College Chaplain

Let us return to the Eucharist with joy

Friends, the third term is coming to an end. Most of us will have a good time to rest after a hardworking term at school. Some of our friends have to study harder and make a good preparation for the final HSC exam. Others are worried about the new responsibilities that they are going to take as senior students. 

Let us pray for each other that through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and with the grace of God, we will always be courageous to step forward to serve one another and to grow in faith through our love and service, as Saint James said in his letter (2:26) “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.”

What are the “deeds” that Saint James taught us?

Jesus said in the Gospel according to Saint John (14:23), “If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”

So, friends, let us show our love to God and our brothers and sisters and pray for each other, especially our year 12 friends and our new senior students.

BLESSING OF GRADUATES

(By Fr. Michael Graham SJ, Offered at Baccalaureate Mass at Xavier University 2015)

Let us unite our hearts in prayerand entrust to the hands of the Lordthose who will be graduated soon.

May God who began this good work in youcarry it through to completion,enabling you to use your talents to the fullest.

May God give you the grace to make wise choicesand to be faithful to your commitments,always confident in the support of those who love you.

May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers,half-truths, and superficial relationships,so that you will live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger at injustice,oppression, and exploitation of people,so that you will work for justice, equality, and peace.

May God bless you with tears to shed for those whosuffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war,so that you will reach out your handto comfort them and 

change their pain into joy.

May God bless you with the foolishness to thinkthat you can make a difference in the world,so that you will do the thingswhich others tell you cannot be done.

May your integrity be a gift to the worldand may the Spirit of God be with you always.

On Monday 21th September our year 12 friends will participate in the mass of graduation to give thanks to the Lord for all blessings and graces upon their life, especially the time at Marian Catholic College. Even though we cannot all attend that Eucharistic celebration, let us join them in spirit to pray for them in the next stage of their life.

Let us return to the Eucharist with joy, Cardinal Robert Sarah said, to meet the Lord, to be with Him, to receive Him and to bring Him to our brothers and sisters with the witness of a life full of faith, love and hope.”

Let us pray together,

Lord Jesus,

I give you my hands to do your work,

I give you my feet to go your way.

I give you my eyes to see as you do.

I give you my mind that you may think in me.

I give you my spirit that you may pray in me.

Above all, I give you my heart 

that you may love in me your Father and all humanity.

I give you my whole self so that you may grow in me,

so that it is you, Lord Jesus, who live and work and pray in me. 

AMEN.

Let us return to the Eucharist with joy.

Fr Paul