Session

1

4/5 May

SJV

6:30 pm

Session

2

11/12 May

SJV

6:30 pm

Session

3

18/19 May

SJV

6:30 pm

Session

4

25/26 May

SJV

6:30 pm

PARISH MASS -  Thursday 9:30 AM 

CLASS

28 April 2022

Year 1

5 May 2022

Year 6

12 May 2022

Year2

19 May 2022

Whole School Mass

26 May 2022

Kinder

2 June 2022

Year 4

9 June 2022 

Year 5

16 June 2022

Year 3

Fourth Sunday of Lent

In the midst of Lent we are given a moment for rejoicing, Laetare Sunday.  The overarching theme is the prodigal goodness of God.  Even in the midst of this rejoicing, we find a challenge.  We must undergo a change of heart if we are to rejoice in God.

The goodness of God is strikingly portrayed in the radically new image of father.  This is a God who allows us to follow our own dreams, who is partial to no one, who faithfully and patiently waits for us to return, who gently corrects our misperceptions.  God longs to be reconciled with us even more than we long to be reconciled with God. 

The challenges placed before us set out some of the conditions required if we are to be a new creation.  We are called to a profound and total reconciliation, first with God and then with each other.  Christ was identified with sin so that we might be identified with God's righteousness.  Reconciliation requires that we be open to giving and receiving forgiveness.  It  requires that we both remember and forget.  We must always remember the causes of alienation, so that we not succumb to them again.  However, we must forget the resentment that we felt so that we not allow it to influence our lives. 

© Dianne Bergant CSA

Fifth Sunday of Lent

Lent ends on a note of wonder.   In the face of all the mighty works that God has already performed for the people, God promises something even more magnificent. 

Throughout this season we have reflected on the marvels that God accomplished in the lives of the people, cutting a covenant with Abraham, leading the people out of bondage, revealing God's own personal name, bring them into a land that is bursting with life.  Now God says: You haven't seen anything yet. 

 In the gospel, we see Jesus neither rejecting the law nor changing it.  Instead, he shows that the law, as good as it might be, serves something higher.  He shows that the mercy and compassion of God exceed the authority of the law.  Once again we see that the readings of Lent are less concerned with mortification and penance than they are with divine graciousness and our response of joy and thanksgiving. 

Life with Christ transforms us from people who are caught in sin to women and men who have been forgiven.  Life in Christ is the new thing that God has fashioned for us.  God is the one who creates something new; we are the ones who are re-created.

© Dianne Bergant CSA

Palm Sunday 

In this final Lenten Sunday we look again at the significance of Christ in our lives.  We recognise him as our saviour, but we look more closely in order to discover just what kind of saviour he is.  He has taken the form of a slave; he has been glorified with a name above all other names; he continues to suffer with us.

We have not been saved through military power, but through the self-offering humility of Jesus.  Though he was really in the form of God, Jesus came in the form of a slave.  We have a saviour who was crushed for our iniquities, nailed to a cross as a convicted felon, and there endured the sense of abandonment.  In the face of this, we must ask a fundamental question:  Why does God love us with such abandon?

We have a saviour who was lifted up and exalted precisely because he emptied himself of his divine prerogatives.  He became one of us in order to show us how we are to live.  Unlike conquerors who triumph by putting down their opponents, Jesus was raised up because he himself was first willing to be put down. 

We have a saviour who first offered himself for us and then continues to offer himself to us as an example to follow.  As he was willing to empty himself for our sake, so we are told to empty ourselves for the sake of others.

© Dianne Bergant CSA

EASTER SUNDAY

A man was driving along the road when he saw the Easter Bunny hop into his lane. He swerved to avoid hitting the bunny, but couldn’t do so. The basket of eggs went everywhere. The driver felt guilty and began to cry. A woman saw the man and pulled over. ‘What’s wrong?’ she asked. ‘I accidentally killed the Easter Bunny’, he explained. The woman knew exactly what to do. She went to her car, pulled out a spray can, walked over to the bunny, and sprayed the entire contents over the little furry animal. Miraculously the Easter Bunny came back to life, jumped up, picked up his eggs, waved at them and hopped on down the road. Not far away the Easter Bunny stopped, turned around and waved again. He kept doing this for as far as they could see.

The man was astonished. ‘What in heaven’s name is in that can you sprayed on the Easter Bunny?’ The woman showed the man the label. It said: ‘Hair spray. Restores life to dead hair. Adds permanent wave.’

For many of our children the bunny and its eggs are the most important thing about Easter. Over the millennia, Christianity has had a gift for domesticating local traditions and festivals, bringing them on board and making them our own. The name Easter comes from the Anglo Saxon spring festival in honour of the goddess Eostre. Her symbol was the rabbit and the giving of eggs were signs of new life bursting forth as winter withdrew. These associations only make sense in the northern hemisphere, but we can see why the early Christians could be so adaptable and inculturated with this local festival.

In both hemispheres Christians today celebrate Jesus being raised from the dead. In the New Testament there are two traditions about how the disciples come to know about Jesus’ resurrection: the empty tomb and the apparitions of Christ.

Today’s Gospel belongs to the empty tomb tradition. On Magdalene’s urging, Peter and John run to the tomb, find it empty and come to at least an initial belief about the resurrection of Jesus.

We do not believe that God simply revived Jesus’ corpse in the tomb, as our driver resuscitated the bunny in today’s story. Easter Sunday does not celebrate the resuscitation of Jesus, but his Resurrection. We know his ‘glorified body’ was not the same as his human body because Jesus’ presence could be encountered in several places simultaneously and he is reported to walk through walls and to vanish. The link between both resurrection traditions is the importance of Jesus’ death. In the empty tomb accounts, as in today’s gospel, the writers give us extraordinary details about the grave clothes. In the apparition narratives there are usually references to Jesus’ wounds.

Whatever way they came to experience the Resurrection of Christ, the disciples knew that this was Jesus who actually died and was buried and that their personal encounter was with the one who was crucified.

What God did through the death and resurrection of Jesus is what Christians have done with local customs and festivals ever since: he entered into it, understood it, took it on board, domesticated it and vanquished its power. As a result we believe that God empathises with the full limitations of our human mortality and promises to remain faithful to us in death as he remained utterly faithful to Jesus.

That is why on this day 1,600 years ago St John Chrysostom could say on behalf of us all:

‘Hell took a body, and discovered God. It took earth, and encountered Heaven. It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it could not see. O death, where is your sting? O Hell, where is your victory? Christ is Risen, and you, O death, are destroyed! Christ is Risen, and evil is cast down! Christ is Risen, and angels rejoice! Christ is Risen, and new life is set free! Christ is Risen, and the tomb is emptied of its dead; for Christ having risen from the dead, becomes the first-fruit of those who have fallen asleep. To Him be Glory and Power forever and ever. Amen!’

© Richard Leonard SJ