Liturgy
Image © Tony Kiely,
Emmaus Productions
SACRAMENT PROGRAM
'Family focused, parish-based, Catholic school-supported'
"Your unique and indispensable role in your child's Catholic Christian formation is one that both school and parish endorse and support. It is your privilege and responsibility, which follows from your commitment when your child was baptised, to present your child for the sacraments." Your family celebrates the sacrament in your home parish, the parish community in which you regularly participate.
Is your child in Year 2, 3, or 5?
John XXIII College prepares children for the various sacraments during the course of the year's religious education programs: Year 3 - Reconciliation, Year 4 - Eucharist, Year 6 - Confirmation.
Enrol in your Parish for 2016
Many parishes are now setting dates and offering enrolment opportunities for the 2016 program.
Parents are encouraged to begin that conversation with their child and to contact their parish priest or parish sacrament coordinator to enrol their child in the 2016 program. The John XXIII College primary curriculum includes the relevant sacrament unit content.
As parish information becomes available, it will be included here - as well as on the College website.
PARISH OF HOLY SPIRIT, CITY BEACH
Sacrament Enrolment Day
Date: 26 November 2015
Time: 4pm to 5pm
Venue: Holy Spirit Parish Centre, 2 Keaney Place, City Beach.
Enrolment forms available: www.holyspiritcitybeach.com or from Parish Office
For further information about Sacrament Programs in your parish, go to - Archdiocesan website: http://www.perthcatholic.org.au/Parishes_and_Mass_Times.htm?cms%2Erm=List
Or contact: Mary-Anne Lumley, Parish Liaison lumley.mary-anne@johnxxiii.edu.au
'GOOD NEWS' for 33rd SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
"He shall gather his elect from the four winds. …"
(Mark 12:38-44)
The reflection is an extract from Fr Richard Leonard's homily on this Sunday's gospel and is printed here, with kind permission. Fr Richard Leonard SJ is the author of Preaching to the Converted, Paulist Press, New York, 2006.
Several years ago, the film 'The Pianist' won Best Picture at the Oscars. It's the true story of Wladyslaw Szpilman (Brody) who was a celebrated classical pianist in Warsaw during the 1930s. He came from an affluent and intellectual family. Like all Jews of Warsaw, in November of 1940 the Szpilmans are herded into the Jewish Ghetto. Unlike most of the others Wladyslaw comes out each day to work as a cocktail pianist in a Warsaw café. Polish Jews and Christians remember and admire his playing. So much so that in the summer of 1942 while the rest of his family are deported to Treblinka, Wladyslaw is rescued from the train by a Jewish collaborator. The Polish resistance hides him in Warsaw. When his whereabouts are discovered Wladyslaw goes on the run and survives in a city which barely survives the war.
Toward the end of the film there is a magnificent scene where the now-skeletal Wladyslaw is caught by a Nazi Army officer hiding in one of the few Warsaw houses left standing. He asks Szpilman what he did for a living, and then invites him to sit and play the piano in the drawing room of the house. In the midst of the almost total destruction of the world around them, Wladyslaw enables beauty to have the last word over the horror of war. It changes both men. It's the first time the pianist has played in years, and his concerto touches something human in the German soldier which leads him to protect Wladyslaw.
In today's Gospel we get a very vivid picture of how the end of the world might break in upon us. It's clear that Mark thought it was going to happen in the lifetime of some of his hearers. It didn't, and many generations later we're still waiting.
This is not to say that the reign of God doesn't regularly break in upon us. Wladyslaw's playing shows how music can do it. We believe that every day more good is done in the world than evil; else this world would destroy itself. And we hold that the source of all love is Christ. So, every time we are kind rather than cruel, patient rather than intolerant, generous rather than selfish, beautiful rather than ugly, the reign of God bursts into our lives.
Verse 27 in Sunday's Gospel reads, 'Then he will send out the angels and gather together his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven'. The whole idea of 'the elect' has exercised the imagination of several generations of Christians ever since this verse was written….
…And so what makes being a Christian so special? We know who's doing the electing and why, and we have each other as we struggle to live out Christ's reign every day - until he comes again.©
COMMUNITY MASS
During the month of November, Catholics especially remember those who have gone before us in faith.
"The believer's pilgrimage of faith is lived out with the mutual support of all the people of God. In Christ all the faithful, both living and departed, are bound together in a communion of prayer." (Source: PRAY AS YOU GO)
The College community is invited to write the names of their deceased loved ones in the 'Book of the Dead', and we especially include those names during Mass. The book is in the Chapel, which is open from at least 7:30am to 5:00pm each day. Please feel welcome to come into the Chapel at any time, either to write the name of a loved one in our book - or to just enjoy the quiet space at 'the heart of the College'.
Community Mass on Friday 20 November will be a special remembrance of our loved ones who have died. Everyone is welcome. Join us for a cuppa in the café afterwards if you are able.
When: Fridays in Term Time
Time: 8:00am start - 8:30am finish
Where: College Chapel
