DIOCESAN ASSEMBLY LAUNCH: GOD WHO IS TRINITY IS A GOD OF LOVE, SAYS FR VINCENT GLYNN
By Jamie O'Brien
We are called to remember that God who is Trinity is a God of Love, a God who sends his son Jesus Christ out of complete love for you and me, the Very Rev Fr Vincent Glynn has said.
Fr Vincent Glynn, the Episcopal Vicar for Education and Faith Formation, was speaking at the launch of the 2023-2024 Diocesan Assembly, Sunday 4 June at St Mary’s Cathedral on the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity. “This is made very abundant to us when through the power of the Holy Spirit, our lives are transformed when we receive the Body and Blood of Christ in communion,” Fr Vincent said.
Formally launching the Assembly on behalf of Archbishop Costelloe, Fr Vincent explained that convocation of the Assembly comes out of the
recent Plenary Council held by the Church of Australia in 2021 and 2022.
“The call of the Plenary Council was for all the Church to open our hearts to listening and discerning where the voice of the Holy Spirit was leading the Church,” Fr Vincent said.
“The Plenary Council affirmed that the way the Church should be governed is in a synodal manner, with the appropriate participation of those who are baptised.
“This is certainly also in the heart and mind of Pope Francis, who is also calling for all the Church to be open and to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit with open hearts,” he said.
Some 1300 people were present for the Trinity Sunday Mass, following the announcement by Archbishop Costelloe in April this year that he would hold a Diocesan Assembly in September 2023.
The Assembly will now be held in July 2024, with letters for the calling of delegates to be distributed in the coming weeks.
Speaking in his homily for the Mass, our journey towards a Diocesan Assembly has already begun, highlighted Fr Vincent.
“After today parishes, clergy, agencies, religious orders, education providers, youth will be among groups of the Archdiocese who will be asked to select members who will commit to the journey of this Assembly,” Fr Vincent explained, as part of his homily.
“Those participating will be called to discern and listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit.
“In particular, the Archbishop, flowing from the Plenary Council, is eager to discern the role of a Diocesan Pastoral Council (DPC).
Episcopal Vicar, Education and Faith Formation, the Very Rev Fr Vincent Glynn raises the Missal during the Mass for the official launch of the 2023-24 Diocesan Assembly, Sunday 4 June at St Mary’s Cathedral. PHOTO: RON TAN / ARCHDIOCESE OF PERTH.
NOTRE DAME RESEARCH ACADEMIC APPOINTED TO THE PONTIFICAL ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
University of Notre Dame Australia research academic Tracey Rowland has been appointed to the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences (PASS), becoming the second Australian ever to receive the honour.
The 10-year appointment to the prestigious international research academy is a recognition of Rowland's outstanding contribution to research and will allow her to collaborate with some of the world's leading Catholic scholars in Europe.
As a leading scholar in theology and social theory, Rowland's appointment to the PASS is not only a great achievement for her personally, but also for Notre Dame, which is renowned for its high-quality research.
"It's a recognition of the quality of the research that is undertaken at Notre Dame and especially its value to the Catholic community," Rowland said.
Rowland expressed her delight at the news, saying the appointment would allow her to do more interdisciplinary work and return to some of her earliest academic interests.
"It's an opportunity to collaborate
with some of the greatest Catholic scholars in Europe," she said.
"I already do a lot of work with American Catholic scholars and people from Latin America, but this appointment with help me get to know the Europeans better."
The appointment will also help ensure Australian academics are not isolated from the wider Catholic world, according to Rowland.
"Australian academics need to travel internationally if they are not to become cut off from what's happening in universities in Europe and other parts of the Anglosphere," she said.
The Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences is an internationally renowned research academy established by Pope John Paul II in 1994.
Its mission is to promote the study of social sciences - primarily economics, sociology, law and political sciencein the light of Catholic social doctrine. Also named to the Academy, was US sociologist Justin Farrell and Tongdong Bai, a Chinese philosopher. Justin Farrell, who was born in Cheyenne, Wyoming, in 1983,
is a professor of sociology at Yale University's School of the Environment. He completed his doctorate degree in sociology at the University of Notre Dame. He specialises in "American culture with a focus on social class, moral conflict, epistemology and the environment," according to his personal website.
He also carries out "ethnographic fieldwork in rural communities with large-scale computational techniques from network science and machine learning."
He has published numerous books and articles; his latest research article appeared in the academic journal "Science" looking at the "effects of land dispossession and forced migration on Indigenous peoples in North America."
Tongdong Bai, who was born in Beijing in 1970, is the Dongfang Chair professor of philosophy at Fudan University in Shanghai, China, and a global professor of law at New York University's Law School.
Pope Francis presents the Ratzinger Prize to UNDA academic Tracey Rowland during a ceremony at the Vatican, 13 November 2021. Tracey has this week been appointed to the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences (PASS), becoming the second Australian ever to receive the honour. PHOTO:CNS/VATICAN
REFLECTION: GATHERED AS CHURCH WE BECOME THE BODY OF CHRIST, A SIGN TO THE WORLD AROUND US
In response to an initiative expressed by Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB in his Pastoral Letter of April 2023, and encouraged by Pope Francis in his Apostolic Letter Desiderio Desideravi, the Archdiocese of Perth has been taking part in a journey of Liturgical Formation and Renewal. Part of this formation was to focus on and renew our belief in Christ present in the Eucharist, especially our belief in the Real Presence. A number of parishes have participated in Train the Trainer sessions given by the Centre for Liturgy.
Those trained will go back to their parish communities and form faith formation groups to meet and renew at a local parish level this central belief of our Catholic faith. As we celebrate the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, in this period of liturgical formation, Episcopal Vicar, Education and Faith Formation, the Very Rev Fr Vincent Glynn offers a reflection based on the Word of
God proclaimed for Year A. Each year the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ or as it is known in Latin, Corpus Christi Sunday.
Corpus Christi Sunday always evokes in me certain childhood memories and may also do the same for many of you participating in and celebrating this solemnity in your parish community.
I am transported back to my days as a child attending at Aquinas College for a celebration where the Blessed Sacrament was placed in a monstrance and was carried around in procession with great pomp and ceremony.
Often with children in their first communion clothes throwing rose petals onto the ground in much the same way that page boys and girls sometimes do at weddings today. The procession was also accompanied by the singing of hymns that we all knew and the smell of incense. It concluded with the Rite of Benediction where all present were
blessed by the eucharistic presence of Jesus Christ.
This occasion was also one of the few times that we gathered as Catholics from all the parishes around the Archdiocese with our Archbishop. For me and I am sure for all those attending this celebration it was a reminder that we were participating in something sacred. It was something out of the ordinary. We were in fact acknowledging a central belief of the Church handed down to us throughout the centuries. A belief that Christ was present. What brought us together was not only our common faith, shared in and through Baptism, but also our common identity, understanding and belief as Catholics in the Eucharistic presence of Christ expressed through the sacramental sign of bread.
At this celebration we professed our belief that Christ is truly present under the appearance of bread but also truly present in the Church, the people gathered.
In response to an initiative expressed by Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB in his Pastoral Letter of April 2023, and encouraged by Pope Francis in his Apostolic Letter Desiderio Desideravi, the Archdiocese of Perth has been taking part in a journey of Liturgical Formation and Renewal. PHOTO:
By the Very Rev Fr Vincent Glynn EV
HUNDREDS GATHER FOR ORDINATION OF SECOND SYRO-MALABAR EPARCHY BISHOP
The Holy Spirit invites the faithful to share in God's love and to make the church a loving home whose door is open to everyone, Pope Francis said.
"Our God is a communion of love: and this is how Jesus revealed him to us," the pope said before praying the Angelus with some 20,000 visitors gathered in St. Peter's Square June 4. In his talk, Pope Francis reflected on the solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit celebrated that day.
He said this "God of communion" can be seen "through the image of a family gathered around the table, where life is shared."
The Holy Spirit invites the faithful "to sit at the table with God to share in his love," which is "what happens at every Mass, at the altar of the Eucharistic table, where Jesus offers himself to the Father and offers himself for us," he said.
The Holy Father asked that Catholics reflect on the following questions: "Do we bear witness to God-aslove? Or has God-as-love become in turn a concept" that no longer invigorates or generates life?
"If God is love, do our communities bear witness to this? Do they know how to love?" and "do we know how to love in the family? Do we keep the door open always, do we know
how to welcome everyone - and I emphasise, everyone - to welcome them as brothers and sisters?" he asked.
"Do we offer everyone the food of God's forgiveness and Gospel joy?" he asked, or does the Christian community feel less like a home and more like an office or privileged place "where only the elect can enter?"
Pope Francis asked that the faithful "commit ourselves to bear witness to God-as-love, creating communion in his name" and living "the church as that home where one loves in a familiar way, to the glory of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit."
New Syro-Malabar Bishop John Panamthottathil CMI, centre with staff, and Major Archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Church, Cardinal George Alencherry, Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Charles Balvo, ACBC President Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB, fellow Australian Bishops, and visiting Bishops from India and the US, Wednesday 31 May at Our Lady Guardian of Plants Chaldean Catholic Church, Campbellfield, Melbourne. PHOTO: SUPPLIED.