a child burst forth into the world and established the final reign of God's love.
Advent is not the time when we pretend that Jesus hasn't come into our world and that we are the first to anticipate his coming at Christmas. It's a richer season than that. It is the time when we recall what it was like before he came and how much we need him to keep coming again and again in our daily lives.
The First Reading and the Gospel make it very clear that farmers never down tools just because the rain comes. We're told that as a result of being soaked in the love of God we are called to do all we can for those in our world who are lame, blind, deaf, lepers, poor and for any one left for dead.
This is a vital message for us to hear today because there are some in our country who tell us that all we have to do is look after ‘our own back yard’. This line is many things, but it’s not Christian. Advent reminds us that by welcoming Christ we have an obligation to care for all his children. Everywhere is our back yard because that’s where our brothers and sisters live. May we gain from Christ this Christmas the generosity to see that the desert is meant to bloom for all people everywhere, not just a few of us lucky to live in an oasis.
We are ridiculously generous to others because God in Jesus has been lavishly good to us and our goodness remains a most powerful sign of God's salvation that is always seen in deeds not words.
