PDF version of this parish newsletter here:
Also, you can access an online copy of the newsletter *here*
“As he blessed them he parted from them and was taken up to heaven.”
(Luke 24:46-53)
Image Credit: Shutterstock Licensed Item ID: 1974901175- Koropi, East Attica , Greece - 15.05.2021 : Colourful Hagiography of the Ascension of Jesus Christ ,on the facade above the entrance of the church with the same name in Koropi area - Contributor: Thanasis F
Please note that our new parish number is (07) 56717388 (the old parish number 5572 5433 will still divert -hopefully- to the new number for about a year and then it will cease)
PASTOR’S POST. What’s In a Name?
Clearly there are number of demands connected with aging, but one of the issues I find particularly frustrating is forgetting names, often of people that I have known for some time. I’m telling myself that it’s just normal for people my age, but when knowing people’s names is a vital requirement of my job, it does tend to dent the credibility and the confidence a little.
It really would help if people wore name tags instead of jewellery or Order of Australia medals, but that might be pushing it a bit far.
I have taken to introducing (or re-introducing) myself to people in the hope that they might do the same in return, but mostly I get the response of “We know who you are” or “You haven’t changed that much since we saw you last”. The truth is, I have changed, but not in ways that you can see on the outside.
So many faces, so many names and so many parishes over the years has thrown me into utter confusion, as I try to link particular people with certain parishes where I have ministered. I could just dismiss it as being out of sight, out of mind, but many people do expect that you wouldn’t forget them even after many years absence.
Many others are kind enough to tell me that I meet so many people in my work, which of course is true, but it really annoys me that something which used give me a secret pride is now fast deserting me, leaving me with a guilty smile, as I go through an alphabet of names hoping that one will jump out and save be from embarrassment.
I’m told there are certain “tricks” that can help with recalling names, but I usually remember them long after the person has gone. The legendary ‘name rememberer, Archbishop Francis Rush had a reputation for remembering the name of school children in parishes when he worked in the Townsville Diocese some fifty years prior. He told me once that upon meeting someone for the first time, he would say very little to them by way of pleasantries, simply concentrating of embedding their name in his mind. Worked for him magnificently well into his eighties, I, on the other hand, can’t keep quiet long enough to even listen to what their name is.
Another method is to link a person’s name to their job, hobby or physical attribute, e.g. Gary the Golfer, Terry the Teacher, Peter the Priest, Robyn the Redhead etc. Of course that requires you to remember two things, not just a name, and it does run into a snag with names like Beyonce and Tanequa.
My mother, who was notorious for forgetting names and their owners, would boldly, without a hint of embarrassment, often say to someone she couldn’t remember, “How was I supposed to recognize you – you’re looking so well”. Nice try and surprisingly, it often worked. My grandfather just refused to even try with any names calling everyone “Cobber” or “Mate” or “Honey” - it was a different time, a different correctness. No one was ever offended and some seemed to appreciate the affection and familiarity.
I suppose I should just trust the way I feel if anyone ever forgets my name. Frankly it doesn’t trouble me if someone says “Didn’t I used to know you from somewhere?” or “Weren’t you the priest who did my wedding?” Honest, direct and throwing it back into my court to see if I recall any previous connection. Once we have got the memory lapse out of the way, we can get on to the real stuff of catching up on the years between our last meeting.
It’s really a case of sucking up our pride and not sweating the small stuff, because I’m sure there will come a time when some well-intentioned parishioner will farewell me with the compliment “we’ll never forget old what’s-his-name”.
Fr Peter Dillon PP.
LOCAL SAINT VINCENT de PAUL CONFERENCE - HELP NEEDED!
Hello to our fellow Parishioners!
We are the Surfers Paradise Conference Members of the St Vincent de Paul Society. We call it our Conference because we meet to confer every month on how we can best help our Companions, who are doing it hard on this journey of life.
And we need your help. Not your money! (just for now) but your help!
You may not know that SVDP was formed 189 years ago by a 19 yr old student in Paris, called Frederick Ozanam. He was challenged by the poverty and need he saw around him, and he called on his fellow students to appreciate their own privileges and to help those who needed a hand up.
So all these years later, in 153 countries all over the world, some 800,000 of us do what we can for our own Companions. When they call the Helpline, we go to visit them – previously in their homes, now in their driveways! We share food, and whatever other resources we can, and lend a listening ear so that we can provide support or guidance. We’re about a Hand Up. We need more people to come with us on our companion journeys. A couple of hours visiting, at a time to suit you, and a couple of hours in the conference. It’s not hard work, it’s easy. But it needs a big heart and a loving soul.
We’ll be hosting an information night on May 31, at the Parish Hospitality Centre at Clear Island Waters from 6.30 to 7.30 pm. So you can find out more, and discern whether it is a call for help that you can answer. No pressure. Well, not much!
If you are interested in finding out more, could you please call Catherine on 0419 221 916 or Craig on 0427 244 880. Thank you and bless you.
FAMILY FESTIVAL
Family Festival free tickets here:
STAR OF THE SEA - MERRIMAC -
On Friday the 20th May 2022, Archbishop Mark Coleridge, assisted by Fr Peter Dillon and Seminarian Bradley Davies and Staff, students, parents and representatives of BCE and surrounding schools attended the Star of Sea School for the official Blessing and Opening Ceremony.
Star of the Sea - Merrimac - Initially Prep to Year 3, with an extra year level being added each year until 2026. The school is master-planned to accommodate approximately 550 students. -
Website: Star Of The Sea Merrimac and Facebook Page: Star of the Sea
NEW FEATURE OF THE NEWSLETTER - SHARE IN REFLECTION FOR AN UPCOMING WEEKEND'S SCRIPTURES:
In order to deepen our appreciation of God's Holy Word, each week you are invited to read the Scriptures for Sunday Masses a few weeks ahead. After you have prayerfully read these texts from the Bible, spend some time in silent contemplation and prayer over these texts. Then read the Scriptures over again slowly and meditatively. Write down anything in the readings that delights you, intrigues you, confuses you, challenges you and so on. Also, write down any thoughts that come up to you about these texts and what they are saying to you. You are welcome to share these thoughts in the feedback process in this link. Please come to this site every week and engage in this advanced preparation and immersion into God's living word which cuts finer than any knife and is lifegiving and nourishing for our lives here and now. Please visit the following link and join in the process. An insight, question or observation may end up in the weekly homily too. https://scripturereflectioninprogress.blogspot.com/
Plenary Council Second Assembly-Walking in the Spirit
The People of God are invited to make a prayerful journey towards the Second Assembly of the Plenary Council through the Walking in the Spirit prayer campaign.
Walking in the Spirit runs until the second Assembly, which opens on
Sunday, July 3.
Find out more at: ww.plenarycouncil.catholic.org.au/walkinginthespirit
HOSPITAL CALLS - AROUND THE DEANERY
To efficiently deal with the pastoral needs that arise around the Catholic Parishes of the Gold Coast, the parishes within this Deanery have the practice of having the first call for emergencies going to the priests of the parish within which the hospital is located. Here is a helpful guide to the hospitals and their attendant priests. Nursing home calls usually also follow this procedure, where the first priest to call is a priest from the parish within which the Nursing Home is located.
Robina Hospital - Burleigh Heads Parish on 5576 6466
Pindara Hospital - Surfers Paradise Parish 56717388
John Flynn Hospital -Coolangatta-Tugun Parish on 5598 2165
University & Gold Coast Private Hosp-Southport Parish 5510 2222
MASS TIMES: SURFERS PARADISE MASS TIMES
A VOCATION VIEW:
Our Spiritual Life is a Journey - following the Call of the Master to "Go and teach all people my Gospel." Say "Yes" over and over again. To talk to someone about your vocation, contact Vocation Brisbane: 1300 133 544. vocation@bne.catholic.net.au and www.vocationbrisbane.com
STEWARDSHIP REFLECTION -
“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” (Revelations 22:13)
This is a reminder of how we should live our lives 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – putting God first in all that we do. Not only when I am at Mass and parish activities, but when I am in the world, at work or at school. Living gratefully and generously is an intentional lifestyle. Every decision you make either moves you closer to God or farther away. Choose wisely!
The vision of Stewardship speaks in every aspect of life, inviting everyone to be thankful, generous and accountable for what each has been given.
FOR THOSE WHO ARE SICK: Kim Parkes, Cecily Cellinan,Betty O’Connell, Barry James Edmonds, Kevin Brennan, Margaret Cusack, Fabiola Menzs, Peter O’Brien, Rachel Raines, Ray Burton, Mary Jackson, Cathy Doyle, Vince Shanahan, Ilene Simpkins, Claire Perera, Jayani Antony, Panfilo Bantugan, Sandii Wall, Kath Kiely, Joanne Mooney, Therese Mullins, Michael Connell, Zeb Deane, Miriam Hill, Amando A. Mirasol Jr., Gus Reeves, John & Molly Robinson, Laila Mikael, Jean Di Benedetto, James Goodwin, Scott Mitchell, Malcolm Ward, John O’Brien, Ludwig Mueller, Kent Vince, Colleen Grehan, Carmelita Dulu, John Davis, Bobby Courtney, Lisa Mangan, Robyn Skein, Kye Oh, Bill Gilmore, Olga Hamshari, Roy Ferraro, Margaret Haerse, Milka Barac, Mary Ashton, Rodney & Norma McLennan, Lois & Doug Wood, Duncan Dawson, William Franklin, Maria Mihalic, Annie Scicluna, Anne Logan, Margaret Thompson, Patricia Moor, Helen Bohringer, Savannah Ayoub, Baby Maeve Lombard, Arthur Haddad, Michael & Denise Tracey, Joanne Parkes, Michelle MacDonald, Mary Kerr. And all suffering from Covid-19 and its effects.
RECENTLY DECEASED: Elizabeth Cheetham, Jill Carlyle, Karen Tansey, James (Jim) McCloskey, Michael James, Hans Gringel, Sr Mary Teresa, Tony Ghusn, Bill Heuston, Cathy Cooper, Rosario Lazzaro, Lucena Gabriel, Brad Holman, Mieko Kanayama, Fr Patrick Cassidy, Fr Ian Howells SJ, Louise Thompson, Balthazar van der Meer, Katrina Roberts, Kathleen Gabriel, Rosslyn Wallis, Jean Smith (from Sydney), Barbara Mary Robertson, Guiseppe Castellana, Judith Wisemantel, Prof. Errol John Maguire, Pat Delany (Sydney), Cynthia Ferdinands, Cynthia Maud Brennan, Patricia Brigid Flanagan, Kathleen Jane O’Doherty, Segindina Navarro, Lolita Pamorca, Noeline Patricia Sisam, Barry Edwards, Rita Quarelle, Colita Paghubasan, Rosita Marchetti, Francis Elton.
ANNIVERSARY OF DEATH:
Mato Maric, Josip Grzic, Mary Ward, Catherine Anne Watson (Nee Gaffney), Jacques Philoppe Desbleds, Beryl Hodge, Mary Therese Dean, Ivy Mulcahy, Isabelle Rose Brock, Kevin Cassels, Dorothy Gravener, Theo Robert Farr, Marie van Twest, Gerald Freestone Junck, Mary Fredricks, Barry Wayne Moore, Marie Hayden. And also: Dean Swift and Arthur Dean Swift, Donald Hope Atkinson, Mansour Soueidan, Douglas Pierce Bates, Jack Arthur Hurley, John Zervos, Ronald Stanley Perry, Andreas Gandjar Lunandi, June Valeen Deane, Helen Dunn, Keith Cumner, Vittorio Lanci, Basilo Micale, Mellie Modral, Sr Ursula Gabbett, Kevin Martin Murphy, Patricia Margaret Mary Levick, Fay Ardron, Maurice John Hayes, Patricia Dorothy Helen Geor, June Therese Lewis, Dr Elaine Lillian Kluver.
TAKE FIVE FOR FAITH: Save me a seat
“As he blessed them he parted from them and was taken up to heaven.” (Luke 24:46-53). -
The epic movie version of the Ascension, today’s feast, is exciting to imagine: Christ floating upward, astonished disciples gaping, full orchestra swelling as the Earth becomes a blue ball below Jesus. However it happened, the Catechism of the Catholic Church says the point is that “Christ’s ascension marks the definitive entrance of Jesus’ humanity into God’s heavenly domain.” He is there, says the catechism, preparing a place for us. The mystics tell us that we don’t have to wait for death for that place next to Jesus; we can go there in prayer. Now that’s epic!SIGN UP FOR "TAKE FIVE" DAILY ww.takefiveforfaith.com/subscribe
MASK WEARING
People should not feel the need to explain and apologise for continuing to wear masks and we ask that people respect their choices and needs. The risk of covid has not entirely vanished and there are still vulnerable people in our community and so using hand sanitiser and reasonable social distancing where possible is still highly prudent.
BAPTISM for Children in Surfers Paradise
Baptism is the first of three Sacraments of Initiation: Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist. Surfers Paradise Parish follows the policies of the Archdiocese of Brisbane as it welcomes each person into the family of the Church through the waters of Baptism.
Infants and children are baptised at the request of parents. Within the Baptism ritual, parents promise to accept the responsibility of training their children in the practice of the faith and to raise their children to understand and live God’s commandments. Parents can request baptism for their child by filling out an enrolment form, available on our parish website www.surfersparadiseparish.com.au Once the online baptism form has been received, the Parish Office will email details for preparation for the Sacrament of Baptism and confirm the online booking.
Three primary school-age children are currently preparing for Baptism. Although their personal stories vary, each of the children has asked their parents to organise their initiation into our Catholic Faith. Each child has asked to develop their relationship with God by learning more about God’s love and forgiveness. Their parents are delighted to be in a position to support their children as they start this journey. For our part, may we keep these children and their families in our prayers, especially throughout the upcoming Easter Season?
Sacrament of EUCHARIST - First HOLY COMMUNION 2022
Over 90 children are currently participating in the At Home Preparation for First Communion.The families of these children will view the videos, complete the variety of activities and, talk and pray together about this final Sacrament of Initiation - the Sacrament of Eucharist received and lived to its fullest through the sharing in the gift of Holy Communion.
The Parent Meetings have been held over recent weeks. There will also be a Final Meeting (including rehearsal) in the week prior to the Celebration of First Communion either Monday, June 6 at 6 pm or Monday, June 13 at 6 pm. First Communion will be celebrated on Sunday, June 12 at 11:00 am and Sunday, June 19 at 11:00 am at Sacred Heart Church (Children will be included in one of these celebrations, not both.)
Families that experience any difficulties with the program should seek assistance by emailing our Sacramental Coordinator, Cathy Anderson, andersoncm@bne.catholic.net.au
Sacrament of CONFIRMATION 2022
Baptised children who are in Year 3 or greater are invited to be included in the 2022 Preparation for Confirmation group. Parents are asked to go to the parish website at www.surfersparadiseparish.com.au and complete an online enrolment application. Please use the drop-down menu under Sacraments and click on Confirmation (under Sacraments). Then scroll down to and click on CHILDREN’S SACRAMENTAL PROGRAM APPLICATION FORM (in the blue box). Once you click on SUBMIT, you will receive an automated response so that you know that your completed application has been received.
Parents who have completed and submitted the online form will receive an invitation email several weeks prior to the Parent Meeting which is to be held either Monday, July 11 at 6 pm or Tuesday, July 12 at 6 pm in Sacred Heart Church. (Parents are asked to choose to attend one of these meetings but do not need to attend both. Only children who are represented by a parent at one of these meetings will be included in the Confirmation Preparation Program.) After the Parent Meeting, parents will be emailed copies of the At Home Preparation for Confirmation Program to be completed by the child and their parent/s, and then returned to the Sacramental Team. The Final Meeting which includes the rehearsal for Confirmation will be held on Monday, August 29 at 6 pm or Tuesday, August 30 at 6 pm (Children and parents are required to attend one of these meetings, not both.)
The Celebration of the Sacrament of Confirmation will take place in Surfers Paradise Parish on Friday, September 2, 2022.
Sacrament of PENANCE - RECONCILIATION
If you missed the March opportunity for your child to celebrate their First Reconciliation, we would like to offer you another opportunity this year. The First Rite of Reconciliation will be celebrated on Thursday, October 20, 2022 at 5:30pm in Sacred Heart Church.
Reconciliation is a Sacrament of Healing. In the Children’s Sacramental Program, it follows the Sacraments of Initiation. That is, Reconciliation, also known as Penance, follows Baptism, Confirmation and First Communion.
The Surfers Paradise Sacramental Team has prepared a program similar in style to the Confirmation and First Communion At Home Preparation Programs. If your child was previously enrolled in the Surfers Paradise Parish Sacramental Program and then was either Confirmed or made their First Communion in Surfers Paradise, there is no requirement for you to complete a new online enrolment form. Children making their First Communion in June, 2022 will also be eligible to participate in this Preparation for Reconciliation.
If you are unsure if your child will be included in the group, please email our Sacramental Coordinator, Cathy Anderson at andersoncm@bne.catholic.net.au
THIS WEEKEND’S GOSPEL - Ascending to the Father so as to be everywhere with his disciples.
-To listen to the whole Sunday Mass each week (including homily) from Surfers Paradise Catholic Parish, including the Easter Mass - please visit this link:
Liturgy for you at Home (by SPCP) - https:- soundcloud.com/user-633212303/tracks.
Our Lord returns to the Heavenly Father, but he is still with us through the Holy Spirit. He now commissions us his disciples to continue his work; to keep spreading his message of good news and to keep living and proclaiming his gospel.
We are on the journey towards the fullness of God's Kingdom. Everything we do and say is directed towards cooperating in God's work of the Kingdom.
If Jesus had not returned to the Father, we would still be saying "there he is over there!" or "here he is only over here!!"; But now, by returning to Heaven and sending the Holy Spirit to us, Jesus is "all IN all" because Christ makes his home in our hearts and in our world, through the Holy Spirit. All the while, we work to make our homes, our workplaces and our city, more and more places of Christian value and action.
The Spirit helps us to make Christ present in the midst of a world which can be too often filled with selfishness, undue privilege, arrogance; and abuse of power or authority. Tragically this world is capable of showing a terrible indifference towards the poor, the hungry and the suffering.
As one scripture scholar puts it:** "Ascension and Pentecost are feasts of Christian maturity. We are now called to continue Jesus' mission with our insight into reality, our criteria, and our decisions.
Luke's Gospel on the Ascension has a fascinating, different, focus from Matthew and Mark's versions.** In these other two gospels, the Disciples are sent out on a mission. In Luke, yes they are implicitly sent on a mission but they are particularly sent out, in the visible absence of Christ, to be witnesses of Christ in their words and actions in the world. Our Lord's absence is not as if he is dead and gone. Rather, he is alive, and with the Father, and he will return at the end to complete all things. In the meantime, we must be his hands and eyes and heart in the world, through the Power of the Spirit.
"For, the "power of the Spirit" (Acts 1:7) is with us. We must not stand still looking up and lamenting the absence of the Lord. We must not sit around waiting for his return in a passive kind of way. Instead, we must set out on our way to take his gospel "to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8). We are now adult Christians, not immature, not passive; not merely waiting for answers or tasks to fall out of the sky… but rather shareholders in the kingdom, sons, and daughters of the eternal God, brothers, and sisters of Christ…. with a real part to play in the action. Before Christ's death, the disciples were like young students, being carefully nourished with the message. After Christ's death, resurrection, ascension, and the coming of the Holy Spirit, they are now not merely waiting to be fed, they are to go out and be nourishment for others.
The Second Vatican Council strongly emphasized this. Being mature in the faith is a requirement of the gospel, and as adults, we all have our carefully thought-out, reflected upon, and prayed-about views and insights into this shared task we share in.
We are encouraged in this by the assurance that the Lord will return (Acts 1:11) because he is alive (Eph 1:20). But we are also alert, for at that time he will ask us to give an account of the talents he has entrusted to us, and the fruits we have been able to produce,"** with our work and cooperation.
Jesus' ascension tells us to "stop standing there looking up into the clouds;" There is work to be done. And, there is no time like the present. In his earthly ministry, Our Lord was in an urgent hurry to bring his gospel and his ministry to all people. He now entrusts this ministry to us, through the abiding presence of his Spirit. There is no time to lose. God wants us to be about his business right away, and, reassuringly, always giving us the 'very present' assistance of God's Holy Spirit abiding in us.
To listen to the whole Sunday Mass each week (including homily) from Surfers Paradise Catholic Parish, please visit this link: Liturgy for you at Home (by SPCP) - https:- soundcloud.com/user-633212303/tracks.
(REFERENCES: FR. PAUL W. KELLY;**Gutiérrez, G. and Dees, C. (1997). Sharing the Word through the liturgical year. 1st ed. Maryknoll: Orbis Books. P. 111; MISSION 2000 – PRAYING SCRIPTURE IN A CONTEMPORARY WAY. YEAR c. BY MARK LINK S.J; A BOOK OF GRACE-FILLED DAYS - 2010. BY ALICE CAMILLE)
[Image Credit Shutterstock Item ID: 1324655747 Chapel of Ascension in Jerusalem, Israel- Contributor- trabantos)
The Visitation
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my saviour. For he has looked upon his handmaid’s lowliness; behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed. The Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is from age to age to those who fear him. He has shown might with his arm, dispersed the arrogance of mind and heart. He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones but lifted up the lowly. The hungry he has filled with good things; the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped Israel his servant, remembering his mercy, according to his promise to our fathers, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”
Saint Justin, Martyr (- 165)
He was born at the beginning of the second century in Nablus, in Samaria, to a pagan Greek family. He was an earnest seeker of truth and studied many systems of philosophy before being led, through Platonism, to Christianity. While remaining a layman, he accepted the duty of making the truth known and travelled from place to place proclaiming the gospel. In 151 he travelled from Ephesus to Rome, where he opened a school of philosophy and wrote defences and expositions of Christianity, which have survived to this day and are the earliest known writings of their kind. In the persecution of 165, in the reign of the emperor Marcus Aurelius, he was denounced as a Christian, arrested and beheaded. The transcript of his trial by the prefect of Rome, Rusticus, has also survived: it can be found in today’s Office of Readings.
Justin treats the Greek philosophy that he studied as mostly true, but incomplete. In contrast to the Hebrew tendency to view God as making revelations to them and to no one else, he follows the parable of the Sower and sees God as sowing the seed of wisdom throughout the world, to grow wherever the soil would receive it. When we dispute with people who disagree with us, we would do well to assume that they too are seeking wisdom and have found the truth of a kind. Since there is only one God and one Truth, it is our task not to contradict or belittle their achievement, but to show them how their strivings and searches are ultimately fulfilled in Christ. This is harder to do – not least because we have to take the trouble to understand our own faith thoroughly – but it is ultimately more worthwhile.
See also the article in the Catholic Encyclopaedia.
St Marcellinus and St Peter
Marcellinus and Peter were beheaded on the outskirts of Rome. A few years after the event, a little boy from Rome heard about their deaths from the mouth of their very executioner, who later became a Christian. That little boy was named Damasus, and he went on to become Pope from 366 to 384. Decades later, remembering the story he had heard as a child, Pope Damasus honoured Marcellinus and Peter by adorning their tomb with a marble inscription recounting the details of their martyrdom as he had heard them so long ago. Unfortunately, the inscription is lost.
Saint Charles Lwanga and his companions (- 1885/7)
Many Christians, Catholic and Protestant, were killed by the Ugandan king Mwanga. Some of them were servants in the king’s palace or even his personal attendants. Charles Lwanga and his twenty-one companions (the youngest, Kizito, was only 13) were executed for being Christians, for rebuking the king for his debauchery and his murder of an Anglican missionary, for “praying from a book,” and for refusing to allow themselves to be ritually sodomised by the king. They died between 1885 and 1887. Most of them were burned alive in a group after being tortured.
Within a year of their deaths, the number of catechumens in the country quadrupled. St Charles Lwanga is the patron of Catholic Action and of black African youth, and the Ugandan martyrs’ feast day is a public holiday in Uganda.
APPEAL FOR THE PEOPLE OF UKRAINE - Caritas International (Catholic)
Ukraine Crisis
Over 2.6 million people have fled their homes in Ukraine, and there have been at least 1,581 civilian casualties.
You can help the Caritas Ukraine staff on the ground to provide families with emergency food, water, shelter and hygiene support.
POPE FRANCIS: Declares 10 new saints, including a Dutch priest killed by Nazis
“These saints favoured the spiritual and social growth of their nations and the whole human family, while sadly in the world today, distances are widening, tensions and wars are increasing,” Pope Francis says
VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis on Sunday, May 15, declared 10 people saints of the Roman Catholic Church, including an anti-Nazi Dutch priest murdered in the Dachau concentration camp and a French hermit monk assassinated in Algeria.
The 85-year-old Pope, who has been using a wheelchair due to knee and leg pain, was driven to the altar at the start of the ceremony, which was attended by more than 50,000 people in St Peter’s Square. It was one of the largest gatherings there since the easing of COVID restrictions earlier this year.
Francis limped to a chair behind the altar but stood to individually greet some participants. He read his homily while seated but stood during other parts of the Mass and read his homily in a strong voice, often going off-script, and walked to greet cardinals afterwards.
Francis read the canonization proclamations while seated in front of the altar and 10 cheers went up in the crowd as he officially declared each of 10 saints.
Titus Brandsma, who was a member of the Carmelite religious order and served as president of the Catholic University at Nijmegen, began speaking out against Nazi ideology even before World War Two and the German invasion of the Netherlands in 1940.
During the Nazi occupation, he spoke out against anti-Jewish laws. He urged Dutch Catholic newspapers not to print Nazi propaganda.
He was arrested in 1942 and held in Dutch jails before being taken to Dachau, near Munich, where he was subjected to biological experimentation and killed by lethal injection the same year at the age of 61. He is considered a martyr, having died because of what the Church calls “in hatred of the faith.”
The other well-known new saint is Charles de Foucauld, a 19th-century French nobleman, soldier, explorer, and geographer who later experienced a personal conversion and became a priest, living as a hermit among the poor Berbers in North Africa.
He published the first Tuareg-French dictionary and translated Tuareg poems into French. De Foucauld was killed during a kidnapping attempt by Bedouin tribal raiders in Algeria in 1916.
The other eight who were declared saints on Sunday included Devasahayam Pillai, who was killed for converting to Christianity in 18th century India, and Cesar de Bus, a 16th-century French priest who founded a religious order.
The others were two Italian priests, three Italian nuns and a French nun, all of whom lived between the 16th and 20th centuries.
“These saints favoured the spiritual and social growth of their nations and the whole human family, while sadly in the world today, distances are widening, tensions and wars are increasing,” Francis said after the Mass.
World leaders had to be “protagonists of peace and not of war,” he said in an apparent reference to Ukraine.
Miracles have been attributed to all the new saints.
The Roman Catholic Church teaches that only God performs miracles, but that saints, who are believed to be with God in heaven, intercede on behalf of people who pray to them.
Several other Catholics killed in Nazi concentration camps have already been declared saints. They include Polish priest Maximilian Kolbe and Sister Edith Stein, a German nun who converted from Judaism. Both were killed in the Auschwitz camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. –
(source: Rappler.com; MAY 15, 2022 7:14 PM PHT; REUTERS; https://www.rappler.com/world/global-affairs/pope-francis-catholic-church-new-saints-may-15-2022)
(Image Credit: Shutterstock - Item ID: 1358932310 - Pope Francis, Contributor: GYG Studio).
RELIGIOUS GOODS SHOPS
The Parish Shops which are open before and after the weekend Masses have many inexpensive devotional items suitable as gifts for Baptism, Holy Communion and Confirmation.
BINGO TUESDAY
Surfers Paradise Catholic Ladies will be having their Bingo on Tuesday the 7th of June 2022, from 10.00am to 2.00pm. Please phone Maxine Sela 0421051193 or Wendy Webb, 0412237832 to book your seat for this day.
ADORATION OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT
Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament this First Friday 3rd June 2022 at Sacred Heart Church from 7pm to 8.30pm. All welcome. Enquiries; Helen 0421935678. "Could you not watch one hour with Me?" MT 26:40
FIRST SATURDAY MASS AND BENEDICTION
First Saturday of each month. Sacred Heart Catholic Church. 4th June 2022z. At 9am followed by adoration and benediction.
COMMUNION TO RESIDENTS AT NURSING HOMES. HELP NEEDED!
We have had to reduce our visits with Holy Communion to the residents at Nursing Homes, and urgently require more people to assist with this service. Can you spare 3 hours per month for this important Ministry?
Listed below are Nursing homes with their Day and time of visitation.
Lady Small Haven, Benowa. Tuesdays 9.30 am to 11.00 am
Merrimac Park Private Care, Merrimac. Wednesdays 1.30 pm to 3.00 pm
Bupa Nursing Home, Merrimac. Thursdays 9.30 am to 11.00 am
Tricare, Mermaid Beach Nursing Home, Mermaid Beach Fridays 10.15 am to 12.00noon
Tricare, Cypress Gardens Nursing Home, Clear Island Waters. Sundays after 9.00 am Mass Sacred Heart to 12.00 noon
For further information ring the Parish Office, or Maxine Sela on 0421051193.
Praying the Rosary - Our Lady’s Statue in the Parish
Details of the Statue of Our Lady which is going around the Parish. If you would like to have her in your home and say the Rosary :
please contact Maxine or Pat on 0412 519 404
The Roster for the next four weeks:
30/5/2022 Warren & Grace de Souza Nerang
06/6/2022 Warren & Grace de Souza Nerang
13/6/2022 Mary Winters and Family
20/6/2022 Mary Winters and Family
THE SACRED HEART BRIDGE CLUB- (20 Years Young)-
Meets at the Sacred Heart - Parish Hospitality Centre, Fairway Drive, Clear Island Waters.
Playing Bridge keeps your brain active and increases your social network! So why not give us a try?
Learn to play Bridge at “Our Friendly Club” - Free Lesson. “Introduction to Bridge”
Easy to learn format, no previous card playing experience is necessary. All are welcome.
For more information and to enrol, Please phone: Cheryl 5538 8821 or Mob 0417 772 701
MEDITATION PRAYER GROUP
In the Morris prayer room Tuesdays from 10 am to 12 noon. The Meditation Group would very much like to welcome new members. All enquiries please phone Pam Egtberts 0428090703
ART AND CRAFT GROUP - Every Wednesday in the PHC from 9 am until 12noon.
The Group meets in the Parish Hospitality Centre on Wednesdays, 9 to 12. Activities include art, (watercolour, oils, acrylics, pen and ink drawing etc), as well as various kinds of Craftwork (Knitting, Embroidery, Crocheting, Cardmaking, Sewing etc.), making Rosary Beads (later sent to the missions), and any other activities that individuals may have an interest in. We come together to enjoy each other's company in a relaxed environment. New members, both men and women, are most welcome to join. For further information, phone John 0412 759 205, or the Parish Office.
Worldwide Marriage Encounter:
A weekend experience for married couples, priests and religious, away from the distractions of everyday living. Take time out of your busy schedule, to invest in your most precious asset and revitalise your Sacrament. This is a unique opportunity to reconnect, rekindle and refresh your relationship. It gives you the opportunity to grow in your relationship with your spouse or your community.
Our live-out weekend will be held at Siena College, Sippy Downs from 1 to 3 July – going home on the Friday and Saturday evenings. Our COVID-SAFE live-in weekends will be held from Friday evening 14 October to Sunday afternoon 16 October (including Mass) at Santa Teresa, Ormiston. For bookings/details contact Maria and David Murphy: 0481 307 821 qldbookings@wwme.org.au Watch Archbishop Mark Coleridge’s support video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4o_Wp6qGB44
Information website: www.wwme.org.au
EXERCISE CLASS - LOW IMPACT - FOR HEART HEALTH -
Spring has sprung! Join Rochelle for a fun functional exercise class at Casey Hall. Low impact cardiovascular exercises for heart health, improve strength and balance- an all-around fitness class for over 65’s. Stretch and strengthen the whole body, make new friends and feel great. Tuesday mornings @9.30 Beginners welcome. Contact Rochelle for further information on 0438 333 308.
YOGA AT THE PARISH HOSPITALITY CENTRE-
Come join us for our friendly class in the Parish Hospitality Centre next to the Parish Office. Classes run every Tuesday at 10:45 am. Learn to relax, yet gain greater flexibility, inner strength, body awareness and concentration, all while increasing your breath support and general wellbeing. Ruth is an IYTA accredited instructor with wide experience and runs a caring, carefully monitored one-hour session costing $10 (new attendees need to arrive by 10.30 am to prepare adequately for class). For more information, call Ruth on 0421338110.
Receptionist/Multimedia Assistant- Holy Cross Funerals -(Brisbane)
Applications are open for the above position at Holy Cross Funerals. The position is a part-time 25 hours a week over 5 days per week Monday to Friday 9 am to 2 pm. For additional information, please visit the Archdiocese of Brisbane website https://brisbanecatholic.org.au/ and careers. Applications close: 30 May 2022
Position Vacant – Assistant Sacristan- St Stephens
Applications are open for the above position at St Stephen's Cathedral. The position is part-time 25 hours a week. This position provides assistance to the Sacristan in the preparation of liturgical events within the Cathedral. For additional information, please visit the Archdiocese of Brisbane website https://brisbanecatholic.org.au/ and then visit ‘careers.’ Applications close on 31 May 2022
Position Vacant – Parish Secretary- Lutwyche.
Applications are open for the above position at the Lutwyche Catholic Parish. The position is part-time 21 hours a week over 4 days per week (Mon, Wed, Thurs & Fri). For additional information, please visit the Archdiocese of Brisbane website https://brisbanecatholic.org.au/ and ‘careers.’
Applications close: 1 June 2022
Position Vacant – Youth Ministry- Jubilee Parish - Brisbane
Applications are open for a position at the Jubilee Catholic Parish. A casual youth minister is required starting 20 June 2022
https://clientapps.jobadder.com/68451/aob-internal-career-opportunities - Application close: 10 June 2022
The Archdiocese of Brisbane has standards of conduct for workers to maintain a safe and healthy environment for children. Our commitment to these standards requires that we conduct working with children checks and background referencing for all persons who will engage in direct and regular involvement with children and young people (0 - 18 years) and/or vulnerable adults. The organisation is fully committed to child safety and has zero-tolerance for abuse of children or vulnerable adults.
ADULT LEARNING ARTICLES: The Consumer Mentality in the Church
America is a consumer culture. We need something; we buy it. And we’ll shop around for the best quality at the best price.
Christians do the same thing in the church!
Odds are pretty good that you live in an area where at least two evangelical churches are close to you. I live in the Nashville area, and you can’t throw a rock and not hit a church. (For the record, I do not endorse throwing rocks at churches.) I feel like half the church planting in America happens in Nashville. After all it’s hip, cool, and trendy to live here, so a lot of wannabe pastors start a church here.
I’m glad we have ample opportunities to get plugged in with a group of believers. But most of us do not make that connection with the closest church to us—at least not at first. We shop around.
I’d like to think we’re looking for a church that is focused solely on serving Christ and living according to His Word. While that might be a small part of it, a bigger factor is at play.
What’s in it for me?
We shop for a church with a good children’s ministry, student ministry, or active senior adult group. We shop based on our music preferences. Do they have a choir and music program for me? Do they have a Starbucks kiosk? Do they have …?
And the list goes on. We choose a church based on the personal perks we gain.
Churches should strive to do their work with excellence, but I get the impression we’re not doing so to reach the lost; we’re often doing it to entice Christians to choose our church over the one down the street. Church leaders—and church members—would probably deny that, but ask them why they drive past six other churches each Sunday to attend the one they do. We choose a church because of what it has to offer us.
I know. I’ve done it.
Yet what happens when the leadership changes? Maybe the style of music changed or we don’t like the new student minister as much as we liked the previous one. Any number of things can cause us dissatisfaction, and the dissatisfaction can cause us to go shopping again. After all, we need a church that meets our needs!
God calls us to a wholly different mindset. His Word is silent about perks and preferences, but it says a lot about our role in the body of Christ. Let me rewrite John F. Kennedy’s statement.
Ask not what your church can do for you; ask what you can do for your church.
Life in the church is not centered around me. It is centered around Christ. He is my Master and Lord, and I am to follow His lead and serve others. Consider these words from Peter to the church—and note what we are called to do.
The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray.Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. (1 Pet. 4:7-10).
Pray. Love. Be hospitable. Serve. All active verbs focused on what I am to do, not passive verbs about what should be done for me.
I go to a far-from-perfect church. Give me an hour and I could tell what I don’t like about this or that in our services, or the programs and areas in the church I would do differently. I could do that, but I won’t. My church is doing nothing unbiblical—far from it—and my “disagreements” come down to my preferences and own way of doing things.
And one reason my church is far from perfect is that I am a part of the church family.
So I will stay right where I am, choosing to serve Christ by serving His body. Pray. Love. Be hospitable. Serve.
Join me in this. Stop whining and start serving.
Acknowledgement of Country
This is Kombumerri Country - The Traditional Custodians of this region.
We respectfully acknowledge the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First People of this country. We pay our respects to the Kombumerri people, who are the traditional custodians of the land, waterways and seas upon which we live, work and socialise throughout this Catholic Parish of Surfers Paradise. We acknowledge Elders, past and present and emerging, as they hold the memories, traditions, culture and hopes of our Indigenous people. We pay tribute to those who have contributed in many ways to the life of the community. We affirm our commitment to justice, healing, and reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples.
(see further: The Kombumerri People)
Commitment To Child Safety and Vulnerable-Adult Safety
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