Liturgy

Community Liturgy

Thank you to Year 8 for their preparation of the Mass this morning.

Next week, 28 February, various members of our Community will prepare the Mass: parents, students and staff.

Friday 6 March, it will be the turn of Year 12 students to prepare our liturgy.

Community Mass is open to everyone – and new families to the school are especially welcome. It is a joyful and ‘user-friendly’ celebration. Mass commences at 8:00am, and finishes at 8:30am, in time for HomeRoom.

Community Liturgy summary

Where: College Chapel
Time: 8:00am – 8:30 am
When: every Friday in term time

SACRAMENT PROGRAM 2020

Do you have a child currently in Year 3, 4 or 6? The children will be preparing, in their Religion classes, 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.

Parents are encouraged to enrol their child, as soon as possible, in their parish – usually, but not necessarily the parish closest to home. Please check the enrolment dates and procedures for some of our local parishes on our website.

If you have any further queries please contact Mary-Anne Lumley: mary-anne.lumley@cew.edu.au

Updates from local parishes

Holy Spirit, City Beach

Information about the Sacraments: an evening for parents

Reminder for enrolled children: Commitment Masses this weekend.

Information: delattrecn@yahoo.fr or phone Parish Priest, Fr Emmanual-tv Dimobi, (08) 9341 3131.

Saint Thomas Apostle, Claremont

Sacrament enrolments close: Friday 14 March

Registration forms are available from silvia.kinder@cewa.edu.au

Star of the Sea, Cottesloe

Enrolments for program being finalised.

Further information: cottesloe@perthcatholic.org.au

Saint Cecilia, Floreat

Further information: Rita Morgan, floreat@perthcatholic.org.au

St Joseph, Subiaco

Applications open soon.

Further information: sacraments@stjosephssubiaco.org.au

Immaculate Heart of Mary, Scarborough

Contact: Fr Grant Goddard

(08) 9341 1124 OR scarborough@perthcatholic.org.au

GOOD NEWS for 7th Sunday in Ordinary Time

“Love your enemies”
Matthew 5:38-48

The reflection for this Sunday’s Gospel is by eminent Jesuit scripture scholar, Fr Brendan Byrne. Brendan Byrne was a member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission (Rome) (1990-96) and President of the Melbourne College of Divinity (2000-01). He was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 1999. He is the author of nine books, edits the theological journal Pacifica and regularly gives workshops on scripture to clergy and parish communities.

Jesus’ reinterpretation of the Torah arrives at its most radical point in the two final rulings that make up the Gospel: on retaliation (Matthew 5:38-42) and love of enemies (5:43-48). The old prescription about ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’ (Exod 21:24; Deut 19:21: Lev 24:20) is commonly cited as an example of the harshness of the Old Testament dispensation. This is unfair. In the tribal situation of early Israel, where institutions of justice were barely established, the law of strict reciprocity was a realistic measure to contain and limit the spiral of violence – to bring ‘pay back’ to a closure that all parties would recognise as fair. What Jesus commends is a readiness to disarm violence by being prepared to accept double what the perpetrator requires. The specific instances that he mentions – surrendering your cloak as well as your tunic; going two miles instead of just one – reflect social conditions in the Palestine of his day when soldiers of the occupying Roman forces could make such demands of members of the populace with impunity – something perfectly illustrated when Simon of Cyrene is compelled to carry Jesus’ cross (Matt 27:32). Readiness to meet such demands in order to disarm violence is hardly realistic on the level of society as a whole where evil and evildoers must be resisted and restrained. If disciples of Jesus, on an individual or small group level (as, for example, in Christian non-violent protest), adopt a generous stance in the face of injury and unreasonable demand, the freedom to do so will stem from consciousness of the far greater generosity they have themselves received from God.

In the case of the ruling about enemies (5:43-43) it is again important not to drive a wedge between the old and the new. Lev 19:18, cited in the First Reading, says ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself,’ adding nothing about enemies. Hating one’s enemy is simply a human tendency that Jesus knows to be widely prevalent. He resists it in the context, now made explicit, of the disposition and action of God, whose ‘children’ his disciples know themselves to be. ‘Like parent, like child,’ the adage runs. So they will truly show themselves to be children of God if they reflect the divine action in this radical way.

In conclusion, Jesus offers a definition of what it means to be ‘perfect’ in observance of the Torah: ‘You must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.’ The stress here falls upon the little word ‘as’: perfection means acting towards others, including one’s enemies, as the Creator acts towards all, good and bad alike.