John XXIII College Newsletter

Liturgy

Community Liturgy

The first community Mass for Term 4 will be Friday 16 October.  The Mass is joyful and ‘user-friendly’ and everyone has a ‘standing invitation’ whether or not they are Catholic. For any queries please contact Mary-Anne Lumley: mary-anne.lumley@johnxxiii.edu.au

 

Community Mass Summary

  • Every Friday in term time
  • 8:00am – 8:30am
  • College Chapel

SACRAMENT PROGRAM

Congratulations to students and their families!

It is with great pleasure that we get to congratulate some Year 6 students who have, with their families, been able celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation in their parish, now that restrictions have been lifted. 

 

Jack Gregory and Thomas Beach were confirmed in the parish of St Mary Star of the Sea, Cottesloe, last weekend. 

Sacrament Preparation

In the Archdiocese of Perth, the model for Sacrament preparation is ‘family-focused, parish-based, and school/PREP* supported. The Policy was formalised in 2014, and outlines how family, parish and school work together. 

*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 THOMAS APOSTLE, CLAREMONT

Reconciliation  4 and 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

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 Season of Creation

 

Each month, the Church is invited to join their prayer with that of the pope through the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network. During September, Pope Francis’ prayer intention is RESPECT FOR THE PLANET'S RESOURCES: ‘That the planet's resources will not be plundered, but shared in a just and respectful manner’. The short prayer video can be viewed here. 

 

Father Andrew Hamilton SJ gives us a thoughtful reflection on the Pope’s prayer intention, below. Father Andy is a Jesuit, a theologian, a writer and, among his many other roles, the Media Officer for Jesuit Social Services.

 

Pope Francis announced his 2020 monthly intentions before the onset of coronavirus. But his September intention, which sums up his concern for the environment from the beginning of his taking office and is so powerfully expressed in his Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’, could not be more pertinent to us now as we live with coronavirus. After seeing how quickly it can spread and how catastrophic its results can be, we now know how precarious our human life is.  Because even a small outbreak can become massively threatening to health and to our economic wellbeing, our hopes naturally turn to the discovery of a vaccine. Around the world huge resources are being put into research and development.

 

So far so good. The question that faces us all, however, is whether once it is developed the vaccine will be made available freely to the whole world, will be priced in a way that poorer nations with the most need cannot afford, or be hoarded by wealthy nations for their own citizens, and only then trickled down to others. We hope, with Pope Francis, that it will be shared ‘in a just and respectful manner’. But we are also aware of the way in which rich nations have bought up all available supplies of drugs once thought to be helpful to treat CV. This is consistent with policies that  put one’s own nation first and sees other nations as rivals who are to be helped only when that suits its own. 

 

On every issue Pope Francis always points to the larger attitudes that are revealed in the way people and nations act, and to the consequences for the world of the decisions they take. If we pursue our own interests to the harm of others, and particularly of people who are poor, we not only act selfishly but poison the delicate relationships on which the health of our world depends. In the case of the coronavirus, we shall all be vulnerable to it unless we address it as a universal threat to each of us. If it is unchecked in any nation or any group in society it will threaten the whole of society and of the world. Because the welfare of nations is interrelated, too, the harm caused by the virus to the fragile economies of developing nations will be reflected in massive poverty and hunger, and this in turn leads to the destruction of the environment. The growing severity of climate change that results will affect people throughout the world. When we share and respect the resources of the world each nation will benefit, as we have seen in our Australian response to the coronavirus. There we have all benefited when we put aside our individual interests and share together the restrictions it imposes. 

 

In his intention Pope Francis had in mind more obvious plundering of the world’s resources for private gain through deforestation, mining that pollutes rivers and fish breeding grounds and poisons communities, barbaric exploitation of land that destroys the patrimony of ancient peoples for minimal financial gain, ransacking of water needed to keep river systems alive, and the promotion of coal and oil for lasting use in transport, heating and power.  All these things impose short term gain for the few over the long-term loss of a livable human world. They are lacking in justice and in respect.   

 

Although we may feel powerless in the face of self-interested corporations and nations, Pope Francis reminds us that our prayer is important. It makes us attend to the needs of our world, joins us to Jesus in his prayer for the world and gives us courage in the small actions we can take to insist on justice and respect in our own nation’s dealings. 

 

© Andrew Hamilton