Liturgy

Community Liturgy

Thursday 12 December, the last day of term, students from Pre-Primary to Year 9 will celebrate the Eucharist together in the gym at 9:00am. Parent are most welcome to attend also.

Thanks to Year 9 students who prepared the Community Liturgy this morning. Community celebrations of the Eucharist will resume in February.

Community Liturgy summary

Where: College Chapel
Time: 8:00am – 8:30am
When: every Friday in term time

SACRAMENT PROGRAM 2020

Do you have a child currently in Year 2, 3 or 5? Next year the children will be respectively preparing for the sacraments of Reconciliation, Eucharist and Confirmation. While the students will learn the appropriate content in their Religion classes, they celebrate the sacraments with their family in their parishes.

The archdiocesan Sacrament Policy is ‘family-focused, parish-based, Catholic school supported’, so it is the right of the parents to enrol their child in a parish program – usually, but not necessarily the parish closest to home. Some of our local parishes have begun the enrolment process.

Please see here for schedules and other information which has been supplied by parishes.

website: http://www.johnxxiii.edu.au/view/parent-resources/parish

If you have any further queries please contact Mary-Anne Lumley: mary-anne.lumley@cew.edu.au

Parish Connections

During this season of Advent, some of our local parishes warmly invite families to some special celebrations. Please refer to details below.

GOOD NEWS for the 2nd Sunday in Advent

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.
Matthew 3:1-12

The reflection for this Sunday’s Gospel is from Father Michael Tate and is used with permission. Rev. Prof. Michael Tate was a Senator for Tasmania from 1978-93 and Ambassador to The Hague and the Holy See from 1993-96. He is currently Vicar-General in the Archdiocese of Hobart and is an Honorary Professor of Law at the University of Tasmania where he lectures in International Humanitarian Law.

INAUGURATION A NEW HUMANITY

John proclaimed that the reign of God was ‘at hand’ as he immersed and plunged followers into the waters of the Jordan River. (His nickname was John the Immerser, or ‘baptiser’ in the Greek.) He used flowing water to symbolise the washing away of the past for those who repented so that they could be totally focused on the ‘at hand’ person who would inaugurate God’s kingdom.

In this passage, John does not identify the ‘Someone’! But he realised that this ‘Someone’ would have divine power to affect the future by immersing, baptising, his followers with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

At this stage of Advent, we should be like John’s disciples, filled with a sense of anticipation, looking forward to the coming towards us (‘Advent’ in Latin) of the One who can flood our minds and bodies with the Holy Spirit and can immerse our hearts in Divine Fire.

We could pause for a moment to thank God that, even though we are unworthy to carry His sandals, there is One who is coming towards us wanting to transform us with Divine Power.