Liturgy

Community Mass

Thank you to students in Campion House for their preparation of this morning’s liturgy. 

Our next Community Liturgy is on Thursday, 25 March, commencing at 7:30am, in the Library Courtyard.  In the lead up to Palm Sunday and Holy Week, the College will celebrate Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and the proclamation of the Passion of Jesus from the Gospel of Mark.  This will be a student-led Liturgy of the Word. (There will NOT be a Community Mass on Friday 26 March.)

All are welcome next Thursday:

• Library Courtyard
• 7:30am, ready for a 7:40am start

This will be followed by a Procession of Palms to the College Chapel. All are welcome to this special annual event. 

Community Mass summary

• College Chapel
• Fridays in term time
• Starts: 8:00am and concludes 8:30am
• Exception: Friday 26 March – no Mass due to Parent-Teacher-Student interviews.

SACRAMENT PROGRAM

Do you have a child in Year 3, 4 or 6?

It is imperative that your child is enrolled in a parish Sacrament Program.  Some parishes have already finalised enrolments for 2021. 

Doesn’t the school RE curriculum cover the sacrament knowledge?

Yes, that is correct. Most parishes do not require students in Catholic schools to take additional classes in the parish. However, the parish community still needs families to complete the enrolment process in order to celebrate the sacraments. 

How to enrol

Contact the parish (parish secretary, sacrament coordinator or parish priest). Parish contact details are available here.  The College provides information from some of our local parishes. It is the parents’ right and responsibility to follow up with enrolling their child in the parish. 

Please check below for the enrolment dates and procedures for some of our local parishes. 

Saint Thomas Apostle, Claremont

First Communion Friday 21 May 

Confirmation Friday 27 August 

Reconciliation October 

Please note that, due to current COVID restrictions on maximum capacity, priority for enrolment will go to families who are in the parish of Saint Thomas Apostle. Please see http://www.johnxxiii.edu.au/view/parent-resources/parish-sacraments

Enrolment forms are available from silvia.kinder@iona.wa.edu.au

St Mary Star of the Sea, Cottesloe/Corpus Christi, Mosman Park 

Reconciliation Saturday 27 March

First Holy Communion Sunday 1 August

Information Day: Thursday 29 April, 4-5pm, Parish Centre, 2 McNeil Street, Peppermint Grove.

Confirmation Sunday 7 November

Information Day: 5 August, 4-5pm Parish Centre, 2 McNeil Street, Peppermint Grove.

Enrolment information and contact details for the Sacrament Coordinator may be found here. 

Holy Spirit, City Beach

Enrolment information and contact details for the Sacrament Coordinator may be found here

St Mary’s, Leederville

Enrolment information may be found 

Registration: Goretti – 94449624  smc_secretary@aapt.net.au

If you would like further information about the Sacrament Program:

• If your nearest parish is not listed, search the Archdiocesan website;
• Check the information available on the College website here
• Contact Mary-Anne Lumley mary-anne.lumley@cew.edu.au OR phone 9383 0408

GOOD NEWS for the Year of Saint Joseph

Last December, Pope Francis called for 2021 to be the Year of St Joseph.  In his Apostolic letter, Francis describes Saint Joseph as a “beloved father, a tender and loving father, an obedient father, an accepting father; a father who is creatively courageous, a working father, a father in the shadows.” The Pope links Saint Joseph with parenting in today’s world. He writes: “A man does not become a father simply by bringing a child into the world, but by taking up the responsibility to care for that child.”

Jesuit, Andrew Hamilton, gives us the following reflection for today’s feast of Saint Joseph. 

Father Andy is a Jesuit, a theologian, a writer and, among his many other roles, the Media Officer for Jesuit Social Services.

Pope Francis has dedicated this year to St Joseph. He did this in response to seeing how much pressure Coronavirus put on so many families through anxiety, unemployment and fractured relationships. He emphasises St Joseph’s role as father of his family.

Saint Joseph was a carpenter who earned an honest living to provide for his family. From him, Jesus learned the value, the dignity and the joy of what it means to eat bread that is the fruit of one’s own labour.

In our own day, when employment has once more become a burning social issue, and unemployment at times reaches record levels even in nations that for decades have enjoyed a certain degree of prosperity, there is a renewed need to appreciate the importance of dignified work, of which Saint Joseph is an exemplary patron.

The world of work in St Joseph’s time differs from our own. He was self-employed as a carpenter, was skilled, saw his work through from beginning to end, and supported Mary and Jesus through his work. In his work he was relatively privileged – for many others work depended on being hired each day and could be back-breaking and dangerous, was back breaking. Supporting a family was always precarious.

In our developed nation fewer people work at making things for people to buy. Women and men are more likely to work at computers in large organisations and to see only a tiny part of what the finished product. Because manufacturing is so often mechanised and computerised, requiring few workers and privileging people with a higher level of education, work for manual workers is precarious, and many can find only part-time work. People who are unemployed live on the edge of poverty and homelessness.

For both women and men work is an expression of their dignity as human beings. Respect for their dignity demands that they be seen and be able to grow as persons through their work. They ae not simply cogs in a machine nor costs on a balance sheet to be hired or fired at will as profits dictate. Respect also demands that people have security of employment and participate in shaping the conditions under which they work.

The importance of work in our lives is picked up in a further feast, that of the Feast of St Joseph the Worker, celebrated on May 1. The feast is relatively new. Its date was chosen to compete with May Day which represented work as a battleground between greedy employers and oppressed workers. The Feast commended a cooperative world in which work is a central part of human life and workers are honoured for themselves and not simply for their use to their employers. Pope Francis also speaks eloquently of the importance that work plays in a human life.

For St Joseph work was both a gift and a struggle. It remains so today. Given the weakness of individual workers in relation to employers, we always need to shape a society which ensures that the conditions under which people work are fair and respectful.

© Andrew Hamilton