John XXIII College Newsletter

Liturgy

Community Mass

Thank you to students from Loreto House for their lovely preparation of this morning’s celebration of the Eucharist. A warm thank you to Fr Sean Fernandez, our presider. Fr Sean is Dean of St Mary’s Cathedral and has a very close connection to the College: he is brother of Mrs Thomas in Primary and uncle of Will Thomas in Year 10 Loreto!

 

It was noted that this morning is the first time in 2022 where we have been able to have multiple year groups and parents at Community Mass, and we hope that we can continue to do so. Next Friday, it will be the students in the Pilgrimage program who prepare the liturgy, so we hope to welcome their families also.

 

It will be wonderful to have the full complement of Chapel Choir members, boosted by students from Chamber Choir and Treble Choir. Mrs Haydon has worked miracles with smaller numbers of regular students during Term 1 COVID restrictions. 

 

Friday Community liturgy is always a joyful celebration for students, families and staff. All are welcome to join us in the Chapel at 8:00am, and then in the Circle of Friends café immediately after Mass. 

 

 

Community Mass details:

  • College Chapel
  • Fridays in term time
  • Starts: 8:00am and concludes 8:30am 

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. 

 

Our Lady of the Rosary Parish in Doubleview advises that Fr Vincent Glynn will be talking to candidates enrolled in that parish next Friday, 20 May, at 10:00am. 

 

To make arrangements for your child to celebrate the sacraments this year, 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 5th Sunday of Easter

 

We live in a world of marketing and promotion. The rise of consumer capitalism and the desire for sellers of goods and services to have their products stand out from the crowd is a constant struggle. Thus, much effort is put into branding; to catch phrases and slogans that make products easily recognisable and that communicate the benefits of that product to a potential consumer. We’ve come a long way in the world of product promotion. The marketers and advertising agencies have become more sophisticated over the years, but so have our sensibilities to the hype and fluff that surrounds branding and slogan making. Think of all the ‘must see TV’ that we apparently ‘must see’. How can all of those shows claiming to be ‘must see’ actually be ‘must see’? Is not some of it at least quite uncompelling, a time waster and not a ‘must’ at all? Though we can be easily fooled, we are coy of the claims of many brandings and slogans that circulate around us. We are suspect of such things and rightly dismiss them.

 

Then there are catch phrases and slogans that are quite clever, and actually communicate something truthful. A well-known figure in the advertising and marketing industry, Leo Burnett, once said ‘The greatest thing to be achieved in advertising … is believability, and nothing is more believable than the product itself.’[1] Though Burnett no doubt produced slogans that had little to do with the actual product, there is something inherently true in his statement. We are drawn to authenticity, and we are drawn to the good. 

 

In Sunday’s Gospel reading, Jesus is doing some branding himself. He is calling his disciples to be identified in a particular way. Something akin to a slogan is being stated by Jesus, and it is to ‘love one another, as I have loved you’. This is how people will know who you are. This is how this small group of followers will stand out from the crowd and be identifiable. As the quote from Burnett indicates, the product itself is the primary form of advertising that is needed, and ‘the product’ in this case is the love of Jesus. If we love as Jesus loves, not only will it be identifiable, but it will also be believable. The love we show that is in keeping with Jesus’ love is what will do the convincing. It will be enticing to a world that desperately needs the love of God.

 

That said, Jesus’ words are not merely a slogan, a passing catch phrase that can be taken or left. It is a most substantive command. That Jesus is giving a commandment is putting him on par with the Lord God. It is something of a Christological statement of Jesus’ equality with God that Jesus can give the commandment at all. It also elevates what is being said to a matter of absolute importance. The importance firstly lies in the exemplar of Christ’s self. Earlier in the Last Supper discourse found in John, of which this reading is part, we see Jesus washing his disciples’ feet. There Jesus points out ‘I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do’ (13:15). Throughout the extended dialogue that forms these chapters of John, Jesus is preparing his disciples for his parting. The ‘hour has come’ and the time for ‘the glorification is at hand’, that is the 

language that John uses to point to the Passion of the Lord and appears here in this reading too. This is entirely what Christ is about and it is entirely what followers of Christ are to be about.

 

Secondly, then, the command to love is sacrificial. The love that the followers of Christ are to show is to be in keeping with this sacrificial call. It is to be entirely others centred, to be a laying down of one’s life combined with a trusting in God that, in the Lord’s power, it will be taken up again. 

 

Thus, this love that Christ is commanding may be a form of branding, a branding of Jesus’ self to be sure. But it does not share much else with consumer advertising culture. We live in a society that sees transactions between people as form of exchange; if I give up something, I expect something in return. Even when we look to be giving, we might often be thinking in self-serving terms. This can be true of love itself; we love with an expectation of reciprocation in some form. 

 

The love Christ is calling us too clearly does not fit that mould – and it is also clearly not easy. True love is a difficult task. It can be easy to get caught up on the difficulty of the commandment; to love by giving one’s life away. However, we need to hold the entire commandment in view; especially the ‘as I have loved you’ component. Implicit in this call to love, to make Jesus’ presence real in the world, is to receive the love of Jesus in the first place. Thus, we realise as we reflect on this scripture that the God of Love wants to flow through us to our world. There are many ‘commands’ that we find in scripture, but this is a most fundamental one. It was the heart of Jesus’ mission, and we pray that it can be the heart of our lives as well, to receive and give a love that overcomes all.

 

The reflection for this Sunday is by Joe Tedesco. Joe has been involved in tutoring and teaching theology for over ten years at the University of Notre Dame Australia and at the Centre for Faith Enrichment in the Archdiocese of Perth.

 

[1] Burnett, Leo. Communications of an Advertising Man. (Chicago: [Unknown Publisher], 1961), p. 78.

 

Tedesco, Joe. "Fifth Sunday of Easter - 15 May 2022." Pastoral Liturgy 52, no. 2 (2021): 1-7. https://researchonline.nd.edu.au/pastoral-liturgy/vol52/iss2/24