Liturgy

Sacramental Diary

Our local parishes have supplied the following diary information, which is on the College website. However we appreciate that the College has a wide catchment area. For further information:

CLAREMONT: ST THOMAS APOSTLE

Confirmation
Fri August 8, 6:00pm: Celebration of Sacrament

COTTESLOE: ST MARY STAR OF THE SEA

Eucharist
August 3, 10:00: Celebration of Sacrament

Confirmation
August 10, 10:00: Celebration of Sacrament

NORTH BEACH: OUR LADY OF GRACE

Reconciliation
Thur July 31: Parent/child workshop

Eucharist

August 2 & 3: Rite of Commitment

NAIDOC

What is NAIDOC Week?

NAIDOC Week celebrates the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. NAIDOC is celebrated not only in Indigenous communities but by Australians from all walks of life. The week is a great opportunity to participate in a range of activities and to support your local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community. NAIDOC week officially falls in the holidays: 6th-13th July. Further information: http://www.naidoc.org.au/

How is NAIDOC celebrated in the College

Welcome to Country & Smoking Ceremony

Professor Len Collard hosted a Welcome to Country and Smoking Ceremony at the College this morning. Professor Collard is a Whadjuk Nyungar who is a Traditional Owner of the Perth Metropolitan area and surrounding lands, rivers, swamps and ocean as well as its culture.

Len is an Australian Research Council Chief Investigator with the School of Indigenous Studies at the University of Western Australia and his research has allowed the broadening of the understanding of the many unique characteristics of Australia's Aboriginal people and has contributed enormously to improving the appreciation of Aboriginal culture and heritage of the Southwest of Australia. Len's ground-breaking theoretical work has put Nyungar cultural research on the local, national and international stages.

Community Mass

This morning Year 9 students beautifully prepared the Mass, which particularly celebrated the gifts of our Indigenous Australians. Thank you to the Year 9 leaders, in particular Antony Mani-Xavier and Emersyn Haddleton, for your generosity.

Homeroom

Student Leaders in Years 8-11 created thoughtful prayers and short reflections for homerooms during the week. Thank you for your time and ingenuity, Stephanie, Xanthe, Antony, Emersyn, Luke and Emilia.

THE GOSPEL THIS WEEK: Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Sunday

The Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference has issued a brochure to coincide with Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Sunday this weekend. The full text can be downloaded at http://www.catholic.org.au/ . The following is an excerpt.

'In The Joy of the Gospel, Pope Francis speaks to us of our responsibility to care for and protect the most vulnerable people of our planet. He goes on to say that our commitment to the vulnerable embraces not just humans in need, but also the wider community of life on Earth. He includes the land itself among the vulnerable, and all the creatures that are not able to defend themselves against ruthless human exploitation.

In our own land, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have a unique contribution to make as the wider Australian community is challenged to face up to the damage it is doing to God's beautiful creation. They can help the rest of us to learn how to "take care of country," to protect the land, the seas, the rivers and the forests, and all the creatures who inhabit them. From time immemorial, indigenous Australians have considered themselves as custodians of the land. Different communities have seen themselves as responsible for their own particular places, and have exercised this responsibility faithfully over countless generations. The sense of being a custodian is deeply interconnected with the various traditional forms of spirituality of the peoples of this land.

Many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have joyfully embraced the good news of Jesus, and become part of the community of his disciples. In encountering Jesus they do not abandon their feeling for the land. On the contrary, in him, they find new reasons to love the

land and to "care for country." They see this land with its river red gums, its outback water holes, its wallabies, its beautiful parrots, its carolling magpies, its coral reefs, as the gift of a loving, bountiful Creator, the God whom Jesus teaches us to call Abba/Father. They understand the landscape and all that it contains as this God's good creation - "God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good" (Gen 1:31) ….

We can encounter the Holy Spirit in moments of peace and of quiet joy in the natural world. We can come to a sense of the Spirit breathing through the land, of the Holy Spirit as the "Giver of Life" for the whole creation. The witness of indigenous Australians can teach all members of the Christian community to see that when we gather for Eucharist, and when we bring gifts of bread and wine to the altar, we hold this land with all its creatures up to God. They can teach us that we humans belong to the one community of creation before God, and that in the Eucharist we praise God with this community- "All you have created rightly gives you praise" (3rd Eucharistic Prayer).'[i]


[i]http://www.catholic.org.au/ (accessed 33r July 2014).

TERM 3 COMMUNITY MASS

First Mass of Term 3: Friday 25th July.

All welcome.

Chapel

8:00am - 8:30am

Fridays in term time