John XXIII College Newsletter

Liturgy

Community Liturgy

Next Friday’s Community Mass will be prepared by students in Year 7. Parents and family members are especially welcome – just come in and be seated in one of our ‘socially-distanced’ seats. 

 

The Mass is joyful and ‘user-friendly’ and everyone has a ‘standing invitation’ whether or not they are Catholic. For any queries about the Mass, please contact Mary-Anne Lumley: mary-anne.lumley@johnxxiii.edu.au

 

Community Mass Summary

  • Every Friday
  • 8:00am – 8:30am
  • College Chapel

 

SACRAMENT PROGRAM

Congratulations to students and their families!

It is with great pleasure that we congratulate so many of our Year 4 students, as well as their families, who have recently made their First Holy Communion in several parishes. 

 

St Cecilia, Floreat

Jennalee Briede

Grace Czajko

Kiran Finn 

Sam Jukic 

Isaac McCready

Wren McGlew 

Erin Ralph

Jack Turner

 

Holy Spirit, City Beach

Thomas Archibald

Nicholas Maroni

Matilda Martin

Olivia Pronk

 

Our Lady Grace, North Beach

Mia Conway

 

St John, Scarborough

Amelia Wibrow

 

 

If you would like further information about the Sacrament Program:

Sacrament of Confirmation 

Archbishop Timothy Costelloe has issued updated directives, aligned with phase 4 of Western Australia’s COVID 19 Roadmap.

 

The Sacrament of Confirmation may now be offered in parishes if certain conditions are met.  The Archbishop states:

“The temporary suspension of the celebration of the Sacrament of Confirmation is hereby discontinued. The Sacrament of Confirmation may now be celebrated in accordance with the following directives. Each Parish Priest will make appropriate decisions about this matter after consultation with his sacramental team and other advisors.  Confirmations may still be postponed until 2021...”

 

The complete Update is available on the Archdiocesan website. 

Sacrament Preparation 

In the Archdiocese of Perth, the model for Sacrament preparation is ‘family-focused, parish-based, and school/PREP* supported. The Policy was formalized in 2014, and outlines how family, parish and school work together. An excerpt from the Archbishop’s letter of introduction is below. 

*Parish Religious Education Program

 

Sacraments 2021

Parishes are now planning for celebrations of the sacraments in 2021. Parents are encouraged to enrol their child in their ‘home’ parish once enrolments open.

 

For families living in the Cottesloe/Mosman Park area, enrolment information and contact details for the Sacrament Coordinator may be found here. 

 

Enrolment information from other parishes will be updated as it becomes available. 

Updates from local parishes

SAINT MARY STAR OF THE SEA, COTTESLOE

Confirmation  20 September, 10:00am

Contact: cottesloe@perthcatholic.org.au

 

SAINT THOMAS APOSTLE, CLAREMONT

Reconciliation  4 & 5 November, 3:30-4:30pm

Contact: silvia.kinder@cewa.edu.au

 

OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY, DOUBLEVIEW

First Communion   Saturday 17 & 24 October, 6:00pm, Sunday 18 & 25 October, 10.00am. 

Reconciliation   Tuesday - Friday, 27 - 30  October, 9:00am.

Confirmation   Saturday 7 & 14 November, 6:00pm, Sunday 8 & 15 November, 10.00am. 

Contact: Kaye Shervington, doubleview@perthcatholic.org.au

 

OUR LADY OF GRACE, NORTH BEACH

Reconciliation  27 October 2020

Contact: Sheralee Allen, north.beach@perthcatholic.org.au

 

ST JOSEPH, SUBIACO

The Parish of St Joseph regrets to advise that (due to their unique situation) in order to comply with both State Government and Archdiocesan Guidelines, they are unable to have the Sacrament program and Masses in 2020. They look forward to being able to publish, in due course, their enlarged program for 2021. 

Contact: sacraments@stjosephssubiaco.org.au

 

GOOD NEWS for the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

 
Matthew 20:1-16  “Why are you jealous because I am generous?”

 

The reflection for this Sunday’s Gospel is part of a longer homily 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.

 

… In today's Gospel, in which the first labourers are paid the same wage as the afternoon workers, what the early birds didn't reckon on was that they could have come much later and got the same deal.

 

We would cynically call the afternoon workers, ‘Johnny-come-latelies’ and chances are if we were confronted with the same situation we would be with the complainers.

 

This story was important to the early Church because generations of Jews waited and longed for the Messiah and, like the first workers, they were the first to respond to the call of Jesus and to work in the field of his Kingdom. For some of the early Jewish-Christians, including St Peter, it came as a surprise that the Lord was calling Gentiles to the life and work of Jesus' Kingdom as well.

 

We can imagine that it rankled some of the early birds to see these Johnny-come-latelies taking charge of the Christian mission. This wasn't how it was supposed to be!

 

This story, then, is a wonderful commentary on how fickle we are and, luckily for us, how extraordinarily generous God is. What we see in ourselves and others is only a glimpse of what God is like. God is so much more: more loving; more forgiving; more compassionate; and more just.

 

And because God is so much greater than anything we could ask or imagine, we are constantly surprised at how God turns our expectations, our fears and predictions upside down. We constantly look for God in the big and spectacular while God comes to us poor, naked, sick, in prison and hungry. God speaks through the most surprising people at the most surprising times.

 

That's why those people who have decided that God can only work in certain ways, places, people, institutions and times so often end up at the end of the line when it comes to religious wisdom. Michael McGirr in his excellent book, Things You Get for Free, argues that there is a crisis of belief today, but that it's not the way we often think. In a brilliant turning of the tables, McGirr says that the crisis of belief is that people inside the Church sometimes cannot believe that people outside its traditional structures can experience the love of Jesus. God loves and guides the Church, but is not bound by it. God is busy about making sure those who might be last have a chance to come in first.

 

Rather than resent this, however, let's thank God for being bigger than we are and for being just to all of us, no matter when, or how, we get the Word.

© Richard Leonard SJ© Fr Michael Tate