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St
John the Apostle ~ Kippax
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CANBERRA,
AUSTRALIA |
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Parish Priest's Desk ArchiveJuly to December 06 It is with pleasure that I devote this week's column to a letter from our newly appointed Archbishop, Mark Coleridge. [a copy of the letter was included at this point]. Thank you for the generous response to the appeal from the St Vincent de Paul Society. In the Heart of Jesus, Michael. The Centre for Ageing and Pastoral Studies is holding its 3rd national conference in Canberra from September 26-29. The topic is ‘Ageing, Disability and Spirituality’. Carmel Toohey has generously consented to attend this conference as our representative. This is part of an attempt by the Parish Pastoral Council to be attentive to those in our community who, through age or disability, are housebound, or who find it difficult to be part of our worshipping community. We are keen, not only to see if we can be of assistance in their material and spiritual needs, but also to do our best to involve them in the life of the parish – by seeing that they receive Compact, by seeking their wisdom in significant decisions, and, in whatever way is appropriate, by continuing their relationship with the parish community. Our request to you is that, if you know of any parishioner in this situation, you would write down their name and address and hand it in (or post it) to Marian England at the presbytery. Please do this, even if you are certain that we already know about them. We prefer to have their name given us three times than to overlook them. If we can have an accurate list of parishioners who are in this category (we will all be in it one day!), we can then inform the contact persons in each neighbourhood community and set up a system of care and flow of information. We intend finding someone in the various suburbs outside our boundaries as well (Flynn, Dunlop, Macgregor East and Florey) who would keep an eye on ageing parishioners who are part of our community but come from these areas. Could you give us some names straightaway, as we would like to be able to discuss the matter at our PPC Meeting this Thursday. Any ideas or suggestions are welcome. On the 28th May, in this column, I informed you that, whenever there is a fifth Sunday in the month, the 10:00am Mass will be a Charismatic Mass in which we are ministered to by our local Sacred Heart Prayer Group. The first such occasion since that date is in a fortnight’s time, Sunday 30th July. After the Mass members of the Prayer Group will be available if you so desire to pray with you and to anoint you with specially blessed oil. This is not the Sacrament of the Sick, which uses oil consecrated by the bishop, and which, in the present discipline of the Church, can be ministered only by a priest. We will continue to offer the Sacrament at the 10:00 Mass on the First Saturday of each month. However, the oil is blessed and an old tradition in the Church is for members of the community to invoke the healing power of the Holy Spirit and to pray for one another. If you are unfamiliar with Charismatic prayer you may find ‘praying in tongues’ somewhat strange. Paul speaks about it in his letters and it has been a feature of Christian prayer from the very beginning. It is found in other religious traditions as well. As I understand it, people are not being inspired to speak in a foreign language. What we hear is much closer to the simple burbling of a child. Did not Jesus say that unless we welcomed the kingdom of God like a child we would not enter it? There has been a parallel tradition in the Church of people, who were used to a lot of thinking and expressing themselves in words, being drawn into a deeper prayer in which they are no longer distracted by many words, but enter into a profound silence and communion that is beyond words. It seems to me best to understand ‘speaking in tongues’ in the same way. In Paul’s words, it is one expression of ‘the Spirit interceding for us with sighs too deep for words’(Romans 8:26). The grace is not the sounds uttered in prayer, but the deep inner release in which the Spirit of Jesus prays in us. Burbling or singing in sounds that do not communicate meaning is an expression for the one making the sound of their graced communion with God. Unlike silence (which tends to be a private matter), charismatic prayer tends to spread the communion by drawing others into the same communion and the same release. The ‘praying in tongues’, though characteristic of Charismatic Prayer, is not essential to it. What is essential is the grace of love-communion, and the reaching out in loving service to others. If you are attending the 10:00am Mass on the 5th Sunday allow the prayer to wash over you, and welcome the generous love that others in our community are offering to share with us. Father Jim had a turn on Monday night and spend Tuesday and Wednesday in Calvary under observation. He is back with us and seems fine. We have cancelled the combined celebration for the birthdays of Jim and Mark planned for August 4th. Fr Jim will celebrate his 80th birthday at Coffee Club on September 10th. I imagine that you are aware of the fact that my contribution to Adult Education in the faith this year has moved away from the Bible and is focusing on the Catholic Catechism. The Catechism has four sections. The first section looks at the Creed. This coming Tuesday (July 25th) will be the 18th in the series, and with it we complete the treatment of the Creed. If you want to access the talks you can find them on my website (www.michaelfallonmsc.com) by clicking on the link ‘Catechism’. The second section of the Catechism looks at the Liturgy, especially the sacraments. There are nine Tuesday evenings set aside for this section. The first is August 1st. While there is an obvious advantage in attending the whole course, as it is a way of up-dating your knowledge and understanding of Church teaching, each lecture stands alone, so if, for whatever reason, you have not found it convenient to attend the lectures-discussions up to this point, you might like to start coming with the new section on August 1st. The sacraments are so much part of our Christian life, you might like to refresh your ideas and perhaps learn something new about them. In any case, you are very welcome. We gather downstairs in the parish centre, beginning 7:30 with a discussion of the previous week’s material. This is followed by the first half of the input, with a coffee break at 8:30 and ending at 9:30. By the way, we sent off 280 signatures to the ‘Petition to protect children from dangerous internet content’. Hopefully our contribution will help persuade the Senators, and through them the Member of the House of Representatives, to restrict access to this material. Things are so askew in our society that we object to people polluting our physical environment, but tend to remain silent when they pollute our spiritual environment. We sent the letter off to the Embassy of Israel with 320 signatures. As we continue to pray for peace, we continue to listen to what the Spirit of Jesus might be inspiring us to do. The matter is, of course, very complicated, but complications have always favoured those with power, for they encourage silence and under the cloak of silence evil tends to have its way. Since today at the 10:00 Mass the parish Charismatic Prayer Group is ministering to us I thought to offer you a statement made by Pope Paul VI in 1975 in his address to the Charismatic Renewal Congress in St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome. Two weeks ago I offered you some reflections on Anointing and on ‘Speaking in tongues’. The Pope’s statement is of a more general nature: ‘This Renewal ought to rejuvenate the world, give it back a spirituality, re-open its closed lips to prayer, and open its mouth to song, to joy, to hymns an d to witnessing … Those who do not belong to your movement should unite themselves with you, so that they too might nourish themselves on the enthusiasm and spiritual energy with which we must live our religion. For today, either one lives one’s faith with devotion, depth, energy and joy, or that faith will die out.’ The Spirit of Jesus gives each of us many gifts to share with our brothers and sisters. I am sure that you join me in welcoming our Prayer Group to minister to us. Mark is away this week on retreat. There will be no evening Mass on Wednesday. In the light of the letter we sent to the Israel Embassy on July 24th, you may like to have a copy of a Media Release issued on July 31st by the leaders of the Christian Churches in Canberra, including Bishop Pat Power: ‘We find it impossible to remain silent in the face of so much pain and suffering in the Middle East, both in Lebanon and in Israel, but we have been particularly outraged by the news this morning of the deaths in the Lebanese village of Qana, no matter what its cause. Where is the moral courage of our leaders? How can the leadership of the Australian Government and the Opposition not cry out for an immediate and unconditional cease-fire? We are outraged that such unspeakable pain is being unleashed upon civilians, especially women and children, while the world remains largely silent. Does it not occur to the Governments of Israel and the United States of America that the very possibility of a lasting, generational, peace is being made almost impossible while a new generation of youth are being accustomed to violence as a way of life. We deplore the violence of Hezbollah and we deplore the violence of the State of Israel. We find it impossible to understand how the leaders of our own nation have remained so cowardly silent in the face of such brutality. We have had enough of this so-called war on terror. When will the governments of the world come to understand that peace can be built only on justice and fairness? We urge all governments of the world to invest in the millennium goals as the road to peace and to immediately apply them for the peoples of the Middle East. We support the Christian leaders of Jerusalem in their recent call for an end to violence in the Middle East. We can have no peace while violence is repaid with violence. It is a recipe for eventual annihilation. May God have mercy upon us all and may there still remain, somewhere in that battered part of the world, a seed which can one day grow into peace for the children who will soon become adults. May they not perpetuate the wrongs of the leadership of this generation. Copy of Letter sent from the parish on July 24th: His Excellency Mr Naftali Tamir Your Excellency, We, the undersigned, support the statement made by the 13 Christian Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem on the Gaza crisis. Lest our silence be taken as consent we write to express our outrage at the action of Israel in Gaza and Lebanon, and the deep sadness that overwhelms us at the complicity of the USA and others in standing by as innocent people are callously killed and maimed for behaviour that they are powerless to prevent. We do not expect a reply. We have heard and rejected the pseudo-justifications that are being promoted in an attempt to distract us. To hear them again would add insult to injury. This is just to let you know that we object to what Israel is doing, and to express our outrage. Israel and its backers have no right to jeopardise international relations in this way, for we all suffer the consequences. We abhor the action of terrorists, and stand with you against those who deny Israel’s right to exist, but fighting terror by inflicting the kind of terror that Israel is engaged in can only intensify the spiral of violence, and produce anger and frustration: surely the most powerful seeds of terrorism. Copies to Embassies of USA and Lebanon With 320 signatures from the community In Australia there are only two Feast Days not falling on a Sunday when the whole community is urged come together to celebrate Mass. Christmas is one and the other is the Feast of the Assumption. We celebrate it here on Tuesday at 7:00am, 9:30am and 7:00pm. Also Mark will be saying two masses at St Johns Primary and one at St Francis Xaviers Secondary. Jesus’ disciples have always seen Mary as the perfect disciple. She shows us how to live, and she shows us how to die. From the earliest times we have known that when she died God took her into the embrace of his love, the way God will take us all. Everything that comprised her real humanity was caught up in the eternal life enjoyed by her risen Son. Death could not separate her from him. In 1950, after the carnage of the Second World War in which ‘Christian’ Europe, for the second time in a few years, had been tearing itself to pieces, Pope Pius XII felt the need to stress that Christian life is very much about the body. We can’t pray ‘in the spirit’ and then treat the body with such disregard. It is every part of us that is taken up into life – transformed, of course, in a way that is beyond our imagining. Everything that makes us human is sacred. Having consulted the bishops throughout the world, he defined as an article of faith (and so infallibly) that Mary, the first and holiest of disciples, ‘was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory’. This was not intended to separate her from us. On the contrary, it was to remind us that that is our destiny too. We sometimes imagine that Mary was assumed immediately, whereas we will have to await the end of the world. We need to remind ourselves that time is an appropriate measure for this life, but not for eternity. Beyond death, the notion of time is meaningless. Our prayer and our hope is that Jesus will come to us at our death, as he came to his mother, and draw us into God’s embrace, with the whole of our human reality transformed fully by love. Parliament is debating the ethics of embryonic stem cell research. I offer the following for your consideration. Firstly, the Church is not against such research. Stem cells can rightly be obtained and used for research in a number of ways: from tissue remaining after a natural miscarriage; from foetal chord blood; from the placenta; from a biopsy taken from an embryo in the womb. Researchers are looking into the possibility of taking adult stem cells and ‘growing them backwards to the embryonic stage’. There are areas of debate even in the Church over certain aspects of this complex matter. The Church is clear in its opposition to the creation of fertilised cells for the purpose of harvesting stem cells. To do this is to create human life in order to terminate it for research. I wrote a letter to the Canberra Times when this was being debated once before. It was published on 15th November 2002. A Senator was arguing that ‘religion should keep out of this debate’. I made the point: “The insight that is at the core of the argument is not based on religious belief. It is grounded in scientifically established fact and common sense … We accept the practice of using organs from a human being who has died. We would not accept the termination of life to obtain such organs. Of course in the current debate no one is arguing for the termination of human life once that life is visible to us and we are able to see and appreciate its value. But they are speaking of obtaining cells from human blastocysts especially produced and then destroyed … Common sense and science agree that these organisms are alive and that the life is human … The issue comes down to the value that the community places on a human being at the earliest stages of development.’ I would like to explain changes that have recently taken place in the staffing at the presbytery. I presume that the implications of my being asked to leave my ministry and be a parish priest for the first time as I was approaching my 68th birthday were not lost on you. Of course, I accepted willingly and experience it as an honour to live and work among you. I quickly realised that I needed to try to set the parish up to depend less and less on the management skills of the priest, and to free him up for what only a priest can do. This need is becoming increasingly urgent for all our parishes due to the small number of younger priests among the MSC, and the shrinking pool of those able to be appointed to parish work. Marion, who was sharing the secretarial role with Maureen as well as looking after the finances, accepted my invitation to expand her role and become parish coordinator. You have witnessed the success of the Parish Conference, and you probably know that Marian is, among other things, supporting Antioch, and a post-Antioch young people’s prayer group. We also arranged for Marian to do a course for Spiritual Directors at the Australian Catholic University, and to back it up with a part-time Bachelor of Theology. As part of her training, she is about to be mentored as a spiritual director for the Busy Person’s Retreat being held at Saint Monica’s Evatt from August 27 to September 17. There are considerable benefits for people to be able to come here and to have the choice of a woman counsellor as well as a priest. Marion’s coordinating and pastoral role has now grown such that it has become necessary to supplement our resources. We have recently employed Sharon Greaves to do the banking and accounts on a Monday. It is good to have a second person who knows the finance side of things here. As you are aware the first collection is for the support of the pastors. As Marion’s expanded role is pastoral in nature the cost of her studies and the support provided by Sharon is being met from the first collection. My hope is that we are helping to create a model that will work for the parish when priests with management skills are even rarer than today. Today we are asking everyone over 15 to fill out a survey on church life. It is national survey across many churches. Filling it in will help everyone get a better idea of church life in Australia. Here I wish to focus on the hoped for benefits for us as a parish. When the parish council heard of this survey we decided we would participate. Those administering the survey warned us of the importance of getting people to fill in the survey while at Mass, as their experience has been that if people take the survey home, people tend not to fill it in. They suggest it should take only 20 minutes and could be in place of the homily. We have experimented and have decided it is likely to take 30 minutes, so we have decided to take the risk and get you t take the form home. PLEASE fill it in and bring it back next Sunday. The survey is ANONYMOUS. There is a cover sheet, which you can throw away unless you want the Research Team to have your contact details on their mailing list. If you decide that you want that, return the cover sheet separately from your survey, to ensure anonymity. To gain any real benefit from this survey it is essential that EVERYONE who comes to Mass and is over 15 fills it out. Only in this way can we get a true picture of church life here and how content or discontent people really are with what the church is providing. This is an opportunity for everyone to have a say and to state what you like and what you do not like, what you want and what you do not want of the parish. Speaking to you as a person in a leadership role, I am expecting to learn a lot from the survey about my own strengths and weaknesses, about the value of what we are doing, and also about what we might need to do. When the profile of our parish comes back from those conducting the survey, the Pastoral Council will work out ways of informing you about any significant results, and it will also help our planning. If you want to know more about the survey go to the NCLS website (www.ncls.org.au). So PLEASE 1. take the survey home. 2. find a quiet spot to fill it out carefully and honestly (note, don’t use ticks; use either a cross or fill in the square). NB Top right hand of survey, please write the Church Code. This identifies you as belonging to St John the Apostle Kippax.. Our code is TAC03401. 3. Return it to the secretaries, or bring it back next Sunday. On Wednesday evening from 7:00 to 10:00pm we held the Youth Forum in the Church. 61 people came, about 40 of them youth. Some came from other Christian communities. Months of work had gone into preparation, including surveying 700 young people. We thank St Francis Xavier for their cooperation in this. Four young people from the Parish Pastoral Council, John Bannon, Jacques Clementine, Sarah Harris and Andrew Kiley, did a superb job organising, surveying, collating results, and preparing for the evening. John and Andrew gave up playing cricket in the Grand Final to be at the evening! Andrew was the MC and opened the evening with a PowerPoint presentation of the results of the survey. I gave an opening address, after which John Bannon and Sarah Keetman joined me on a panel. They each responded to questions addressed to them by Andrew. Then questions and observations came from the floor and there was time for small group discussion. The evening was judged a success and there was a lot of energy in the church and plenty of ideas. These will keep flowing and we will keep you up to date on developments. Please keep praying that our community will learn how to reach the hearts of the young and be open to welcome their contribution to the life and mission of the community. Father Jim turns 80 on Monday. On Wednesday he leaves for a month to spend time with our two married brothers, Gerald who lives in Nelson Bay and Brian who lives in Sydney. I will be away from Wednesday 13th to Saturday afternoon, conducting 3 days of lectures-discussions at a National Leadership Course for Catholic School Principals, which is being held at Mulgoa (near Penrith). Kathy Coffey (from Denver, Colorado) will be leading the rest of the program (from Sunday 17th to the following Wednesday. I do little of this kind of work now that I am parish priest, but I presumed you would be happy for me to do it on this one occasion. Please pray that it will be a fruitful time. We are asking more and more of our Catholic School Principals and they need all the support we can offer them in their key role in the Church’s outreach to the young. I shall be back in time for the evening Mass on Saturday as Father Mark will be away for the Antioch Renewal Weekend of 16th and 17th, which is taking place this year at Batemans Bay. Please pray, too, for them. Thank you to all who filled in the National Church Life Survey. We have received 187 completed forms. If you forgot to return it last Sunday, please return it as soon as possible. Thank you, too, for giving Father Jim such a lovely Coffee Club Birthday Greeting. He got away safely on Wednesday and is now enjoying a break with family. On Friday 15th the Church celebrated the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. The following hymn was written for the feast in the thirteenth century: At the cross her station keeping, stood the mournful Mother weeping, close to Jesus to the last. Through her heart, His sorrow sharing, all His bitter anguish bearing, now at length the sword has passed. O how sad and sore distressed was that Mother highly blest, of the sole-begotten One. Christ above in torment hangs, she beneath beholds the pangs of her dying glorious Son. Is there one who would not weep, whelmed in miseries so deep, Christ’s dear Mother to behold? Can the human heart refrain from partaking in her pain, in that Mother’s pain untold? Bruised, derided, cursed, defiled, she beheld her tender child all with bloody scourges rent; for the sins of His own nation, saw Him hang in desolation, till His spirit forth He sent. O Mother, fount of love! Touch my spirit from above, make my heart with yours accord: Make me feel as thou hast felt; make my soul to glow and melt with the love of Christ our Lord. Holy Mother, pierce me through, in my heart each wound renew of my Saviour crucified: Let me share with you His pain, who for all my sins was slain, who for me in torments died. Let me mingle tears with thee, mourning Him who mourned for me, all the days that I may live: By the Cross with you to stay, there with you to weep and pray, is all I ask of you to give. Virgin of all virgins blest listen to my fond request: let me share your grief divine; let me, to my latest breath, in my body bear the death of that dying Son of thine. Wounded with His every wound, steep my soul till it hath swooned, in His very blood away. Be to me, O Virgin, nigh, lest in flames I burn and die, in His awful Judgment Day. Christ, when you shall call me hence, by your Mother my defense, be your cross my victory; When my body here decays, may my soul your goodness praise, safe in paradise with thee. Following this column, Terry Martin, Chairperson of the Parish Pastoral Council, has a note informing you of the election to replace retiring members of the PPC. Certain positions are considered essential for the good functioning of the PPC and are not elected (‘ex officio’). These are Parish Priest (currently Michael Fallon), Parish Coordinator and Secretary to the PPC (currently Marian England), the Principal of the parish primary school (currently Helen Currie), a representative for the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD) and School of Religion, caring for the needs of children at government schools (currently Sabina Van Rooy), a representative of the Liturgy Committee (currently Di Bruce), a representative of the Finance Committee (currently Josette Allester), and a representative of the Team caring for the Youth (currently Sarah Harris). We also have a Minute Secretary who is not a member of the PPC (currently Eric French). All told there are 7 members of the PPC ex officio. We are looking to have a Council of 16 members, 9 of whom are elected by the parish for a two year period. Last year we were looking for 5 new members. Since only 6 were nominated the PPC decided to welcome all 6, rather than go through the process of an election to choose 5 out of 6. One of last year’s new members has unexpectedly had a transfer out of the parish, which leaves 5 who will continue into 2007: Joe Barr, Veronica Brennan, Jim Jones, Andrew Kiley and Daryl Smeaton. John Bannon, Maryanne Ferguson, Terry Martin and Anne Ots complete their commitment this December. So this year we are looking for 4 new members. The time has now come to ask you, the parishioners, to consider whether you would like to contribute your time, talents and ideas to the life and direction of the parish as a member of the PPC. As the name indicates, the primary focus of the Parish Pastoral Council is the pastoral life of the parish. We meet on the Second Thursday of the Month from 7:30 to 9:30pm in the parish library. If you would like to be part of the Council someone needs to nominate you. If only 4 are nominated and accept nomination, they are automatically welcomed onto the Council. As Terry states, nominations close on the 11th October. If more than 4 are nominated we will have an election in early November. New members are welcome at our Christmas Party meeting (December 14th), but the first official meeting is February 8th 2007. On Friday we celebrated the feast of the archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. Tomorrow (Monday) we are celebrating our ‘Guardian Angels”. This encourages me to offer some thoughts on the matter for your reflection. Belief in ‘angels’ is clearly reflected in the New Testament and throughout the history of the Church. It is part of our faith. Articles of faith, however, are not on a level playing field. A better image is a series of concentric circles. In the inner circle are central teachings: examples would be the existence of God, the teaching on the Trinity and the Incarnation, the Eucharist and many others. Outside this central circle are other circles and in one of them is our belief in angels: clearly not of the same importance as the beliefs we have just noted, but part of our belief system all the same. As in all matters it is important to keep perspective. It is also important to remember that when we speak of matters that are beyond the realm of space and time as we know it, we are speaking in symbolic language, language suited more to the heart, to art and music than to direct description. The Catholic Catechism outlines Catholic belief in angels in numbers 328-336 (pages 85-87). There is more than one copy in the Parish Library, where you can study the details for yourself. The Catechism speaks of these spiritual beings praising God and, as the name ‘angel’ indicates, ever ready to carry out God’s will (‘angelos’ in Greek means ‘messenger’). The final paragraph begins: ‘From infancy to death human life is surrounded by their watchful care and intercession.’ It goes on to quote Saint Basil: ‘Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading each on to life.’ It concludes: ‘Already here on earth the Christian life shares by faith in the blessed company of angels and human beings united in God.’ Tomorrow’s feast is yet another reminder of the love God has for each of us personally: ‘My compassion grows warm and tender’(Hosea 11:8). ‘I will never forget you. I have calved you on the palm of my hand’(Isaiah 49:15-16). As Compact goes to print, I am on the final day of a 6-day retreat at Douglas Park. It was a last minute decision, otherwise I would have mentioned it last week and asked for the help of your prayers. By the time you read this I will be back amongst my dearly loved family at St Johns. A Letter from Archbishop Coleridge During the week we celebrated the feast of Saint Luke, and it is only a few weeks since we celebrated Saint Matthew. I thought I might take the occasion to offer a brief comment on each of the Gospel writers. Most scholars are of the opinion that the Gospel of Mark is the earliest. A tradition that goes back to the early second century speaks of Mark as ‘Peter’s interpreter’. In Peter’s First Letter he calls him ‘my son Mark’(‘son’ in a spiritual sense). Mark is mentioned along with Luke by Paul in two letters written probably from Ephesus about 54AD. His Gospel was composed, possibly in Rome, in the 60’s, only 30 or so years after Jesus’ death. A tradition from the late second century tells us that Luke, a physician from Antioch in Syria, and the only non-Jew among the Gospel writers, took his inspiration from Paul. He borrowed from Mark, but added material that he had investigated for himself. He wrote for the churches founded by Paul in Macedonia, Greece and Asia (Western Turkey). Some date his Gospel in the 70’s but he could have done his writing in the 60’s. Neither Mark nor Luke were Apostles. Matthew was an apostle. A tradition from the early second century tells us that Matthew wrote down sayings of Jesus in Aramaic. It may well be that the anonymous author of ‘The Gospel according to Matthew’ incorporated these sayings – hence the link with Matthew. His Gospel, too, comes from the 60’s or 70’s. The Gospel according to John is very different from the other three, and was composed late in the first century, possibly by the apostle John, but possibly by another John, for John was then, as now, a very common name. In any case he was a close disciple who knew Jesus intimately. These four Gospels are in our New Testament because Christians treasured them and copied them and wanted to keep hearing them when they assembled for Mass. The same cannot be said of the other so-called ‘Gospels’ that keep turning up. These are not only composed much later, but stayed within small sects who were interested in fitting Jesus into their way of looking at life, but failed to capture his spirit. They have some historical interest but do not have the support of the early Christian communities and are not trustworthy as reflections on Jesus. I shall be in Sydney this weekend. The primary school at Northbridge is celebrating 80 years, and since the Fallon family were there from 1928 to 1950, they asked me to concelebrate the Mass there. I replied that I was unable because of my commitments here, but they got back to me and Mark has generously taken on all the Masses etc, so I am going. A month or so ago we asked for nominations to the Parish Pastoral Council for 2007-2008. We were looking for 4, and 4 were nominated, which means there is no need for an election process. The four are: Thomas Halloran (9 Whitelegge Close, Florey, 6259-2884), Michael Horan (12 Longley Place, Florey, 6259-1924), Jock McLean (4 Bushby Place, Holt, 6254 5831) and Xavier Munoz (11 Findlay Street, Higgins 6254 1294). We thank them for generously accepting nomination, and look forward to their contribution to the Pastoral Leadership of the parish. Wednesday 1st November is an especially solemn feast, ‘All Saints Day’. It is no longer a ‘Holy Day of Obligation’. Masses will be at the usual times (9:30am and 6:00pm). Thursday 2nd is the Feast of the Holy Souls. A plenary indulgence for the dead may be gained by visiting a church on this day and praying the ‘Our Father’ and the Creed. Three conditions are required for gaining the indulgence: sacramental confession, Eucharistic communion and a prayer for the Pope’s intentions. These need not occur on the day itself. The meaning of the word ‘indulgence’ in this context is that the whole church joins you in praying for the person for whom you pray, confident that if the whole Body of Christ prays we will certainly receive. Jim and I wish to thank you for your love and prayers on the sudden death of our older brother, Brian. Before leaving for the funeral, I offer a short note on the feast next Thursday (November 9) – ‘The Dedication of the Lateran Basilica’. Plautus Lateranus was executed by Nero and his property confiscated. It was part of the dowry of Fausta, the Emperor Constantine’s wife, given to Constantine on the occasion of their marriage. Constantine passed an edict allowing Christianity as a religion within the Empire (after centuries of persecution). The synod (meeting of Rome’s Christians) in 313AD was held in Fausta’s home, which was given for the use of the newly permitted Catholic Church. Constantine chose it since it was on the outskirts of Rome near the Aurelian wall. He did not want to arouse the ire of the pagan Roman populace. The home was enlarged and dedicated to the Saviour. Gregory the Great dedicated the church to Saint John. The Popes lived in the house adjacent to the church for a thousand years – from Constantine to the Avignon captivity (1309). Though the Popes now live in the Vatican, St John Lateran remains the Cathedral of Rome, the Mother Church of the city and of the world. The feast is celebrated throughout the Catholic world as a reminder of our communion with the Church of Rome – the place where Peter and Paul were martyred, and the first Christian community to suffer State orchestrated persecution, during which they exhibited such remarkable faith. Until 1870 the popes were crowned there. Five general councils of the Church took place there in the 12th and 13th century and again in 1512. Statues of the Twelve apostles adorn the roof. There are statues of Peter and Paul above the high altar, and (as has been the custom) the skulls of Peter and Paul are under the altar. The obelisk in the square is the oldest in Rome (from Thebes, Tutmoses IV,15th century BC). It was originally in the Circus Maximus, brought to Rome by Constantius II in 357AD, and placed outside the Lateran Basilica by Sixtus V in 1588. Across the square is the Scala Santa (Holy Stairs) and chapel of the Popes from their previous residence. On this day when our children receive their First Communion, I offer their parents a reflection sent to me years ago by a Brisbane priest, Patrick Oliver. ‘It all started with a piece of bread. Not anything special, just a piece of bread that eyes had seen a trillion times before. Yet he took it. He singled it out for special mention and named it. “My Body”, he called it. A strange name to call a piece of bread, especially when it is one in a trillion. But name it he did simply ’cause he wanted to. And when he named it he set creation free: free to know who it is, free to know its Name, free from being one in a trillion. Since that time when Holy Eyes had set upon a piece of bread, and called it “Myself”, the snake, the stream, the chrysanthemum, and yes even “homo sapiens”(the wise ones) can know its Name. For if God can call a piece of bread what it truly is (and God is never wrong), what does that make all Creation, all the Universe? So what is your name, oh one in a trillion? And so what about the wine flowing freely late that Passover eve? He took it, just like the bread. Not a vintage year, not your top-of-the-list ’68, but wine that ran around the cup and spilt if ever knocked over. And knocked over he was, battered and beaten, flogged and frazzled out, till no more anything was left to run. Still today is that Cup offered: in Beirut and Belfast, Bucharest and Brisbane. Still today the gutters run with blood, and love still flows, and life’s poured out, swishing around the corners of the earth. So when we drink the Precious Blood that runs down our spirit-parched throats, and we dare say “Amen”, let us know what we are doing. You drink the Cup. I drink the Cup. That makes you and me dissolve into the world’s hidden underground stream that, known or not known about, gives the creaking earth the Spirit to keep turning. So may it be. Amen. Amen to the Blood of Christ.’ From 26th to 29th September, the Centre for Ageing and Pastoral Studies held its 3rd National Conference here in Canberra on ‘Ageing, Disability and Spirituality’. The Parish Pastoral Council judged it important to be represented at it and we asked Carmel Toohey, who kindly consented. She gave an excellent report at our last meeting (9th November). Disability is not age-related, but this parish is not the young parish it was 30 years ago, and increasingly we will need to care for each other. Because we wish to focus on this area in 2007, we have asked Carmel to join us on the Council to help keep us focussed. We will also be looking to organise a committee to manage this aspect of our pastoral work, make the necessary links with community services and help identify and care for each other when our time of need comes. If you would like to be on this committee please contact Marian or myself at the parish. Incidentally, on the matter of the PPC, I gave the wrong address and phone number for Tom Halloran. He lives at 2 Jenks Place, Evatt (having moved from Florey), and his phone is 6258 4615. We congratulate Ted and Olga Hanns, Fr Mark’s parents, who are celebrating 60 years of married love and life on 23rd November. Fr Mark is celebrating with the family at the Sunshine Coast, Qld (back next Wednesday). Olga turned 80 last Monday. May God continue to bless them both as they bless us with the gift of their son. Today at the 10:00am Mass, the Contact Persons for the Parish Neighbourhood Communities will be processing in and placing a candle on a table in the sanctuary – a ritual reminder of our desire to do all we can to help create community. This year we are attempting to create some networking among parishioners who come from areas adjacent to our parish boundaries. We have 26 families from Florey North of Krefft St and Ratcliffe Crescent. David & Therese Mather will be the contact persons in that area. Mike & Catherine Lavis will be the contact persons for the 22 families from South Florey. Joe & Pat Barr for the 24 families from Dunlop, and David & Colleen Rowe for the 21 families from Flynn. We thank them for accepting this role. For obvious reasons this will not work the same as the neighbourhood communities within our boundaries, but it is hoped that it will provide a network of families should a need arise. Special thanks goes to Bert Broekhuyse and Ted Kell, who gave their time, expertise and labour to fix up the floor in the office foyer, doing a wonderful job and saving the parish hundreds of dollars. Bert has also fixed up the cooling system. Freezing of the pipes had caused some damage that needed repair. We also owe a debt of gratitude to Graham Erickson, who is giving his time, expertise and labour to fix up the railing on the balcony behind the choir. We have also purchased a 15’ step ladder. It makes possible, among other things, a safe way of changing the lights in the church. Advent is a season of longing. Here are some questions that might help reflection: 1. What are my deepest longings? for myself? for those I love? 2. In the baptismal liturgy the Christian community rejoices with the parents who see the hope of eternal life dawning for their child. Some had these hopes for us when we were taken to be embraced by the Church. Let us listen again to God saying to us the words he said to Jesus: ‘You are my son/daughter. You are the one I love. My delight is in you.’ Jesus was obviously able to delight in sinners like us when they gave in to their longing and accepted his invitation to believe, and to cry out for release. The Advent liturgy wants us to focus on this longing and this hope. What role does this yearning have when we come to make decisions about ourselves, or decisions about those in our family, or decisions about the contribution we can make to society? 3. In what ways do we experience the image of God in our own hearts, and in the hearts of those we call ‘family’? Let us keep looking till we come up with some definite answers here, for ‘God is faithful’. God did not create us for no reason, and he will keep the promise he made us when we were conceived, and when we were baptised into the community of the Son whom he loves. Throughout this season we keep hearing the words: ‘Be alert’: we are being invited to keep our eye out for the grace that is coming to us from God at every moment of our lives and in every situation. 4. Let us join Isaiah in pleading with God: ‘Tear open the heavens and come down’. Our poor broken world needs to turn from violence to peace, from litigation to reconciliation. We need more and more people to turn to our ‘Father’, if we are ever to become a family of ‘United Nations’. And what family does not need the constant healing of grace to renew the homes which we all need, and in which we long to live. Dear friends, I have some surprising news to share with you – surprising for me, and no doubt for you. The Provincial Council has decided to send me to Rome for a year to do more research on the Bible. I’ve known only since Friday 24th November, and the Archbishop gave his approval last Tuesday (December 5th). The plan is to write a commentary on the Book of Genesis and a commentary on the Book of Exodus. Father Peter Wood MSC will join Fathers Jim and Mark to administer the parish till I return. Peter is an exceptionally gentle MSC with wide experience, including in the Northern Territory where he was superior of our missionaries. I am sure that you will take him to your heart as you have taken me and so many other MSC. However, I am conscious of the fact that change always means adjustment and some disappointment and perhaps anxiety. You must get tired of ‘training up parish priests’ to see them fly away! I have enjoyed my four and a half years with you, including the last two as parish priest, and I look forward to rejoining you in 2008. I will leave Sydney for Rome on January 25th. I will be away from January 6th to January 13th giving a clergy retreat in Toowoomba, otherwise I will be here till my departure. Since I turn 70 next year, this will surely be my final stint of intense study. Please pray for me. I know it won’t take you long to realise what a blessing you have in having Peter among you. Since Christmas this year is on Monday, we will have Mass on Saturday evening (the usual 6:00pm). We will need to leave Sunday morning free for practice for the Christmas ceremonies. On Sunday evening Masses will be 6:00pm (children), 9:00pm (led by the youth) and midnight. Mass on Monday will be 9:00am. If you want to come to Mass twice over the festive week-end, you can come on Saturday evening and then one of the Christmas Masses, or come on one of the Sunday Christmas Masses and again on Monday. I can’t imagine God wanting to add to our busyness over Christmas, so you may find it more prayerful and family friendly to come to one of the Sunday Masses and combine the normal Sunday obligation and Christmas. Thanks to the generosity of a parishioner who wishes to remain anonymous, we have purchased a projector for the church. He has made the donation in memory of his father. The projector, together with a computer and various accessories, enables us to project hymns onto the marble behind the altar. It will take some time to train people to use this equipment, but before long we will be in a position to project material in this way. It will mean that people on the far right of the congregation will now be able to see. Thanks to Graham Erickson and Michael Ahern, the railing on the balcony behind the choir is now complete. On Tuesday evening, the ‘Saint Joseph the Worker’ Group of ‘retired’ volunteers with their wives enjoyed an end of the year barbecue on the presbytery back veranda (deck). A very pleasant (though surprisingly cold) evening was enjoyed by all. New members for this amazingly skilled and versatile group are always welcome. Apart from the friendships that are nurtured, they save the parish thousands every year with their combined expertise. Bert Broekhuyse has taken over the mantle for some of the ‘supervision’ aspects that Eddie Roots has done so marvellously for a number of years. Maintenance is in good hands. The Finance Committee had its last meeting for the year on Monday. Mathew Harris has joined the committee. The final meeting for 2006 of the RCIA (‘Emmaus Journey’) took place on Wednesday evening. We still have eight people journeying together to Easter. One of my many regrets in going to Rome is that I will not be here to enjoy Easter with them and with the community here that will welcome them. It has been a week of celebrations. On Thursday Jim, Mark and I had lunch at the Yacht Club with the women who keep our home looking clean and tidy. On Thursday evening the Parish Pastoral Council had its final meeting for the year, farewelling four members who have completed their two years (in fact, this time it was three years because of the change over of parish priest), and welcoming five new members. Then on Friday evening the presbytery staff celebrated at Santa Lucia. By the time you read this, the new church sign should be in place. I hope it provides a good advertisement for our community. This is the final compact for 2006, and my final column till 2008. Thank you for the wonderful welcome you have given me over the past four and a half years. I look forward to rejoining you in 2008. Father Peter Wood will be arriving on January 10th. Mark will be here and will introduce him to you as I return from the clergy retreat in Toowoomba on Sunday 14th. I will have ten days to ‘hand over’ to him before heading off for Rome. He is looking forward to meeting you, and I know you will love him well (something you are good at!). I called in to see Margaret Hill in Canberra Hospital Woden today (Thursday). She still finds words difficult, but has the same bright eyes and smile and seems not to be anxious (God bless her). I gave her your love and the assurance of our prayers. Father Mark will be taking a break at Rosedale from 26th December to 6th January. I leave for Toowoomba on the 5th. Father Jim, Marian and Maureen join us in praying that you will all be open to the special grace of Christmas – the gentle gift of Jesus in the most unassuming way possible. May your families, especially your children, experience a special intimacy, and the wonder of what God did and continues to do for the world in the gift of Jesus. May he find room in our ‘inn’.
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