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St. Augustine's School Prayer
Our Father in Heaven,
Look over and bless St. Augustine’s while we are working and playing.
Help us to respect and care for each other as you taught us to.
Give us the opportunity to do our best for you each day.
We look forward to being able to share our lives with our friends and families.
Keep us safe and give us the courage to be
people who want to know you more.
Amen.
I invite all families to pray this prayer at home, maybe one morning each week.
Prayer of the Week
Hail Holy Queen
Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy,
our life, our sweetness and our hope.
To you do we cry, poor banished children of Eve.
To you do we send up our sighs,
mourning and weeping in this valley of tears
Turn then, most gracious advocate,
your eyes of mercy toward us,
and after this exile show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb,Jesus.
O clement,
O loving,
O sweet Virgin Mary.
Amen.
Prayer for the Year of St. Joseph
To you,
O blessed Joseph,
do we come in our afflictions,
and having implored the help of your most holy Spouse,
we confidently invoke your patronage also.
Through that charity which bound you to the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God and through the paternal love with which you embraced the Child Jesus,
we humbly beg you graciously to regard the inheritance which Jesus Christ has purchased by his Blood,
and with your power and strength to aid us in our necessities.
O most watchful guardian of the Holy Family, defend the chosen children of Jesus Christ;
O most loving father, ward off from us every contagion of error and corrupting influence;
O our most mighty protector, be kind to us and from heaven assist us in our struggle with the power of darkness.
As once you rescued the Child Jesus from deadly peril,
so now protect God’s Holy Church from the snares of the enemy and from all adversity; shield, too, each one of us by your constant protection,
so that, supported by your example and your aid, we may be able to live piously,
to die in holiness, and to obtain eternal happiness in heaven.
Amen.
Scripture of the Week
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark
When Jesus had crossed in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered round him and he stayed by the lakeside. Then one of the synagogue officials came up, Jairus by name, and seeing him, fell at his feet and pleaded with him earnestly, saying, ‘My little daughter is desperately sick. Do come and lay your hands on her to make her better and save her life.’ Jesus went with him and a large crowd followed him; they were pressing all round him.
Now there was a woman who had suffered from a haemorrhage for twelve years; after long and painful treatment under various doctors, she had spent all she had without being any the better for it, in fact, she was getting worse. She had heard about Jesus, and she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his cloak. ‘If I can touch even his clothes,’ she had told herself ‘I will be well again.’ And the source of the bleeding dried up instantly, and she felt in herself that she was cured of her complaint. Immediately aware that power had gone out from him, Jesus turned round in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my clothes?’ His disciples said to him, ‘You see how the crowd is pressing round you and yet you say, “Who touched me?”’ But he continued to look all round to see who had done it. Then the woman came forward, frightened and trembling because she knew what had happened to her, and she fell at his feet and told him the whole truth. ‘My daughter,’ he said ‘your faith has restored you to health; go in peace and be free from your complaint.’
While he was still speaking some people arrived from the house of the synagogue official to say, ‘Your daughter is dead: why put the Master to any further trouble?’ But Jesus had overheard this remark of theirs and he said to the official, ‘Do not be afraid; only have faith.’ And he allowed no one to go with him except Peter and James and John the brother of James. So they came to the official’s house and Jesus noticed all the commotion, with people weeping and wailing unrestrainedly. He went in and said to them, ‘Why all this commotion and crying? The child is not dead, but asleep.’ But they laughed at him. So he turned them all out and, taking with him the child’s father and mother and his own companions, he went into the place where the child lay. And taking the child by the hand he said to her, ‘Talitha, kum!’ which means, ‘little girl, I tell you to get up.’ The little girl got up at once and began to walk about, for she was twelve years old. At this they were overcome with astonishment, and he ordered them strictly not to let anyone know about it, and told them to give her something to eat.
Reflection
By Greg Sunter
This week’s gospel passage presents two miracle accounts, one, in effect, ‘interrupting’ or being framed by the other. Jesus is approached by the synagogue official, Jairus, to come and heal his dying daughter. In the milling and surging crowd, Jesus suddenly becomes aware of being touched by someone. The story of the woman with a haemorrhage is a story of social and religious isolation as much as it is a story of illness and pain. Because of the Jewish prohibitions against blood, the woman would have been regarded as permanently impure and unclean. She would have been unable to engage in any worship; she could not touch another person without also making them unclean; she was effectively outcast for the 12 years of her illness. She knew it would be forbidden for her to touch Jesus openly but took her chances of being unobserved in the crowd – she risked all on the belief that even touching Jesus’ cloak might heal her. Jesus immediately stopped and drew attention to the woman. By doing so he made it clear to her that it was her faith that had healed her (a feature of healing stories in the Gospel of Mark). His actions also made it clear to the crowd that she was now healed and should not be shunned any longer; she was publicly declared fit to re-enter society and religious participation. After 12 years of virtual non-existence, the woman was now able to begin her life again. The delay, however, meant that Jairus’ daughter was dead by the time Jesus arrived. Undeterred, Jesus performs another miracle and raises the girl from death. The girl was 12 years old – the same 12 years the woman suffered with a haemorrhage – and now she too was able to begin her life again. There is a neatness and a completeness about the two stories.
From the perspective of … Jairus
What a whirlwind of emotions Jairus must have gone through. His daughter was sick and getting worse but Jesus had left the region and travelled across the Sea of Galilee. Suddenly, Jairus heard that Jesus had returned! He raced to Jesus and begged him to save his daughter. What joy when Jesus set out to do so! But Jesus was slowed by the crowd and then came to a complete stop and spoke to some woman. Didn’t he know this was urgent? Then the news came that the little girl was dead – no need to hurry now. Finally, unbelievable relief and joy: Jesus raises the little girl and reunites her with her parents.
Gospel Focus – A lesson in faith
Although Jairus obviously believed that Jesus might be able to do something to help heal his daughter, once news came that she had died he needed a strong reminder from Jesus to not be afraid and to have faith. Was it the example of the woman’s faith in Jesus that gave Jairus the strength to continue to believe? When they arrive at the house the mourners laugh at Jesus and are consequently excluded from witnessing the miraculous raising. Since they don’t have faith, they are not given the opportunity to witness faith in action.
Have you thought, What’s my haemorrhage?
In the gospel story, the woman suffers a serious physical complaint – an unending flow of blood – that must have left her physically, emotionally and spiritually exhausted. For many of us there is some aspect of our lives that has an almost equally draining effect as the physical complaint of the woman. In effect, some aspect of our lives may be haemorrhaging – a constant outflow of energy and emotion that prevents us from being all that we might be. It may be an unhealthy relationship; an addiction; a lack of confidence; a grudge; a lack of emotional control.
Questions for Adolescents
Q. What is the impact of ‘interrupting’ one miracle story with another?
Q. What is the relationship between the two events?
Q. Why was it important that Jesus stopped and spoke to the woman after she had been healed?
Q. Why did Jesus instruct Jairus and his wife to tell no one about a miracle that would be hard to conceal?
Q. What is the message in this gospel passage for a modern audience?
Questions for Adults
Q. What is the common link between the two miracles in this gospel passage?
Q. What do you imagine life would have been like for the woman with the haemorrhage?
Q. What image of the disciples is presented in this passage?
Q. What do we learn about the importance of faith?
Religious Education Activities
- Illustrate the gospel passage as a storyboard or comic strip.
- Construct a social ladder placing characters mentioned in the story on a rung of the ladder to reflect their social position at the time. Repeat the exercise, placing characters on the ladder according to the way Jesus treated them.
Some important dates to remember:
First Holy Communion - Sunday 29th August at 2.00pm
Confirmation - Friday 5th November at 7.00pm (TBC)
St. Augustine's Parish Mass Times
Saturday 5.00 pm
Sunday 8.00 am at Annunciation, Brooklyn
9.30 am
10.30 am (Italian)
11.00 am at Corpus Christi, Kingsville
11.30 am (Polish)
Tuesdays 9.30 am
Thursdays 9.30 am
https://www.staugustinesparish.org.au/
Use the above link to access the parish website.