From the Religious Education Coordinator's Desk
SACRAMENTAL PROGRAM - HOLY COMMUNION
Year 3 parents would have received an email from Fr Bernard Gordon regarding the postponement of the program and the revised dates.
Eucharist Programme:
- 13th/14th October SJV 6:30 pm Eucharist Parent Meeting (Parent only)
- 20th/21st October SJV 6:30 pm Eucharist Session 1 (Parent and child)
- 27th/28th October SJV 6:30 pm Eucharist Session 2 (Parent and child)
- 3rd/4th November SJV 6:30 pm Eucharist Session 3 (Parent and child)
- 10th/11th November SJV 6:30 pm Eucharist Session 4 (Parent and child)
The dates for the 2021 First Communion Masses are:
- Saturday November 20th 2pm St John Vianney Co-Cathedral, Fairy Meadow
- Saturday November 20th 6pm St John Vianney Co-Cathedral, Fairy Meadow
- Saturday November 27th 2pm St John Vianney Co-Cathedral, Fairy Meadow
- Saturday November 27th 6pm St John Vianney Co-Cathedral, Fairy Meadow
Pope Francis has decided to institute a Church-wide celebration of a World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly. Starting this year, it will be held on the fourth Sunday of July, close to the liturgical memorial of Saints Joachim and Anne, the grandparents of Jesus.
According to historical tradition, Anne and Joachim were the parents of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Neither was mentioned in the New Testament, but first references to them as Jesus’ maternal grandparents appeared in the century following Jesus’ life.
Tradition and popular legend tell us that Anne and Joachim were particularly devoted to their faith, but throughout their long-married life, they were saddened by their inability to have children. To a couple within that culture at that time, infertility often led to ostracism and to their fears about future insecurity as they further aged. However, one day whilst Joachim worked in the fields and Anne was at home, an angel simultaneously appeared to each of them to announce that, despite their considerable age, they would indeed conceive a daughter who would have a particularly vital role in the coming of the promised Messiah! Mary was born and these faithful parents consecrated her to a life of devotion to God, culminating in her becoming the mother of Jesus the Christ.
In Catholic tradition, Anne and Joachim have become the patron saints of grandparenting. Anne has the extra saintly responsibilities associated with childbirth and care, the protector of couples who do not have children, those who experience infertility, and of women during their time of pregnancy and childbirth.
July 26th is the date for the Church to focus on the vital role that grandparents have in the life of the contemporary family because of the faith, love, wisdom, and practical acts of service that they gift to their extended families. Pope Francis commented on the role of grandparents:
Saints Joachim and Anne were part of a long chain of people who had transmitted their faith and love for God, expressed in the warmth and love of family life, down to Mary, who received the Son of God in her womb and who gave him to the world, to us. How precious is the family as the privileged place for transmitting the faith! … How important grandparents are for family life, for passing on the human and religious heritage which is so essential for each and every society! (1)
SOURCE: (2019), “The Love and faith of the Grandparents of Jesus: St Anne and St Joachim”, The Basilica,
REFLECTIONS
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Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary Time  |
Today we are reminded of God’s providence. We live in a world that feeds us and shelters us and supplies us with everything that we need to grow and to thrive, and all of this comes to us from the hand of God. It is usually when we are in desperate straits that we become painfully conscious of our dependence on God, but this dependence is always there. God does not merely intervene when we are helpless; God's providence operates in our lives at all times. Living in a society that promotes individualism, we sometimes undervalue the communal dimension of life. God certainly cares passionately for each of us (not even a sparrow falls without God knowing it), but God's concern is for the whole people. We are first and foremost members of a people. We would never have seen the light of day, we would not endure or develop, without others. As unique as we may be, we are a unique expression of a communal reality. God created a race; God formed a people; Jesus died for the world. By the grace of God, we belong to the community. As members of the people of God, we are called to a way of life that is noble, not selfish. We are to live with each other in humility and gentleness, with patience. We are to bear with one another in love. Through baptism we all live by the same Spirit of Jesus; we are all united through the bond of God's love. The bread that we receive from the hand of God is the bread of full life, life in all its dimensions, life in Christ. © Dianne Bergant CSA |
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Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time  |
In many ways the Exodus story of the bread from heaven is very similar to last Sunday's accounts. However, the focus today is not divine prodigality shown through the overabundance of food, but total dependence on God. The bread comes from heaven, not merely because the food seems to come down from the sky, but because it comes from God. The restriction about collecting it was meant to emphasise this point. Our survival is in God's hands, not ours. Jesus insists that he is the true bread from heaven; he is the real basis of our survival. The people followed him because they saw him as a source of bread; they did not realise that he is really the source of life. If we fill ourselves with all that the world provides as nourishment we will still hunger. Only faith in Jesus can satisfy our deepest hunger, and we will not be able to survive apart from him. Acceptance of Jesus as the source of our life and the very nourishment of our spirits affects a total transformation in us. We will no longer be content to live with full bellies but empty minds. We will put aside our old selves steeped in ignorance and self-interest and put on a new self, created in his image. Having fed on the bread from heaven, we will be mysteriously transformed into it. The spirit of our minds will be renewed by his teaching. As a result, we will be able to launch out into a way of living that witnesses our new understanding, our new life. © Dianne Bergant CSA
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