John XXIII College Newsletter

Liturgy

Community Mass

Thank you to the Year 7 students who prepared today’s Liturgy of the Word with such care.

 

Next Friday, as we look towards Mothers’ Day, we will have a special live-streamed Liturgy of the Word at 7:30am, and hope that Primary and Secondary families will gather in their homes to share in this event. We hope it will be a cosy time of family reflection, prayer and blessing.

 

Mother's Day invitation.pdf

On Friday 13 May, Community Mass will be prepared by students in Loreto House.

 

Community Mass details:

  • College Chapel
  • Fridays in term time
  • Starts: 8:00am and concludes 8:30am 
  • EXCEPTION Next Friday, 6 May there will be no mass, as we will instead have Mother's Day live-stream

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:

GOOD NEWS for the 3rd Sunday of Easter

 

The season of Easter is unique in the Church’s calendar. For it is different to the rest of the liturgical seasons. Advent has the two-fold role of preparing us for the coming of Christ at Christmas, and for the Second Coming of Christ at the end of time. Lent is our preparation for the yearly celebration of Easter.

 

But the season of Easter is different. For the Easter season is not the preparation for a solemn feast. Rather, it is the prolonging, the extension of our celebration of the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday. Our joy at the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is so great that it cannot be contained in one day. Rather, it flows out into the next fifty days. And these fifty days from Easter Sunday to Pentecost are celebrated in joyful exultation as one feast day or better as one great Sunday. That is why we must avoid any temptation to think that Easter is over. That we are getting back to 

normal.

 

I wonder if that is what is dominates Peter’s thought in today’s Gospel Reading. It is hard to know. Because at the beginning of the gospel, we read, “Simon Peter said, ‘I’m going fishing.’” This sounds strangely like the words of one, who after the events of Easter, wants to return to the things he knew. One who, after the sad and confusing death of Jesus, followed by the exhilarating event of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, wanted to get back to what was familiar. Get back to what he knew. After all, most of us are more comfortable with what we know.

 

Peter should have known better. Peter should have known that following the resurrection of Jesus nothing could ever be the same again.

 

Because even though he returns to his fishing boat, Simon Peter has no success: “They went out and got into the boat but caught nothing.” But then, Jesus stands on the shore, and calls to them. And he tells them to cast their nets out on the other side. Already, the author of the Fourth Gospel is giving us a heap of clues that nothing is the same again. At Jesus’ command, they do throw out their nets to starboard “and there were so many fish that they could not haul it in.” And then John recognises Jesus: “It is the Lord.” And Peter jumps into the water and goes to Jesus. Nothing is the same again.

 

Jesus then meets his disciple-fishermen on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. And they share a meal of barbequed fish and bread. The breakfast scene is a simple, ordinary scene but one which points to a much deeper reality. For we cannot help but see in this simple meal an image of the Eucharist: “Jesus then stepped forward, took the bread and gave it to them, and the same with the fish.” And the author of the Fourth Gospel tells us that “This was the third time that Jesus showed himself to the disciples after rising from the dead.” Nothing is the same again.

 

Jesus then questions Peter three times about his readiness to love. Peter gets quite upset by this threefold questioning. We can hear his plaintive cry: “Lord, you know everything; you know I love you.” Jesus’ threefold command to Peter is clear: “Feed my sheep.” We cannot help but see in the three questions which Jesus puts to Peter, a counterpart to the three times Peter denies Jesus during his Passion. Jesus then foreshadows the way in which Peter was to die and so give glory to God.

 

The Gospel concludes with the simple words: “After this he said, ‘Follow me.’” In many ways, today’s Gospel reading is the story of the Church in miniature. It is the story of our discipleship of Jesus. In the midst of the ordinary, we catch nothing. But then, we recognise Jesus. And in recognising Jesus risen from the dead, we find that nothing is the same again.

 

No matter what sort of believers, there is room for all of us in the Church’s net.It does not matter who they are, who they love, with what they struggle, with what we’ve got wrong, there is room for all of us in the Church’s net. And being caught up in the net of God’s love, we are fed and we are nourished with the bread of the Eucharist, given to us by the Risen Lord. 

 

And finally, Jesus entrusts us to the care and protection of Peter. Jesus is not concerned with whether Peter acknowledges his doctrine, or says the right prayers, or 

whether he desires to become a fisherman again. Rather, Jesus is only concerned with whether Peter loves him. And whether, with that same love, he will tend the flock of Christ. And then Jesus says to us, “Follow me.” Nothing is the same again.

© Anthony Doran

 

The reflection is by Father Anthony Doran who is Parish Priest of Strathmore in the Archdiocese of Melbourne. Prior to entering the seminary, Fr Anthony was a secondary school teacher, teaching in country and suburban schools in Victoria. Fr Anthony is a member of Societas Liturgica, the international society for liturgical study and renewal and a member of the Board of the Catholic Development Fund for the Archdiocese of Melbourne. 

 

Doran, Anthony. "Third Sunday of Easter - 1 May 2022." Pastoral Liturgy 52, no. 2 (2021): 1-7. https://researchonline.nd.edu.au/pastoral-liturgy/vol52/iss2/22