Liturgy

Community Mass

Students in Year 8 prepare Community Liturgy next Friday, 3 March, and we look forward to  welcoming Year 8 students at 8:00am in the Chapel. 

Today we commissioned the Year 12 Student Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion for 2022. It is a blessing for our College community to have students assist with the distribution of Holy Communion at Mass. The students competed their training during the summer holidays, and we are grateful for their commitment to this ministry of love.

In accordance with current guidelines, Mass attendance is limited to students in the year group and staff members. We look forward to welcoming families, friends and alumni in the future, once COVID restrictions have eased.

Community Mass details:

• College Chapel
• Fridays in term time
• Starts: 8:00am and concludes 8:30am

SACRAMENT PROGRAM

‘Family-focused, parish-based, Catholic school supported’

Parents of students in Years 3, 4 and 6

Students will be preparing for the sacrament of Reconciliation (Year 3), Holy Communion (Year 4) and Confirmation (Year 6). This time of preparation is joyfully shared by families, parishes and schools. 

Sacraments are celebrated in parishes – usually the parish you consider your ‘home’ parish. It is important to ‘enrol’ in the parish program, even for families in Catholic schools, as parishes need to plan ahead for these events. 

Enrolment details for parishes of Cottesloe/Mosman Park, City Beach, Doubleview and Subiaco may be found here. 

Alternatively, contact the Parish Priest or Sacrament Coordinator in your own home parish.

If you would like further information about the Sacrament Program:

• If your nearest parish is not listed, search the Archdiocesan website;
• Contact Mary-Anne Lumley mary-anne.lumley@cewa.edu.au   08 9383 0513.

GOOD NEWS for Ash Wednesday

Next Wednesday, 2 March, is Ash Wednesday and marks the beginning of the Church season of Lent. Ashes will be distributed in a ‘COVID-safe’ manner in schools and parishes. The protocol requires everyone to wear masks and a very small amount of ash will be sprinkled on the head of each person, instead of marking the forehead as we are used to. 

The ashes themselves are an ancient symbol of penance and renewal. Fr Michael Tate, in the homily below, considers the ashes in the context of all being brought to new life through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Billions of years ago the universe was erupted into existence. God created a tremendous burst of energy and matter, a fantastic fireball, light and energy, a starburst of immense potential. And now, billions of years later, we are the descendants of that starburst. We are stardust, but very special, very beautiful stardust, loved by God into existence, sustained in existence by God’s love.

However, if nothing else happened, our bodies, our stardust bodies, would share the apparent fate of the universe. Scientists tell us that the stars, including our sun, will all run out of energy and lack all life. In something of the same way, our bodies will collapse at the end of our earthly lives into inert dust.

Ash Wednesday reminds us of the possibility of this fate. 

[On Ash Wednesday Christians are marked with] ashes in the sign of the Cross, the Cross which appeared to signal the extinction of life. But you will recall that Jesus’ death on the cross was only the start of a fantastic three days, which finished with his victory over death. His body was transfigured by divine energy like a new sunburst, a new starburst, a new creation, we call ‘the Resurrection’.

This is also our destiny desired by the Loving God. Our bodies are to become lively stardust again.

So, let us embark on this forty days of Lent, remembering that we are stardust not condemned to an inert end, but able to be saved from that fate into a wonderful future. 

And then let us do three traditional things:

Thank God for our existence as earthlings with a fantastic destiny. This expression of gratitude to the Creator is itself Prayer, the first of the tripod of Lent.

Live a little more simply for the traditional forty days in imitation of Our Lord’s fasting before embarking on his public ministry: Fasting, the second tripod of Lent.

Be generous during Project Compassion, for we share the same genesis as every other human being. Our common humanity obliges to sharing what we can: Almsgiving, the third tripod of Lent.

Rev. Prof. Michael Tate was a Senator for Tasmania from 1978-93 and Ambassador to The Hague and the Holy See from 1993-96. He is currently Vicar-General in the Archdiocese of Hobart and is an Honorary Professor of Law at the University of Tasmania where he lectures in International Humanitarian Law.