The Record Newspaper 10 December 2008

“Be

WE’RE IN THE MIDDLE OF...

ADVENT

Find out how to stay spiritually grounded amid the secular frenzy during this season of waiting.

Awhere where

Vista 2-3

Geelong priest sets up a Mass centre in one of the biggest shopping centres in the country. In the US, Capuchin friars find themselves inundated by thousands of people - also in a shopping centre - wanting them to hear their confessions. Read about how the Church around the world is finding creative ways to take its message to...

Welcome to the Club of Tales...

CREATIVITY was put to good use by the Trinity College Junior School Young Writers’ Club this term as they wrote individual short illustrated stories and published them as a collection aptly named A Book by Boys

This entertaining collection of tales that romp through adventures with kings, wizards, warlords and water bombs has been catalogued by the National Library of Australia and is professionally printed and bound.

The book is the brainchild of Year 5 teacher and Chief Editor Mrs Jackie Williams who is delighted with the final product.

She said that in producing the book “the boys made an amazing journey in such a short space of time.”

“To see the boys’ eyes light up when they saw the published book made all my sleepless nights of editing seem worthwhile,” she said.

“At the book launch a parent asked me ‘How can we ever repay you for what you have done for our boys?’ I looked over to the boys sitting at their signing desk, and as their beaming faces greeted excited ‘fans’ and as they signed their ‘author’ signature, I realised they already had.”

Continued - Vista 1

4  PAGE

The new public squares: This shopping centre is typical of modern life and also typical of where most people living in developed nations like Australia go for all their needs. But no material goods can satisfy the deepest longings of the human heart. As our cover story shows, Catholic priests in some places, including Australia, are finding creative solutions to communicating the Gospel - and to bringing people to God.

Heavy duty Christmas carols

Blessed

c.

feast – December 15

The

CLERGY CHANGES

CNS

1975.

© 2005 Saints for Today © 2008 CNS

With the visit of a choir made up of homeless and dejected members of society, Lyn Barker of Mercedes college says that this year’s Christmas preparations have been worthy of rememberance.

THE Mercedes College Advent liturgy is always a moving end-of-year event. This year it was an unforgettable, life changing occasion.

Catholic schools work hard to be inclusive and as we are an inner city girls’ high school our girls are aware of some of the problems faced by the more marginalised members of society.

Welcoming the Spirit of the Streets Choir to our celebration, the girls not only heard some wonderful singing from the choir but experienced a real exchange of affection and understanding.

Songs were personally introduced by choir members who matter-of-factly shared their stories of addiction, childhood abandonment, and homelessness.

This sounds heavy, but somehow on a very human level, there was a connection, and it was mutual.

Some choir members were moved to tears by the standing ovation, the cheering, the singing and clapping along and the respectful enthusiasm of the girls.

The Spirit of the Streets Choir was originally the Big Issue Choir, named after the magazine that homeless people sell in business districts throughout the country.

The name was changed to make it more inclusive of other people who were homeless, long term unemployed, socially excluded, suffering from substance abuse or with a history of mental illness. The choir is essentially for the people who do not get a seat at the table of conventional society, the people who are excluded and vulnerable and who require the non-judgmental social interaction which is embodied in the choir. After the singing, the girls

came to chat and be photographed with choir members. Girls and staff were given the opportunity to buy the Big Issue from choir members, who then joined staff for a special morning tea with home-made food.

Interspersed throughout the liturgy, the enactment of the Christmas story of Joseph and the very pregnant Mary searching for shelter emphasised to the girls that displaced or poor people need a hand up, not a hand out. This point was made by Rebecca Callaghan, of the St Vincent de Paul Society, who was there to thank the girls for their efforts in the Christmas Appeal.

Rebecca read a letter from a family expressing gratitude for a gift Christmas hamper. The mother stressed it was not just the food but also the sharing of love and hope from strangers that gave her strength to carry on.

Principal Sheena Barber spoke to the girls about the need for acceptance and that they walked in the footsteps of

Catherine McAuley and the Sisters of Mercy, telling them to “cherish peace, goodwill and mercy because if Christmas is not in our hearts, we won’t find it under a tree.” Our girls did more than accept the choir, they were moved by the sincerity, skill, joy and love the choir members brought to our school.

Later in the staff room, one choir member, Sally, played her ukulele and sang a song about beauty, a spontaneous act of happiness and she later said “We enjoyed doing this today, because the girls were so beautiful.” Her friend Eve added, “You have such really nice girls, the whole atmosphere was so heartening.” Choir leader Bernard said “It was the most touching gig the choir has done. It was a gorgeous, uplifting thing to do.”

It was too good to have just once, so choirmaster Bernard has spoken to Rosa Speranza, Mission Leader and Music Coordinator Claire Gamlin, and they organised to have the choir back next year.

Fr Francis Ly, Parish Priest of Maddington, has been appointed Parish Priest of Lockridge from the end of January 2009, for three years. Fr Hong, who is priest-in-charge, will move to a new ministry at the end of January.

Deacon Jean-Noel Marie will assist Fr Francis in the months before his ordination to the priesthood in June 2009.

Fr Ernesto Cerutti has been appointed Assistant Priest by Bishop Saunders in Broome.

Fr Daniel Chama will soon leave Broome after the appointment of a new parish priest, and return to Perth for a further appointment.

Fr Eugenio Zurias-Diaz is still in Balgo, working among the local people. He took 17 young people from his area to the World Youth Day in Sydney.

In Darwin, Fr Milton Arias continues at Humpty Doo, and Fr James D’Souza is at St Mary’s Cathedral where he has just been appointed assistant administrator.

Fr Brian Morrison has recently been incardinated into the Archdiocese of Perth. He will continue to work with Crisis Care.

Fr Laurie Hannigan SM, former Parish Priest of Belmont-Redcliffe has passed away recently.

St Luke’s goes Thai this Christmas

ST LUKE’S Parish in Woodvale recently embraced the Christmas spirit by donating shoe boxes full of Christmas gifts to underprivileged children in Thailand.

“Operation Christmas Child” is run by The Samaritans Purse, a non-profit Christian organisation, providing emergency relief and development assistance to suffering people around the world.

In 2007 over 300,000 children caught in the midst of war, famine, natural disaster and extreme poverty received a shoe box gift through this project.

This year the boxes from Perth are going to children in Thailand and local organiser, Fionnuala Simpson says it is “a simple but very gratifying project to be involved in as a parish”.

With the welcome support of St Luke’s Parish Priest, Fr Trevor Simons, Ken and Audrey Tasker, the project’s coordinators for the northern suburbs collections came to speak to St Luke’s parishioners about the project.

Those interested took empty boxes home with them along with instructions on how to fill them and what type of items to choose.

Shoe boxes headed for Thailand donated by St Luke’s parish in Woodvale.

Ken and Audrey collected 275 boxes from the parish late last month and took them to a warehouse in Balcatta where they will be sorted for shipping. Mrs Simpson says that people of all ages can be involved in this simple, hands-on mission project, bringing a lot of joy to children in need all over the world.

Intense stories: Mercedes College students and staff enjoyed Christmas carols with a difference, with each carol introduced by a chorister sharing their personal story of addiction, childhood abandonment and homelessness.

PHOTO: LYN BARKER

Hard-working, always positive Josephite dies

Sr Veronica Ryan 1936-2008

■ By Anthony Barich

SR VERONICA Ryan, a Sister of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart, something of a legend in the Kimberley since she first went there in 1974, died suddenly on December 2.

The Josephites’ website said that Sr Veronica 72, had packed up and was set to leave from Kununurra for the last time on December 3 to return to Perth and Sydney, and had planned to enjoy some time with her brother, Monsignor Frank Ryan, in Tamworth NSW.

She was in her car in Wyndham travelling home after visiting people to say goodbye when it is thought she had a heart attack. No other car was involved.

Her sudden death has been a great shock to her many friends in the Kimberley where she had been a school principal, adult educator, Aboriginal education innovator, Regional Director of the Broome Diocese, Religious Educator in the Catholic Education Office. Veronica lived in many communities including Warmun, Lockridge, Broome, Kununurra, Beagle Bay and Wyndham. She was also an author, and in 2001 was responsible for the compilation of Stories of Kija women in the book, From digging sticks to writing sticks

Before her time in WA she had taught in many schools in NSW including Gosford, Port Kembla, Annandale, Revesby, Hunters Hill, Walgett and The Entrance.

Josephite Provincial, Sr Pauline Morgan, said Sr Veronica was a “woman of deep faith, who loved life and people”. She described her departed Josephite as an excellent, dedicated and very pastoral educator. “Her students loved her,” Sr Pauline said, adding that Sr Veronica was a very generous and

in brief...

wise friend to many, and “a sister to all of us”.

Sr Pauline said that Sr Veronica had a “great sense of humour, and despite working in often difficult circumstances in remote areas, had practical common sense that made the best of a situation”, adding that Sr Veronica had “a ready laugh and a twinkle in the eye. The best story teller ever”.

Sr Alma Cabassi, based at Warmun, just south of Kununurra, said that Sr Veronica took things calmly in her stride, and always maintained a calm exterior. “She never showed her worries. She managed anything and everything. She had many difficult times,” Sr Alma said, “especially in the early days when conditions were fairly basic. Yet she always made the most of whatever the situation was and was always positive.”

Sr Alma added that with her great love for storytelling, Sr Veronica often said, ‘I have to check the audience out to see if they’ve heard the story before’, as it affected how she’d embellish it the next time.

Funeral details are yet to be announced but the funeral will take place from Mary MacKillop Memorial Chapel at a later date.

There will also be a Mass at St Michael of the Archangel Chapel, Catholic Education Centre, 50 Ruislip Street, Leederville, time and date to be advised.

A Memorial Service and Mass for Sr Veronica will be held at Queen of Apostles Church in Wyndham on December 10. She will be buried following the Requiem Mass in the Chapel of Mary MacKillop, North Sydney, at a date to be advised.

The date and time of the Mass and burial will be advised on sosj. org.au, or call 08 9334 0999. There will be a Memorial Service and Mass in Our Lady Queen of Peace Cathedral, Broome, on the same day and at the same time as her funeral in Sydney.

Explosive letters of Fr Julian Tenison Woods published

Moved by the desperate plight of Christians in the Holy Land and throughout the Middle East, the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has been supporting the country’s beleaguered Christian population.

Sadly, due to ongoing violence and oppression, the proportion of Christians in the Holy Land has plummeted from 20 percent to as little as 1.4 percent in the last 40 years.

ACN is helping to keep faith and hope alive throughout the region by providing urgent aid to priests, religious and lay people, offering subsistence help to refugees and building and repairing churches and convents. Please help us strengthen and rebuild the Church in the land of Christ’s birth.

A beautiful, handcrafted crib, made of olive wood in Bethlehem, will be sent to all those who give a donation of $20.00 or more to help this campaign.

Please tick the box below if you would like to receive the little olive wood crib*.

Help Keep Christianity Alive in the Holy Land and Middle East

Send To: Aid to the Church in Need, PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148

Phone/Fax No: (02) 9679-1929 E-mail: info@aidtochurch.org Web: www.aidtochurch.org

I/We enclose $................ to help keep Christianity alive in the Holy Land and Middle East.

0Yes please send me the little olive wood crib*

PG: 517

Made of olive wood from the Holy Land, this delightful little crib scene is powerfully evocative of Christ’s birthplace.

The cribs are lovingly, handcrafted by poverty stricken families in Bethlehem and your donation helps them survive.

(Size:10.5 cm x 10.5 cm x 5.5 cm)

AID TO THE CHURCH IN NEED ... A Catholic charity dependent on the Holy See, providing pastoral relief to needy and oppressed Churches.

A book of letters detailing the extraordinary travels of Father Julian Tenison Woods, the charismatic co-founder of the Sisters of St Joseph, was launched in Adelaide at a landmark reunion of the missionary priest’s family descendents.

The book, called Yours Most Aftly, was edited by North Goulburn Josephite Sr Anne Player, and traces Fr Julian’s travels as

a wandering missionary around Australia and Asia, including witnessing the 1883 eruption of the Krakatoa volcano from a boat off the Indonesian coast.

Launched by Auxiliary Bishop Greg O’Kelly SJ, the book of letters between Fr Julian and his brother Terence gives insight into the man who founded two Religious orders and was also a gifted scientist, writer,

musician and lecturer. In 1861, he met Mary MacKillop and, together in Penola in 1866, they founded the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart. The five-day reunion was organised in the wake of a gathering of relatives and others connected to the Sisters of St Joseph at Penola last year, on the 150th anniversary of Fr Julian’s arrival in Australia.

Well-loved: Sr Veronica Ryan (right) with Sr Julia Della Franca at Ivanhoe Crossing in the Kimberley in 2006. PHOTO: COURTESY OF JOSEPHITES

Ancient work alive and well in Kalamunda

Of prayer and bookbinding

■ By Robert Hiini

TUCKED away in the Kalamunda hills, a nun goes about her daily work of praying for the world and practising a craft as old as civilisation itself.

Mother Mary John sdm of the Sisters of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, has been a bookbinder since she learnt the craft as a 17 year old at technical college.

I have come to visit her house, site of Tydewi Bindery, named after ‘Dewi Sant’ or St David of Wales, the only saint from the land of her birth to be listed in the Roman Calendar.

Sitting in her lounge room, she shows me different books she makes for sale and explains the intricacies of repairing the beloved books that people entrust to her, arriving as they do in varying states of decay.

She places two such examples on her coffee table: ‘The Works of Francis Bacon’ published in 1765, - predating the First Fleet by 23 years - and ‘De Medicina’, 1746, written by the first century physician Aulus Cornelius Celsus – the only surviving part of an encyclopaedia on the medical practice of the ancients. The book’s survival is a testimony to the quality and traditional way books were made before the late nineteenth century.

“These books are still perfectly good. The paper is good; even the leather is good but unfortunately deteriorating and the thread has

disintegrated,” she remarks. “Once restored, if they have reasonable care, they should have their whole lives over again.”

The gentleman who has entrusted her with the books has asked her to forsake the antique leather, to rebind them so that they might do just that.

She makes her own books using exactly the same binding methods employed in eighteenth century construction.

Giving credence to that old adage, she says the mechanics of a book are far more important than its outer shell; that a book should not be judged by its cover because the object of the binding is to preserve the text.

Although there are modern variations, pages are usually folded into sections, which are then sewn together with linen thread over cords or tape. Ribbons and headbands are added before the book receives its cover.

Mother Mary John says that despite the benefits of convenience and lower cost, modern books have suffered from declining standards in production.

Contrary to what one might expect from a devoted lover of books, her response to the increasing transience of written communication, particularly through the internet, is far from negative.

“The young people are reading books. You can’t complain,” she laughs while noting that the life span of a well-made book is far greater than that of a compact disc or DVD.

Her enthusiasm for bookbind-

ing, however, is secondary to a desire to live for The Word, and unite herself to Christ. “Like St Paul,” she works to fund her religious mission in the face of rising living costs.

Once a Benedictine Oblate with the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration founded by Maria Rickenbach, she began a journey of discernment before the Blessed Sacrament that led her to the eventual founding of the Sisters of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 2000.

The community is joined in a “koinonia” or communion with 2000 lay “brothers and sisters”

worldwide, who make up the Confraternity of the servants of Jesus in Mary.

Within the confraternity exists the Oblates of the Precious Blood in The Chapter of St John the Baptist - a “school of the Lord’s service”, where oblates actively seek formation in the charism and Benedictine spirituality. They make an oblation, or offering of their whole life in union with Christ’s gift of himself on the Cross to our heavenly Father. Their apostolate is “the restoration of the Precious Blood to Its rightful place on the Altar”.

Mother Mary John says that this is not about promoting a particular devotion. It is about calling all people to a full, integrated and redeemed existence through the life-giving Blood of Christ; to the Incarnation.

“From conception through to his glorious Rising at Easter, Jesus, Son of God, Son of Mary is always man’s eternal life,” she says.

“The Carpenter of Nazareth, so human, is always the only begotten and beloved son who is the very life of man and not just a life-giver. That is to say, that the life present within us, that we live each day is Jesus’ life - incarnate in man. This is what we celebrate at Christmas.”

For the sisters, this means an ascetical life, “following a welltrodden path that still retains its freshness and vitality today.”

In a life of prayer and contemplation, her book-binding workload remains steady, due in large part to word of mouth recommendations and repeat custom.

Her love for the craft is obvious when she shows me two books she has made with intricate, tooled leather covers.

“We don’t sell too many of these because they’re not very cost effective. It’s the paper that is expensive,” she remarks.

In light of her stated aim of economic subsistence, I ask her why she would bother to construct them.

She replies with a wry smile: “Because they are so much fun to make and ultimately, there is only one reason for doing anything – it is the will of God for me today.”

Dignified work: Mother Mary John of the Sisters of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary has been quietly practicing an art form as old as civilisation itselfbinding books in the Kalamunda Hills. PHOTO: ROBERT HIINI

Bishop bares the tortured soul of Zimbabwe

Sam clears his head to continue ‘the radical way’

After walking almost 16,000km for Christian unity, one young Tasmanian’s journey is just beginning.

■ By

Mark Reidy

SAMUEL Clear may have long legs and size 16 feet, but that didn’t make his 18-month walk across the world to promote Christian unity any easier.

During his epic journey he was robbed by a gang at knifepoint in Costa Rica, had a shotgun held to his head in Venezuela, was mugged by two men on an isolated stretch of road in Russia, was apprehended by Secret Police in Belarus, stalked by a puma, hospitalised with typhoid fever having suffered bleeding feet for weeks at a time, slept in ratinfested rooms and endured weather conditions ranging from 47 degrees to minus 33. But his desire to invite Christians of all denominations to pray for unity inspired this 29-year-old Catholic from Tasmania to continue.

as “a St Francis-like experience” Sam then sold all that he owned to fund himself and embarked on the 568-day journey.

“I decided that I wouldn’t ask for money or sponsorship for my walk, but would instead ask people to pray with me. Australians are very generous when it comes to giving money, but have difficulty when it involves prayer. When people asked me how they could help, I would say to them ‘… on your knees’.”

He continues today to invite others to pray for “unity in truth and love” when he speaks to various parishes and groups about his adventure. He’s delivered the message in nine different languages to each church that he passed, of various denominations, on his trip through South, Central and North America, across Russia and throughout Europe.

■ By Robert Hiini

AS Zimbabwe slipped further into chaos last week, Anglican Bishop and human rights laureate, the Rt Rev Dr Sebastian Bakare came to Perth to give first-hand knowledge of the harrowing experience of his fellow Zimbabweans.

The bishop, who is this year’s recipient of the Per Anger Human Rights Award, has been touring Australia since November 20 at the invitation of the Christian Democratic Party speaking principally at churches and schools throughout the nation.

Since what he refers to as the “sham” elections held in March and the subsequent collapse of power-sharing negotiations, the people of Zimbabwe have been hit with an outbreak of cholera that, according to the BBC, has killed at least 536 people since August.

“We thought this was going to come to an end with elections but elections in Zimbabwe are just a sheer performance,” the bishop said, speaking to SBS World News and The Record during his stint in Perth on December 4.

Bishop Bakare has been exhorting Australians to give practical assistance to the people of his homeland – people experiencing hyperinflation of over 200 million per cent.

“We need fresh water and we have no money, the recession has taken all of our money away,” the bishop said.

“Water has become a very costly commodity.

“People are selling it at a high price. Can you imagine the vicious cycle we’re in? Where people are suffering others are making plenty of money.

“We would ask Australians to give help where they can, being part of that common humanity.”

Apart from the political and economic crises, the bishop says that the country is experiencing crippling food shortages and an exodus of health care professionals. He says that he has been disappointed by the international response so far but that he is also realistic about some of the challenges faced by governments and international aid agencies.

“We need the international community

Down syndrome boy allowed in

A German doctor with a son who has Down syndrome has won his fight to stay in Australia, after earlier being told to pack up and leave. Bernhard Moeller had been on a temporary visa since arriving in

to come to our aid, especially now there has been a cholera outbreak. We need food, our children are not going to school, there’s no pure water.”

“The international community can do a lot but they face a snag: They cannot go into Zimbabwe without the government’s permission.”

He says he is not in favour of military intervention and that humanitarian assistance is the most pressing need.

When asked whether sanctions such as those imposed by the US and the European Union were to blame, Bishop Bakare was blunt in his assessment.

“Who is to blame for corruption? Who has destroyed our economy? A lot of things have happened and we have been irresponsible in using our resources.”

“I think it’s all very easy to point your finger at other people but that doesn’t help the situation,” the bishop said, referring to the illegitimate President Robert Mugabe’s attempts to deflect blame to foreign sources.

“We have not been able to produce, to sustain the economic infrastructure we inherited at independence. We were once upon a time able to feed the whole region in Southern Africa but all of that has gone.”

Bishop Bakare was retired when he was elected Bishop of Harare in February after his predecessor Nolbert Kunonga was deposed by the diocese’ governing province for supporting the ruling Zanu-PF regime.

He says that churches have been far from united in their response to the crises.

“The church has very much compromised in its position by not speaking out against evil.

“There are some people who have been co-opted while others don’t want to come out and that has made our voice as a church very weak.”

Looking forward to what he hopes will be a much brighter future, he says the Christian churches will have a special role to play in a post-Mugabe Zimbabwe.

“I think the Church has a responsibility to make sure that reconciliation and justice are totally understood – not as cheap grace but by helping people to recognise that what they did to others was evil.”

Despite the immense suffering of his own people at the hands of their despots, the bishop’s faith in God remains intact.

“We believe that God will intervene in his own time. We wish it had been yesterday but we know he is involved in his own way.”

Australia in 2005 to work at a rural hospital. But the immigration department decided that the public cost of treatment for his 13-year-old son, Lukas, would be too high. Just hours after Dr Moeller lost his final appeal, however, immigration minister Chris Evans intervened and used his powers to grant permanent residency, saying that the Moeller family were making a valuable contribution to Australia.

Sam, who is currently the Perth manager of the Disciples of Jesus Youth Mission Team, told The Record that the seed for his global mission, which began in Brazil on December 16, 2006, was planted in 2005 when a number of profound experiences brought to his attention the division that existed between Christian churches.

Initially this awareness instigated feelings of sadness and helplessness, “like witnessing a car accident”, and he thought that there was nothing else to do but leave the problem in God’s hands.

However the Gospel at a Mass he attended soon after began to resonate loudly within him, “A man finds a treasure buried in a field and he goes away and sells everything he owns so to purchase the field”.

He knew then that he was being called to pray for unity and began asking people he knew to join him at 4.01pm (praying “for one”) each day. He soon became frustrated at his inability to reach a wider audience and a few days later, while looking at a world atlas, he thought of walking around the world inviting as many Christians as possible to join him in his prayer. In what he describes

He is excited at the prospect of Christians praying at 4.01pm across the various time zones. “People don’t necessarily need to pray for long”, he says. “Even 30 seconds in the busyness of their day is enough. Imagine the power of thousands of Christians, joining together each day, united in their focus on Christ and their desire for unity, in that one moment.”

It was the same message he delivered to crowds of up to 80,000 at World Youth Day in Sydney only days after completing his 29,000km (15,500 by foot) journey on the coast of Spain. He was overwhelmed by the WYD experience, particularly awed at being invited to address such large numbers after a year and a half of mostly isolation. His desire for social reintegration led Sam to accept the role with the YMT over returning to his parents’ remote Tasmanian farm. He believed that the social and spiritual interaction involved with managing a group of young people dedicated to bringing youth into a personal relationship with Christ, would be the most effective way of debriefing from his arduous journey.

Having survived on Providence for so long, there is no doubt that this 196cm Disciple of Christ is prepared to take any future challenges in his long and purposefilled stride.

For more details of Sam Clear’s journey, including his journal and photos and/or details about the Disciple of Jesus Youth Mission Team see ymt.com.au/walk4one.

A crusader for human rights touches down in Perth.

Away from the turmoil: Christian Democratic Party State president Gerard Goiran with Bishop Sebastian Bakare in Perth earlier this month.

PHOTO: ROBERT HIINI

Mission of parishes is to ‘reach out to evangelise’

A Melbourne metro parish recruits evangelisation pros to help it fulfil its mission.

■ By Anthony Barch

AUSTRALIAN parishes and their members need to be focused on outreach to function as they should, participants of a key conference in Melbourne have been told.

At the Parish Evangelisation Conference at St Francis of Assisi parish in Mill Park in Melbourne’s northern suburbs on November 14-16, Bishop Joseph Grech of Sandhurst told over 100 participants that “there is no true evangelisation if the name, teaching, life, promises, Kingdom and mystery of Jesus… are not proclaimed”, quoting Pope Paul VI.

He also reminded participants that it is often grandparents who pass on the faith to their grandchildren.

Conference organisers said all events were aimed at reaching people with the message of the Gospel, leading them closer to God through the practice of their everyday lives, but without com-

promising on the Truth. Bishop Christopher Prowse, Auxiliary Bishop of the Western Region of Melbourne, spoke on the theme of The Evangelising Church, reflecting on ‘lifestyle evangelisation’.

Jan Heath, a Brisbane Catholic laywoman who leads groups of volunteers to Africa and runs Bible studies courses and the Welcoming Catholics Home program, addressed the Ladies Luncheon at the conference with a talk on Vision, Values and Vitality.

The Catholic School of Evangelisation helped run the conference, during which all sections of the Mill Park parish – families, youth, men, women and seniors were involved in specific activities that fostered meaningful fellowship.

This included up to 30 people visiting on average eight homes each in the area, reaching about 120 all up. “

As they returned there was a joy radiating from those who had gone out in the name of Jesus,” a conference attendee said. “It was not an easy task, but one which gives people an opportunity to listen, speak, witness and evangelise.”

Len Forster, treasurer of Catholic School of Evangelisation, a resource offering formation courses to dioceses and parishes, told The Record that the conference highlighted the

the way a parish should act “in the strict definition of our faith” in evangelisation.

“Outreach to others, Christian and non-Christian, is the key,” he said.

“By living their faith, witnessing to others and inviting people to the church, it starts from actually being kind, polite and loving to people. It gives a witness so people then think if this person has that beautiful peace within them, ‘I‘m interested in what that is’.

“It’s a landmark event, and hopefully other parishes take it up.”

The Catholic School of Evangelisation gives parishes two years of training on the guidelines of effective evangelisation.

Kangaroos AFL star Daniel Wells, whose Catholic faith was ignited when he recently married a Catholic, spoke of his spiritual journey.

In a statement, Bishop Prowse said that the School of Evangelisation is “taking seriously the Catholic Church’s call for a New Evangelisation”.

“It is equipping people, especially young people, with some important tools for making Jesus known and loved in our confusing times.

I recommend this for your (parishes’) consideration,” the bishop said.

Peak Catholic health body calls for aged care overhall

Create one stop shop for aged care admissions: CHA.

■ By Anthony Barich

AUSTRALIA’S largest non-government provider of health, community and aged care services has called on the Federal Government to establish a ‘one-stop shop’ for all aged care assessment and entry processes.

Speaking at a health reform conference in Tasmania, Catholic Health Australia chief executive Martin Laverty revealed a proposal to overhaul the aged care assessment process.

“CHA’s submission this week to the Senate Inquiry into Residential and Community Care demonstrates that the current system offers limited choice to consumers and no guarantee of continuity of care as their needs change,” Mr Laverty said.

“All older Australians who need care should be given the right to choose whether to receive that care in their own home, or in a residential aged care facility.

“Bringing the aged care assessment, admission, and funding processes together in a one-stop shop would improve consistency in applying assessment criteria,

Composers wanted for new Mass translation

The Australian bishops’ Commission for Liturgy has invited local composers to submit new compositions or adapted settings that they have already composed to the new translation of the Roman Missal.

The call comes after the Holy See granted official recognition to the Order of the Mass in the new translation. The Order of the Mass includes the parts of the Mass most frequently sung at celebrations of the Eucharist, the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, Memorial Acclamation and Agnus Dei.

The chairman of the Bishops Commission for Liturgy, Archbishop Mark Coleridge of

widen the choices available to all frail older Australians, and ensure continuity of care.”

Currently there are three different levels of funding for Commonwealth community care in the home, and more than 60 levels of funding for residential aged care. Not every provider of community care is registered to provide every level of care.

“Under the current system, if a person receiving care in their own home has to move from a low level of care to a higher level of care, they may have to change care providers,” Mr Laverty said.

“People share a unique and intimate relationship with their paid carers. To be forced to take on a new team at a time of heightened physical, emotional or mental vulnerability can be extremely disruptive and upsetting.”

Other key recommendations in CHA’s submission include:

● Allow for flexible delivery of aged care services responsive to the needs of the individual,

● Require residential aged care facilities to publish bed rental amounts and give consumers more payment choices,

● Fund an acceptable minimum standard to ensure the poor are not disadvantaged, and

● Abolish existing system of allocating aged care places.

Canberra-Goulburn, said that “while over the past 40 years we have used a variety of settings, it is clear that some have now run their course,” he said. “My hope is that composers will engage in a conversation with Gregorian chant to produce music which is both contemporary and traditional. It is our hope that three or four settings of the Mass will emerge that might be taken up by parishes in Australia, so that when large Masses are held, the people will be able to know and sing the parts of the Mass,” Archbishop Coleridge said.

Submissions will be received from January 1, 2009 until December 31, 2009 then assessed. Interested composers are invited to contact the National Office for Liturgy on (02) 8838 3415 or email litcom@parra.catholic.org.au for more details.

Empowering: Melbourne Auxiliary Bishop Christopher Prowse addresses the Parish Evangelisation Conference at Mill Point, Victoria on ‘The Evangelising Church’. .

Two Perth men ordained

Charismatic congregation grows as WA recruits attracted to the radical poverty of St Francis.

■ By Anthony Barich

TWO young West Australian men have been ordained as priests in Canberra in the Missionaries of God’s Love, a Religious Association of Christ’s Faithful.

Archbishop Mark Coleridge ordained David Callaghan, 30, from Doubleview, and Daniel Strickland, 31, from Albany, on December 5 in the MGLs, a charismatic organisation, at St Christopher’s Cathedral in Canberra.

The congregation, founded in 1986 in Canberra by Fr Ken Barker, now has 15 priests, all Australianborn, though other priests in training in Canberra and Melbourne are also from India, the Philippines and New Zealand.

A deacon was also ordained during the same Mass at St Christopher’s Cathedral – Joseph Neombasu from West Timor, the first non-Australian ordained to the MGLs, which is an Association of Christ’s Faithful, one step away from being an Order.

Fr Callaghan, who attended Newman College in Churchlands, was studying a science degree at the University of WA, still unsure of exactly what career he would choose, when he stumbled across a book on St Francis in a local church.

He was drawn immediately to the famous saint’s “radical response to God”.

“He gave up everything and he was so filled with joy; Francis had nothing except for God,” Fr Callaghan said.

“I had everything but wasn’t particularly happy, and that’s what woke me up to the idea that God wants more for me, so I gave up everything and followed Him.”

“I kept changing my mind career-wise, and didn’t really know what my focus was going to be.

“Thankfully, God stepped in and gave me focus.”

The simplicity of the MGLs’ lifestyle that reflected the life of St Francis and the level of commit-

ment and honesty that the men in the fraternity showed also drew Fr Strickland to the priesthood.

The pair worked together in the Disciples of Jesus Covenant Community’s Youth Mission Team, touring both public and Catholic high schools in 1998, which Fr Callaghan said was ideal to discern one’s vocation in life, with its structured prayer life, and being exposed to “how big the need is to hear about God”.

“We often joke that it’s a conspiracy by God to put us together as were complete opposites, yet we make each other holy,” Fr Callaghan said. “It has been a real privilege to work closely with a good friend through our formation, then to get ordained side by side.”

Both men told The Record last week that their understanding of the priesthood is centred around entering into the mystery of Christ as the head and shepherd of the Church by mirroring Him – as a servant of the Church and God’s people.

Fr Callaghan’s discernment has included sabbaticals out in the wilderness, including a pilgrimage walk from Duncraig, where his parents live, to the Disciples of Jesus’ Summer School of Evangelisation in New Norcia in 2007, just as Bishop Rosendo Salvado, a Benedictine, had done over a century before.

Fr Strickland moved to Perth at 17 to study dentistry at UWA before joining the YMT, before coming into contact with a messenger of Medjugorje, which coincided with him starting to question his priorities.

Although both men studied for nine years for the priesthood, the suddenness of the event “feels a bit surreal,” Fr Strickland said.

“I really mean this, but for me the life of a priest is one of gratitude to God – He’s worked in my life over the last decade to prepare me for this time,” he said.

“The way I understand (the priesthood) is that the priest makes sacramentally present in the Church the reality that Jesus is its head and shepherd.

“The priest is ordained to be of service to the Church and God’s people, and always growing in the capacity to make decisions to lay my own life down in the service to the Church and to others.”

Canberra

And many more to come as MGLs attract young men to the priesthood in droves

■ By Anthony Barich

HOMEGROWN Religious congregation the Missionaries of God’s Love has outgrown its Melbourne seminary and is racing the clock to find $1 million to construct a new building to accommodate their burgeoning student numbers by next year.

The MGLs, an Association of Christ’s Faithful (a step away from becoming a Religious Order) founded in 1986 in Canberra by Fr Ken Barker, has 15 Australian-born priests ordained already working as missionaries in the diocese of Novaliches - a poor area of Manila in the Philippines and also have responsibility for parishes and Eucharistic Centres in Canberra, Melbourne and Manila and for an urban Aboriginal ministry in Darwin.

Its 30 seminary students, who come from Australia, New Zealand, India, Indonesia and the Philippines, start in Canberra during the pre-novitiate and novitiate stages of their formation before moving to Burwood in Melbourne’s south-east to complete their training.

There are currently 15 in Canberra and 14 in formation in Burwood, and eight more are due to move into the Melbourne seminary house next year, but there is not enough room. Students stay in a rented convent

but the congregation needs to build a new house for them to live in.

The goal is to have two seminary buildings housing 14 each – small enough, Fr Barker says, to ensure that the priests-in-training experience the important community of brotherhood during their formation.

Just over $250,000 has been raised since Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne launched the MGL Seminary Building Appeal on August 16 – well short of the mark.

But, in accordance with the congregation’s charism of taking a vow of radical poverty depending entirely on God’s providence, Fr Barker, just turned 60, is confident the goal will be reached.

“The Church is in great need of more holy priests who are formed in a genuine life of holiness with a fire to evangelise,” Fr Barker said.

Fr Barker believes the young men who sense a call to priesthood with the MGLs are “… searching for a place where there is true poverty, a genuine spirit of docility to the Magisterium, a love for Eucharistic adoration and strong commitment to evangelisation”.

The MGLs are geared towards youth evangelisation, helping conduct the Disciples of Jesus’ Summer Schools of Evangelisation in four different locations.

Donations can be sent to the MGL Building Appeal, 6 Boake Place, Garran, ACT, 2605.

Life of service: Daniel Strickland, left and David Callaghan distribute the Eucharist last Saturday and Sunday during thanksgiving Masses at St Benedict’s parish, Narrabundah, ACT, for their ordination.

PHOTOS: MARK VIOLA

The Vatican Library Collection The Vatican Collection

By order from the Record Bookshop 9227 7080

By order from the Record Bookshop 9227

The Vatican Library, heir to the ancient papal libraries, is one of the world's greatest repositories of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts and incunabula (books printed before 1501). The artistic strengths of The Vatican Library are found in the magnificently frescoed Sistine Chapel, and the sacred antiquities of the Museo Sacro and Museo Profano.

Through an exclusive licensing agreement with The Vatican Library, the 1928 Jewelry Company has been granted the privilege to enter the library, to photograph and sketch the breathtaking works of art within. Drawing on these resources, we have created a line of jewellery and gifts inspired by The Vatican Library's renowned, yet seldom viewed, art and architecture. Jewelled Angels, etched crosses, engraved crucifixes, hand strung rosaries, hand enameled rosary boxes, delicate bookmarks and faith inspiring key rings are among the many offerings available from The Vatican Library Collection.

This exquisite collection is available NOW through The Record Bookshop 9227 7080 or bookshop@therecord.com.au

Work together to take full advantage of WYD: Grech

Competition between Catholic organisations means we’re ‘shooting ourselves in the foot’.

■ By Anthony Barich

THE chairman of the Australian Catholic Youth Council has warned that competition between Catholic organisations will hinder the Church’s efforts to fully captalise on World Youth Day 2008.

Bishop Joseph Grech of the diocese of Sandhurst, Victoria, told The Record that when he addressed the National Youth Leaders Gathering (NYLG) on November 21-23 in Rosehill, Sydney, he focused on the ‘ecclesial maturity’ that was a constant focus of the late Pope John Paul II.

Addressing 330 representatives of Religious, dioceses, parishes, educators and movements, Bishop Grech, chairman of the ACYC, which the bishops created in 2007 to advise them on young people in the Church in Australia, said that an attitude of competition and isolation among Catholic organisations only means “we’re shooting ourselves in the foot”.

Bishop Grech said that WYD08’s sense of reverence mixed with an attractive proclamation taught him that the key to renewing youth ministry in Australia is that “we can’t sell these young people short”.

“We can’t give them a sugared-down Jesus, a watered down Gospel because we think they can’t take it,” said the prelate, who turns 60 on December 10.

“No, they need it in all its starkness. That’s the only way they’ll respond; not to something that’s halfhearted and half dead, but something that’s life changing and life giving.

“We need to at least copy Jesus, and He was very strong in His message. He didn’t hide it or make it sound nice. ‘Love one another as I have loved you’; ‘forgive one another’ –bang, bang - one strong message after another, proclaimed unflinchingly but with love.”

“Our Christian message needs to be given with compassion and generosity, but without pointing fingers.”

His comments were echoed by Fr Tom Rosica, director of WYD 2002 in Toronto, who urged the NYLG’s gathered leaders to turn to the Bible in their youth ministry work, to serve young people as a special part of the Church, to present Communion as a privilege, to acknowledge the need for devotion, to portray blesseds and saints as real role models, to introduce youth to Religious vocations, and to overcome the “crisis of ideologies”.

Bishop Grech said the priority is to give young people a sense that they’re important, “that they are not just the Church of the future but the Church of today, and that they should use their talents in any way that can to be of service to others. To me, that’s a mature way of looking at life”.

Bishop Grech said that the “New Evangelisation” which the late pontiff often referred to is no “new program”. “The program is Jesus,” he said. “It’s not a new Gospel. The Gospel is the same, but it’s new in its message and in its zeal and in its proclamation, as John Paul II said.”

However, with figures reported in 2006 showing church attendance for Catholics just out of school and in their early 20s is down to about five per cent, he said Australia’s bishops realize the magnitude of the task, and the reality of the situation.

He said that even if Australia’s young Catholics are empowered to be “fair dinkum about their faith”… “we’re still only talking about a very small percentage of people”.

“But Jesus changed the world by multiplying himself 12 times. So if we can give people empowerment not to be afraid of who they really are and to lend a hand of service to who they really are” then, he said, the Church will be building up the kingdom of God. “Even by just sharing their friends’ anxieties and fears… if you can start with that, it’s limitless what you can do.”

Bishop Grech said that this concept “all boils down” to Christ’s Parable of the Sower. “The best he could do is sow the seeds. He couldn’t control how it will bear fruit, but like him we will do everything that we can, then let God do His own work in the person’s life”.

“The tragedy is if we do nothing now after WYD08. It comes and goes,” he said.

However, he said that in working for God’s kingdom, one does not simply “work and hope”, but work “knowing that the harvest will be there; it will work with the Holy Spirit”.

“We know that faith develops in close-knit communities and where Christ is proclaimed. You train them how to make other disciples. Big celebrations and events have their place, but they also need to be accompanied by leading people to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ,” he said.

“The harvest will be there. That’s the promise.”

A regular feature

‘A Riot’

The success of Paul’s preaching created uproar.

A large employer in the silver trade called an industry meeting. He said their livelihoods were in jeopardy. The goddess Diana was losing importance. They had fewer idols to make. Through the preaching of Paul her prestige was under threat all over the civilized world.

The trader’s speech started a riot. Others assembled and joined in. They shouted “Great is Diana of the Ephesians.”

The mob dragged two of Paul’s friends to the outdoor theatre. Paul was for going to the theatre and addressing the mob. The leaders of the church stopped him. Pagan officials sent messages that it was too dangerous to go.

The riot disintegrated into total confusion. Some protestors didn’t even know what it was all about. A Jewish spokesman gained their attention but when they realised he was a Jew the mob chanted “Great is Diana of the Ephesians!” for a whole two hours.

Eventually the town clerk could be heard. The craftsmen should take their complaint to the court. There were proper channels. The matter must be addressed in an orderly fashion. He threatened arrests and dismissed the crowd.

Each circular frame is delicately etched with an elegant floral pattern. Within the frames, four point flowers represent the cross with a Montana blue crystal set into the centres. The heart

is represented by a simulated pearl. (30”)

the

RRP $119.95

the Parish the Nation

A little while later Paul called the believers together and spoke encouraging words. Then he left the place.

Ref. Acts 19:23-20:1; 1 Thess. 5:24.

NEXT TIME: Glory be.

WINDOWS TO HEAVEN MIRROR PENDANT NECKLACE

A sweet and elegant design created with polished gold tone, simulated pearls, Montana blue crystals and hand painted enamel. The chain is presented with rolo style links and contains four ivory colour simulated pearl beads.

WINDOWS TO HEAVEN EMBELLISHED FILIGREE CROSS NECKLACE

of

cross

RRP $112.95

CHANEL ROSARY BEADS Silver, Sapphire Crystal and Freshwater Pearls RRP $162.95

ST JUDE LIFT UP LOCKET RRP $79.95

HAIL MARY SILVER PRAYER NECKLACE RRP $54.95

HOLY COMMUNION NECKLACE RRP $59.95

COMMUNION ROSARY BOX PINK ENAMEL RRP $74.95

RELIGIOUS CHARM BRACELET RRP $79.95

CHANEL ROSARY BEADS Gold, Crystal and Freshwater Pearls RRP $162.95

to mark the Year of St Paul by an archdiocesan preist.

Bishop Joseph Grech

VISTA

Struggling with the Rosary? Persist and reap rewards. - Page11

The search for meaning

Archbishop Barry Hickey shares how and why he wrote his second book after a visit to the Holy Land

This is my second published book. My first, Couples Preparing for Marriage, was printed in 1983 and was written mainly for priests looking for hints to help prepare couples for marriage.

Couples themselves also find the book raises many good points for them to think about seriously before and after they marry.

It is still in print after all these years.

This new book Living Biblically was written two years ago when I spent a sabbatical month in Jerusalem.

That month was for me a turning point in my life. I had time to read, think and pray, with no distractions.

I was able to update myself about recent biblical literature. I found in a way I had never experienced before, the depths of Holy Scripture.

Living in the land where Jesus walked brought everything wonderfully alive for me.

But there was another reason why I wrote this book. It was to make a point.

In the early decades after the Second Vatican Council theologians encouraged us to move beyond our Catholic ghetto in order to appreciate humanity’s search for meaning to recognise how much we had in common with universal religious sensibility.

In seeking common ground with the world, we unfortunately gave less attention to the distinctive message of Christianity.

It always seemed to me that

LivingBiblically

A pilgrim’s guide to finding answers to life’s deepest questions

by Archbishop Barry J. Hickey

this approach to God caused us to lose sight of what we were really about - the person of Jesus Christ and his distinctive and countercultural way.

Since the Second Vatican Council there is no doubt that sec-

ularism has taken hold, especially in Western countries. It seems to me, that we have no chance of drawing them away from secular values and lifestyles except by introducing them again to Jesus.

A more general “spirituality”

cannot withstand the aggressive secularism of today.

The central theme of “Living Biblically” is Jesus, the Christ, Jesus the Messiah.

I offer an essential “key” to understanding the Bible and it is the concept of “Messiah”. The Bible is not two stages of revelation, one through the Jewish people in the Old Testament and the other, in the New Testament through Jesus, as if they had nothing to do with each other.

In the book I ask readers to see the unity of the Old and the New Testaments through Jesus. Events, rituals, feasts, and personalities in the Old Testament are to be understood as foreshadowing the coming of the Messiah.

It is my hope that the person of Jesus will emerge strongly and clearly from the whole of the Bible, from Genesis to the Apocalypse, and that we will be able to say today, that Jesus is Lord and offer that witness to the world by living the characteristically unique way of life of a follower of Jesus by “living biblically”.

Living Biblically retails for $19.95 plus postage. It can be obtained from The Record or from the Diocesan Office, 21 Victoria Square, Perth (08) 9223 1351. In the light of the recent Synod by Bishops on the Word of God, “Living Biblically” is recommended as the perfect Christmas present.

A Book for Boys a hit with authors, fans, proud parents alike

Continued from page 1

“The next day I asked one of the authors, ‘Is your hand sore from all the signing yesterday?’”

“No, I’d do it again!’ he exclaimed grinning from ear to ear.”

Prior to the book launch three representatives from the Young Writers’ Club shared their stories with children from the Princess Margaret Hospital School.

Trinity College deputy principal Trevor Briedis organised the visit, which turned out to be a happy experience for students and patients.

The Writers’ Club was also fortunate to have a visit from Tony Curtis, author of the book Strive Manfully A History of CBC Perth and Trinity College 1894 - 2003

Tony shared his experience of research, the creative process and marketing strategies with students.

A Book by Boys was officially launched at a special ceremony in the Trinity Junior School Library on Thursday November 27.

Invited guests included Trinity Principal Mr Ivan Banks, Head of Junior School Mark Hackett, sub-editor Mrs Janine Wyatt, Mr Trevor Briedis, the deputy princi-

pal of Princess Margaret Hospital School, Debbie Froome from Liwara Catholic Primary School, Alison Schultz from Thornlie Public Library, Mr Ben Brennan

from Scott Print and the parents and grandparents of the authors.

After official speeches and the presentation of the first edition to the College for the archives the

There

goes:

authors cut a red ribbon and A Book by Boys was officially launched. Autographs were in high demand and the book was so popular that it is now sold out.

The Writers Club has been privileged to have the experience or writing, publishing and marketing a book so early in life. Perhaps this experience will result in a famous Trinity author in the future!

she

The authors of A Book By Boys cut the ribbon, left, at the official launch of their book at Trinity College on November 27. The book was sold out almost immediately. The authors were also visted by Trinity historian Tony Curtis, above, who poses with Year 5 teacher and editor Mrs Jackie Williams

A message: One of the reasons Archbishop Hickey, pictured above, wrote his book was that in seeking common ground with the world after Vatican II Catholics and other Christians lost their focus on the distinctive message of Christianity. “It always seemed to me that this approach to God caused us to lose sight of what we were really about - the person of Jesus Christ and his distinctive and countercultural way,” the Archbishop writes.

Seven ways to

For centuries Catholics have lit the Advent wreath as part of their spiritual preparation for Christmas. The evergreen branches often used in Advent wreathes are shaped into a circle representing the eternal life promised by Jesus and waiting for us in and through him.

In the northern hemisphere, Advent falls during the darkest time of the year, and the lighting of the candles reminds Catholics in that part of the world that Jesus came into the world to dispel

we live in a sun-drenched country and it is now summer, but that’s no reason to forget the true light of the world who is coming to us at Christmas.

To make your own Advent wreath, you’ll need four candleholders, three purple candles, one pink candle and real or artificial evergreen branches to shape into a wreath.

There are different explanations for what the candles represent. For some people the candles represent St John the Baptist or Our Lady. For others,

and love. Of course, you can choose or adapt these and other ideas for your own family’s tradition. Here is one Advent candle-lighting ceremony with suggestions for how you can incorporate prayer, spirituality and symbolism into your own home’s preparation.

WEEK 2 OF ADVENT: The second purple candle is for peace. Light two purple candles and pray: Dear God, help each of us (use names of children and parents) to experience wonder and awe as we wait for the Christ Child to come to us and the world at Christmas. Please give us true peace. Amen.

understand the true meaning of Christmas and fill us with the joy that only comes from you. Amen.

What do the colours of Advent mean?

Look at the Advent candles in your church. They are mainly purple, but one may well be pink. Purple (perhaps dark blue) is a regal colour, signifying royalty. The coming birth of the Saviour will be of a King, who will be honoured as such. It is also a symbol of penitence and you may recall it being used during Lent. We need to prepare our hearts for His coming. Pink, the second colour of the season, indicates the joy of this time of our year. Finally, the green of Advent wreaths are for eternal life that flows from Jesus.

Do something for someone else every day. A great way to corrode personal selfishness and preoccupations. It might be an encouraging word, a phone call, a shopping trip, a note of appreciation or a small act of kindness.

the light of God’s But here in the southern hemisphere represent the virtues of faith, hope, joy

WEEK 1 OF ADVENT: The first purple candle signified hope. Light the candle and pray: Dear God, help each person in our family to look forward to the coming of Jesus at Christmas and in our lives. Give us hope. Make us yours. Amen.

WEEK 3 OF ADVENT: The pink candle signifies joy. This week, light the first two purple candles then the pink candle and pray: Dear God, help our family to experience real joy, not the fake kind we see in all the advertisements for Christmas in the junk mail and on television. Help us to

WEEK 4 OF ADVENT: The fourth and last candle is for love. God is love, the source of all true love. Light the last of the candles after you have lit the first three and pray: Dear God, you are love. Help us to love each other in this family, all our friends and especially the people we don’t like or who are mean to us. Let them see something special and different in the way we live, so that they want to find you too. Fill us with love as we grow closer to the birth of Jesus. Amen.

ADVENT

The Latin word means “coming.” As we prepare for the coming of the great feast of Christmas, Advent is meant to be a time of prayer, conversion, quiet reflection and especially anticipation. After all, it is the coming of Jesus for which we wish to prepare our families and ourselves. And while the liturgies and readings of Advent prepare us for the birth of the Saviour of the world they also prepare us, in a very real sense, for the coming of Jesus at the end of the world – in each of our own lives and at the end of time. Advent is a wonderful time and an opportunity to live a real desire for the coming of the Messiah, the one prophesied by so many of the outstanding figures of Godʼs Chosen People in the Old Testament. Advent began four Sundays before Christmas and ends at sundown on Christmas Eve. Advent can last from 22 to 28 days depending on whether Christmas of that year falls on a Monday or a Sunday. But more importantly Advent – not January 1 - is the beginning of the Churchʼs year.

The first Sunday of Advent is really the Churchʼs own New Yearʼs Day. And unlike the secular year which marks the passing of time, Advent and the rest of the liturgical year mark sacred time, as each passing phase celebrates the sacred mysteries of the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Thatʼs why Advent begins the Churchʼs year in anticipation of the coming of Jesus with readings reflecting on the Jewish prophecies and the ancient longing for the coming of the Messiah.

Ways to get more out of Advent

Why not try these simple ways to incorporate traditional Advent practices into your busy schedule:

Unite yourself with Mary. She is beautiful, elegant, graceful and charming beyond compare, and she has been given to you as a mother and a teacher. Turn to her and ask her to help you see her son through her eyes and the eyes of St Joseph. Set aside time once a day to join Our Lady in praying the Canticle of Mary (see Luke 1:46-55). By doing this you will also begin to use the Bible just as the Synod fathers (the bishops of the Church) in Rome asked Catholics to do following the Synod on the Word of God earlier this year.

Get rid of grudges. Use Advent as an opportunity to let go of any anger or resentment that you might be holding on to. Weʼre only part-way through this season. Thereʼs still time.

Reflect on Advent… as a time of waiting. The concept of waiting is not popular in our culture where every message, especially in advertising, is based on things we must have – now! But waiting lays in us the foundation of a new kind of self-discipline that is truly counter-cultural, but more importantly helps us to appreciate the moment and look back to the future with peaceful anticipation.

Are there rules governing fasting and abstinence during Advent?

Once there were such rules but no longer. Nevertheless, Catholics are encouraged to prepare themselves spiritually with voluntary acts of prayer, fasting, penance, and almsgiving.

Catholic Mission Caritas here in Perth, both of which represent love in action reaching to our brothers and sisters around the world without distinction. Itʼs not how much you give, but what you can give that counts.

Catholic Mission can be contacted on (08) 9328 7933 (catholicmissionperth@ bigpond.com), while you can contact Caritas on (08) 9422 7925 (janeen@caritas.org.au or elsac@caritas.org.au)

Offer it up… is something painful or difficult in life? Offer it up for those who suffer in this life, or those who need our prayers in the next life. All human beings are your brothers and sisters. Yes, really.

TRADITIONS ADVENT CALENDAR

Advent feast days, food and fun

Celebrations of Advent feast days have inspired colourful customs in countries around the world. Why not try these ideas or see how you can modify them to suit Australia to enrich your familyʼs experience of Advent this year? If these dates have already passed, keep them in mind for next year!

THE FEAST OF ST NICHOLAS: DEC 6

St Nicholas of Myra, in modern-day Turkey, was a third century bishop who was known as a miracle-worker and a giver of secret gifts (guess who Santa Claus is based on?). He is still known as St Nicholas the wonderworker. In some northern European countries children put their shoes by the door the night before the feast of St Nicholas. They wake the next morning to find lollies and small toys left by the great saint. Sweet biscuits are traditional treats for St Nicholasʼs Day. In Germany people make Springerles or Pfeffernusse, a gingerbread biscuit. Speculaas biscuits are eaten on St Nicholasʼs Day in the Netherlands.

FEAST OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION: DEC 8

Here in Perth our own cathedral known mostly as St Maryʼs is really the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

As most people know it is currently being refurbished and completed after being started in the 1860s.

This major feast honours Our Lady, who was conceived without original sin. Next year, make plans to go to Mass with the family on this special day, perhaps with a dinner that evening to honour Mary under this title. Before the meal say a Hail Mary together or sing a favourite Marian hymn.

Turn your breathing into a prayer. Take a few deep breaths throughout the day and imagine that Godʼs love is pouring into you, flowing through you to every part of your body, As you exhale, let go of the tension, worry and anything else that is not of God.

Think about the special gifts and talents God has given you. How are you using these gifts? Or are you wasting your time, which is also a gift from the Lord?

Pray for patience. Do you find yourself becoming anxious or upset? Ask the Lord for the gift of patience. Remember what St Peter says: “Cast all you anxieties on him, for he cares about you.” (1 Peter 5:7). Then make a more conscious effort to be a more patient person who trusts in God.

Receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Catholics are so backward when it comes to this amazing Sacrament. Attend your parish penance service and take advantage of the opportunity to cleanse your soul in preparation for the coming of Jesus. If you were going to get married, youʼd have a shower and groom yourself for your beloved wouldnʼt you?

Remember, God is in love with you and wants to marry you. Show him that you want to love him too.

The Advent calendar seems to be less of a tradition in Australia than in other countries, but it is a great method of preparation, especially for families with young children. Advent calendars were used in Germany from the 1800s onwards. Families drew a chalk line or lit a candle every night to mark the days until Christmas. Gerhard Lange produced the first Advent calendar, which contained small pictures that could be glued to a piece of cardboard every day.

Over time, Advent calendars became more sophisticated with little doors that contained sweets or a Bible verse. During World War II the production of Advent calendars was stopped in Germany. After the War, the custom spread to the US, probably via servicemen who had been stationed in Germany after the conclusion of hostilities. Many families make their own Advent calendars using pictures, lollies or trinkets.

THE JESSE TREE

A Jesse Tree is a small, artificial tree with homemade decorations that represent important people, places or events from the family tree of Jesus. It takes its name from Isaiah 11:1: “A shoot shall come from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.” Jesse was the father of King David. Some families hang a symbol on the tree each day and then read a Scripture passage on the symbol. Here are examples: A picture of the world to symbolise Godʼs gift of creation (Gen 1:26-31). Noahʼs Ark (Genesis, chapters 6,7,8 and 9). Stone tablets representing the Ten Commandments (Ex 20:1). A coat of many colours symbolising Joseph (Gen 37). A crown, representing King David (2 Samuel 5:1-5). Flowing water, representing John the Baptist (Mark 1:18). A picture of Our Lady (Lk 1:26-38). A hammer, representing St Joseph, the carpenter (Mt 1:18-25). A star over the stable in Bethlehem (Lk 2:6-2). Baby Jesus in the manger (Lk 2:1-20)

This year, why not try saying a decade of the Rosary each day.

Probable elapsed time: 5 minutes.

Note: another beautiful Marian feast day is the feast of Our Lady of Loreto, on December 10.

THE FEAST OF ST LUCY: DEC 13

St Lucy was a martyr of the fourth century whose name and feast day are associated with light. This is why she is the patron saint of sight and those with seeing problems. In Norway, children light candles and bring pastries called Lussekattor to their parents on the morning of St Lucyʼs feast day. In Sweden, people eat a ginger biscuit called Luciapepperkator. In Italy St Lucy brings small gifts to small children (who have been good!). In Hungary there is a tradition of planting wheat seeds in a little pot on the feast of St Lucy, although gardeners and farmers here in Australia may be able to advise whether this would be a brilliant idea in the southern hemisphere – or not. Nevertheless, children watch the wheat grow and use the sprigs as decorations in the mangers of their familyʼs Christmas crèche. Another tradition is making St Lucyʼs Crown, which consists of two loaves of sweet bread braided into a crown and topped with cherries, lollies and candles.

darkness and radiate

Victorian priest takes Church to the

On the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8, Geelong-based priest Fr Kevin Dillon initiated a chapel and Catholic bookshop in the middle of one of Victoria’s biggest shopping strips. It’s a new approach that many in the Church around Australia will be watching with great interest.

■ By Anthony Barich

The modern shopping centre is the cathedral of 21st century society.

Rightly or wrongly, it is a place where people gather and all sorts of needs are met. It purports to feed many areas of human need – everything from medical and dental to counselling, and, of course, retail therapy.

It stands to reason, then, that in the Victorian satellite city of Geelong, the 64-year-old head of the city’s Deanery, Fr Kevin Dillon, on December 8, opened a chapel and Catholic resource centre right in the heart of its trendy shopping strip.

For 30 years he’s believed the Church should be in always accessible places for people, and with the Church more than ever facing an uphill task of converting hearts,

he believes that today the Church must spread the Gospel.

But “we can’t just sit on top of hills waiting for people to come to us”. It all started when he was stationed at Mitcham parish in 1996. He got a chapel going in Eastland shopping centre in Ringwood in Melbourne’s east.

It’s still going, and has up to 70 attending Mass every day. It’s called St Francis Chapel.

“That worked out very well,” Fr Kevin says.

In 2001, he moved to Geelong, and now heads the Geelong Deanery, which has 29 parishes. He started another small chapel and bookshop – again called St Francis – right in the heart of the city’s central business district, in a mall called Centrepoint, but it was located right down the end of a “dingy, dodgy” shopping arcade that was becoming less and less accessible.

Still, it gradually attracted people, and ended up becoming a thriving place where all sorts of characters, including people with mental illness who struggled to find acceptance elsewhere, found a home. They started volunteering there, where it sold second-hand books, not necessarily Catholic, just general books… but it made enough to pay the $1000 rent a month.

Nominal and lapsed Catholics, the unemployed and the unemployable, were rocking up in droves, apparently finding it easier to walk into a less formal structure than Geelong’s glorious St Mary of the Angels Basilica. Mass was celebrated every day and before

they knew it, a little community had formed.

But Fr Kevin wanted more. He applied to a shopping centre down the road and was rejected. It seemed like he was being stymied at every turn. It all changed when Westfield announced a major development in the city, just a couple of blocks from the waterfront, he jumped at it.

Still, it took what seemed like an age for Westfield to reply to him in the affirmative, but when they did, things just fell into place. A student studying design offered to create the new store’s logo – called “Wing and a Prayer” – and things were on their way.

The new store would embrace a much broader concept, become much more Catholic and his goal is for it to become a kind of regional pastoral centre, where people from surrounding rural areas like Werribee and Ballarat who don’t want the hassle of Melbourne can acquire information about how to join the Catholic Church, get baptised, married, etc. It will also sell devotional items.

There will be a small prayer chapel where the Blessed Sacrament resides, and trading will stop at 1pm every day while Holy Mass is celebrated in the main body of the shop.

Fr Kevin says the main aim in many ways is not just to sell books, but to be an information centre and a contact point for anyone who wants any contact with the Church.

“Down the track we hope we’d make contact with many people we otherwise wouldn’t be. We’re not quite sure how it’ll work out – we

Confession makes a comeback... in the Mall

Sin never goes out of style, but Confession, it seems, is undergoing a revival. Late last year the Wall Street Journal carried a fascinating report by journalist Alexandra Alter on what it called the ‘comeback’ of Confession. The following is an edited copy of her report. There is some surprising news. Priests are hearing confessions in shopping centres, and some Protestants are asking why they ever threw away this very Catholic practice…

In February 2007 Pope Benedict XVI instructed priests to make confession a top priority. US bishops have begun promoting it in diocesan newspapers, mass mailings and even billboard ads. And in a dramatic turnaround, some Protestant churches are following suit. Last year, the secondlargest North American branch of the Lutheran Church passed a resolution supporting the rite, which it had all but ignored for more than 100 years.

Meanwhile, three Catholic priests from the Capuchin order now hear confessions at a mall in Colorado Springs.

Worshippers are answering the call. During a “Reconciliation Weekend” at churches in the diocese of Orlando, Florida, more than 5,000 people turned out to

confess. When five parishes in Chicago joined forces in 2006 for “24 Hours of Grace,” where priests welcomed penitents from 9 am on a Friday to 9 am the next morning, about 2,500 people showed up.

Several factors are feeding the resurgence.

Aggressive marketing by churches has helped reinvent confession as a form of self-improvement rather than a punitive rite.

Technology is also creating new avenues for redemption. Some Protestants now air their sins on videos that are shared on YouTube and iTunes or are played to entire congregations.

And the appetite for introspection has been buoyed by the broad acceptance of psychotherapy and the emphasis on self-analysis typified by daytime talk television.

“Every day on Jerry Springer we see people confessing their sins in public, and certainly the confessional is a lot healthier than Jerry Springer,” says Orlando Bishop Thomas Wenski, who in March 2006 sent out 190,000 pamphlets calling on Catholics to confess.

Scholars also say the return to confession is part of a larger theological change.

Catholic leaders have sought to make the tradition less onerous to keep it from dying, while Protestants are embracing it as a way to offer discipline to their flocks.

Several Protestant pastors said they felt their churches had become too soft on sinners, citing the rise of suburban megachurches that seek converts with feel-good sermons, coffee and rock-concertlike services, but rarely issue calls to repent.

“I never want to be accused of the namby-pamby, milquetoast,

‘Jesus is my boyfriend’ kind of worship,” says John Voelz, a pastor at Westwinds Community Church in Jackson, Michigan. “People want to come face to face with what’s going on inside them.”

Confession is no longer strictly a private matter between a sinner, a priest and God.

More than 7700 people have posted their sins on ivescrewedup. com, a confession Web site launched by Flamingo Road Church, an evangelical congregation based in Florida.

In 2006, several members of Life Church in Edmond, Oklahoma, appeared in a video sermon titled “My Secret,” in which they spoke openly about having an abortion or taking methamphetamine. The video was shown to about 21,000 people.

The XXX Church, a Christian antipornography ministry, has videotaped people confessing their addictions to X-rated material and posted the video on YouTube, where it has been viewed nearly 15,000 times.

“There’s a reason why they talk about confession in the Bibleyou’re not supposed to keep it inside you,” says Jordy Acklin, 21, an Oklahoma college student who appeared in the video. “The weight just goes off your shoulders.”

Confession has been in steep decline for several decades. In 2005, just 26 per cent of American Catholics said they went to confession at least once a year, down from 74 per cent in the early 1980s, according to researchers at two Catholic universities.

There is only so far the Vatican will go to revive confession - the Church has taken a hard stance against substituting technology for the Sacrament, declaring in 2002

that “there are no sacraments on the Internet.”

Some Protestants have also criticised public forms of atonement, arguing they owe more to exhibitionism than contrition.

In Christianity’s early centuries, worshippers confessed publicly before the priest and the entire congregation.

Penalties were severe. Sinners had to prostrate themselves, fast and wear sackcloths and ashes. Adulterers were sentenced to a lifetime of celibacy and thieves were ordered to give their belongings to the poor.

Repeat offenders were banished, says US Notre Dame theology professor Randall Zachman. Private confession, which arose in monasteries in the seventh century, became mandatory for Christians in 1215.

Centuries later during the Reformation, theologian Martin Luther took issue with the “acts of satisfaction” that priests required of sinners, arguing that faith alone absolved them.

Luther was especially critical of the practice of selling indulgences, which allowed people to pay to limit their time in purgatory.

Following the split, most Protestant churches instructed followers to confess to God directly or simply to each other.

In their attempt to revive the rite, Catholic leaders have portrayed it as a healing sacrament.

In February 2007, the Archdiocese of Washington bought advertising spots on radio stations, buses, subway cars and a billboard inviting Catholics to come to confession during Lent.

The response was strong enough that 10 parishes decided to extend the hours for confession.

Amanda Fangmeyer, 39, a stay-athome mother, attends St Patrick’s in Rockville, Maryland, one of the parishes that took part in the campaign. She says she was stunned to see more than 100 people lined up for confession two weeks before Easter.

“Sometimes when you go for penance the church is just dark and quiet,” she says. One woman who hadn’t been to confession in some time received a flyer in the mail from her bishop in March 2007 urging Catholics to atone for their sins.

She packed her husband and two sons, then 9 and 16, into the car and drove to a nearby church where a priest was waiting in the confessional booth.

“Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It’s been two years since my last confession,” she said she told the priest.

She said she confessed to impatience and anger with her sons. She talked about her marriage. She expressed feelings of guilt over fighting with her first husband, who died two years ago of a failed organ transplant.

“It was hard at first. It was scary, the room gets kind of hot. But once you open up it’s better.”

People are confessing in unlikely places.

On a recent Saturday morning in Colorado Springs, seven people lined up outside an office next to a clothes shop at the Citadel mall.

At the appointed hour, Father Matthew Gross, 72, strode up wearing his brown friar’s habit.

“Three minutes each, that’s all you get,” he joked to two women waiting in line.

Since 2001, Fr Gross and two other Capuchin friars have come to the mall to hear confessions 11

Launched: Fr Kevin Dillon with Wing and a Prayer manager Kristen Rowan and her son Angus, 8, outside the streetfront chapel and bookshop, which aims to take the Church to Geelong shoppers rather than waiting for them to come to a Church.

PHOTO: COURTESY WING AND A PRAYER

new public square of Aussie life

really are on a wing and a prayer,” he says.

“The Church has got to look very keenly and energetically at people who aren’t necessarily within our point of contact in the traditional way. People are sometimes more comfortable walking into a less formal setting than a parish office, presbytery or a church.”

Down the track, with the number of parishes and priests in Geelong dwindling – St Margaret parish in East Geelong and St Mary of the Angels parish in Geelong will merge on January 1 2009 by order of Archbishop Hart – the dynamics of the Geelong Deanery will change.

Either way, 4000 families between Geelong and Geelong East parishes will need somewhere to go. “I can see that (his resource centre) may be an operation where people can come to one place and enquire about baptisms and weddings, if that’s what the parishes in the Deanery want to use, instead of staffing expensive offices,” he says.

While he shyly says the shop itself “looks terrific”, he anticipates it’ll take a year or two to for it to hit full stride.

Financially it has a degree of risk, as rent is $60,000 a year. But the point he made to his parishioners in asking for funds is that there wouldn’t be a properly functioning church in Australia of any substance that would be operating on any less than $1000 a week, with insurance and maintenance.

“No church pays its own way entirely; very few churches would exist just from collections. So the question becomes, is it doing its job? Is it making contact with peo-

ple and influencing people? We won’t know if we don’t have a go. And we’re having a go.”

“It’s been the Church’s mission for over 2000 years; it’s still the mission today. It’s just happening at the heart of consumerism.”

-

Fr

Kevin Dillon

see story in shaded box, right

He doesn’t mince his words when he describes the Church’s success in reaching the average Joe, and what it needs to do.

“It’s the case with many organisations, but the way the Church has done things hasn’t worked well in recent years. I’m not saying change the message but change the way it gets across. Especially in the Church, I’ve found that anything that’s new is difficult to get people’s enthusiasm and imagination fired up to have a go and help get it going.

“But just when you think, ‘is this going in the right direction?’, then something comes out of the blue. There’s definitely a genuine sense of divine providence about it, as things seem to happen at the right time.

“We’re not saying this is ‘the be-all and end-all,’ but it’s worth having a real go at in a worthwhile way.”

hours a day, six days a week in a small office with a box of Kleenex and a laminated copy of the Ten Commandments.

They now hear about 8,000 confessions a year. Protestant theologians are also rethinking the rite. In mid-2007, the Lutheran Church’s Missouri Synod, a 2.5 millionmember branch whose members are spread across North America, voted to revive private confession with a priest.

Some theologians have pointed to the writings of Martin Luther and argued that

snapshot Agencies, schools, volunteers make initiative joint effort

F(Benedict XVI) and the consumeristfuelled apathy that comes with it that are providing major challenges for the Church.

Wing and a Prayer, while still only in its fledgling phase, is revolutionary in its counter-cultural existence. Located across the road from Officeworks and next door to a bike superstore on Malop Street, Geelong’s main shopping strip in the Victorian satellite city’s newly developed Westfield mall, it is right where the Church needs to beamidst the consumerist frenzy that is the modern centre. Kristen Rowan, a 32-year-old mother of one, is its manager. Having previously worked for the Marist Brothers at their Provincial house in Sydney for five years, she was approached by Fr Kevin Dillon two months ago to be the store’s manager. Kristen is undaunted by the boldness of the initiative, yet “flabbergasted” at the way Fr Kevin Dillon has thought all this up.

studying animation at university who professionally designed the store’s logo. “I think it’s the Holy Spirit,” she says. “It’s hard to say for me, as I’m not prone to thinking about things that way – but it’s got to be the Holy Spirit.”

Fr Kevin set up a support fund for which parishioners have pledged money, the interest on the money helps fund the shop, pays the rent and Kristen’s wages, while two other girls help out. Running inductions for volunteers – in some cases lapsed Catholics whose faith has been reawakened by the project – Kristen says their task is comparable to someone who dives right into the heart of a different form of worship (materialism) to provide hope and redemption, through compassion and by providing a service: the Good News. Wing and a Prayer is very much a project of the local Catholic Church.

Centrecare, MacKillop Family Services, St John of God Health Services, St Vincent DePaul, Rice Village, Deanery parishes and Primary Schools have all contributed. Local schools - Sacred Heart, St Joseph’s and Clonard Colleges - have all agreed that their students will do regular shifts in the shop as part of a Social Service program.

She’s equally impressed by the good will the centre has generated, togerther with some pretty constant preaching by Fr Kevin to get his parish up and going to support it.

She says the good will has awakened her to the workings of the Holy Spirit in ways she never imagined. Just when it seemed the project was being stymied at every turn, people have stepped up to the plate - like a parishioner

the Protestant reformer, while criticising the way the rite was administered, never advocated abolishing it.

“Some of us were saying, ‘Why in the world did we let that die out?’” says the Rev. Bruce Keseman, a Lutheran pastor in Freeburg, Illinois.

Rev Keseman has sought to revive confession in his congregation by bringing it into pastoral counselling, giving demonstrations to youth groups and preaching about its benefits.

Leslie Sramek, 48, a lifelong Lutheran and financial manager who lives near St Louis, says she never heard about private confession and absolution in church when she was growing up.

But two years ago, when Rev. Keseman announced he would be taking confession privately, she decided to give it a try.

At these sessions, the pastor wears vestments and stands near the altar while she kneels and recounts her sins.

“I won’t say that looking at my sins is pleasant, but they have to be dealt with,” says Mrs Sramek.

Some evangelicals don’t need any prompting. Joshua Wilshusen, 29, a respiratory care student from Lomita, California, started meeting two other Christian men for a weekly group confession two years ago.

They gather at a park or coffee shop to ask questions such as “Have you coveted this week?” “Have you been sexually pure?”

“Have you just lied to me?”

Confessing helps him resist temptations. “There’ve been times when a sin has hurt me all week, when I’ve lusted after a woman or lost my temper at work, and then I confess it and the peace is restored.”

Restoring confession to its heyday won’t be easy. Most US Catholic parishes set aside one hour or less on Saturdays for the rite. And while the US Catholic population has grown by 20 million in the last 40 years, the number of priests has fallen to 41,000, a 29 per cent decline over the same period.

Group absolution, while allowed in some circumstances, is discouraged, and bishops have banned Internet and text-message confessions, which had been popular in the Philippines.

Says Monsignor Kevin Irwin, dean of the school of theology at Catholic University, “We don’t do drive-by confessions.”

“Central to our Mission Statement is the expression of our faith,” Fr Kevin says - ‘Go therefore, make disciples of all nations; baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you. And know that I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.’ (Matt 28: 19-20). It’s been the Church’s mission for over 2000 years; it’s still the mission today. It’s just happening at the heart of consumerism.

- ANTHONY BARICH

Open for business: The logo and signage for Fr Dillon’s new shopping strip-based chapel and bookshop

The Mall: The modern shopping centre, often vast in its spread, has become the new public square where most people go at some stage during the week. Is this where Christian churches should be offering themselves as a presence - and an alternative - to the rampant materialism such places represent?

Duke pays price of opposing euthanasia

The Grand Duke of Luxembourg is to be stripped of his executive veto after refusing to rubber-stamp a euthanasia law.

■ By Michael Cook Comment

THE cynical epitaph for the rakish King Charles II of England - “Here lies our Sovereign Lord the King, Whose word no man relies on ; Who never said a foolish thing, And never did a wise one.” - sums up most republicans’ feelings towards constitutional monarchs. Palatial accommodation, fabulous salaries, gorgeous clothes, jetsetting, handshakes with everyone from Bono to Barack – all this just to sign a few laws tossed across a desk by the government of the day.

However, 53-year-old Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg is made of different stuff. He has just precipitated a constitutional crisis in his tiny (population 470,000) realm by refusing to grant royal assent to a law authorising euthanasia - “for reasons of conscience”.

Back in February the Luxembourg parliament voted to legalise euthanasia and assisted suicide, copying the pioneers in this dark trend, neighbouring Belgium and the Netherlands.

The law would let doctors kill the terminally ill if they asked repeatedly and had the consent of two doctors and a panel of experts.

Luxembourg’s Prime Minister strongly backed the bill, even though it was opposed by his own party, the Christian Social

People’s party. It narrowly passed, by a vote of 30 to 26, thanks to support from Socialists and Greens.

The Grand Duke’s refusal is nearly unprecedented in his nation’s politics. “I understand the Grand Duke’s problems of conscience,” Mr Juncker declared.

“But I believe that if the parliament votes in a law, it must be brought into force.”

A streak of moral sensitivity seems to run in the Grand Duke’s family. In a remarkably similar case in 1990, his uncle, King Baudouin I of Belgium, also refused to sign a law legalising abortion. He abdicated for

two days while the measure passed through Parliament.

The constitutional deadlock has been resolved by changing the constitution: the Grand Duke will be stripped of his constitutional veto.

Before the Parliament votes on the third reading of the euthanasia bill, it will alter article 34 of Luxembourg’s constitution.

From then on the Grand Duke will not actually sanction new laws, but merely enact them.

Exercising his conscience has cost Henri and his successors a precious traditional prerogative.

Was it worth it?

According to the classic analysis of the 19th century English journalist Walter Bagehot, a constitutional monarch has three rights, “the right to be consulted, the right to encourage, the right to warn” – but not the right to obstruct the government’s purpose.

And a monarch who refuses to promulgate legislation is all but unheard of.

But, for all that, a monarch is a man whose conscience is a public good. His subjects will assume that if he signs a piece of legislation, he must have seen no fundamental evil in it, nothing that fatally undermines human dignity.

As the head of state, he inevitably is regarded as a model of civic virtue. One of the great benefits of a monarchical system, Bagehot argues, is that it makes the ideals and working of government intelligible to the common man.

A monarch without virtue undermines the institution.

So the Grand Duke cannot not decline personal responsibility for allowing fellow citizens to be killed by doctors, no matter how much political pressure is applied. A

Russian reconciler returns to God

Head of Russian Orthodox Church dies aged 79.

■ By Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) - The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow, died on December 5 at his home outside the Russian capital.

Although the cause of his death was not immediately made public, he had suffered from a heart condition and had been ill for some time.

Patriarch Alexy led the world’s largest Orthodox church since 1990. As primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Patriarch was the spiritual leader of more than 110 million church members in Russia, the former Soviet republics and the diaspora.

He led the Church through the difficult transition from the end of Soviet repression to an era of religious freedom and sought to revitalise traditional religious values in a society that was still grappling with the after-effects of totalitarianism and the impact of newfound freedoms.

Pope Benedict XVI praised the Patriarch’s efforts “for the rebirth of the Church after the severe ideological oppression which led to the martyrdom of so many witnesses to the Christian faith.” In a written message sent to the synod of the Russian Orthodox Church on December 5, the Pope offered his “most sincere condolences” and said he “was profoundly saddened” to receive news of the Patriarch’s death. He recalled Patriarch Alexy’s “courageous battle for the defence of human and Gospel values,” especially in Europe.

In his message, the Pope said he prayed the Patriarch’s hard work

would “bear fruit in peace and genuine progress - human, social and spiritual.”

Cardinal Walter Kasper, the Vatican’s top ecumenist, expressed his “profound sadness” at the Patriarch’s death and prayed that he would “be rewarded for his long and dedicated ministry to the church he loved.”

Despite challenges and obstacles between the two churches, the Patriarch held a firm desire to strengthen collaboration with the Catholic Church, Cardinal Kasper said in a December 5 statement.

“His personal commitment to improving relations with the Catholic Church, in spite of the difficulties and tensions which from time to time have emerged, has never been in doubt,” the cardinal said.

Cardinal Kasper said that during his many meetings with the Patriarch the Orthodox leader would “always make a point of expressing his good will toward the Holy Father.”

He said Patriarch Alexy helped guide the Russian Orthodox Church during the post-communist transition and enabled it to emerge with “renewed interior vitality.”

Despite the late Pope John Paul II’s long-expressed desire to visit Russia, the Russian Orthodox under Patriarch Alexy never invited the Pope to Russia. They insisted the Patriarch would not meet the Pope until they were satisfied that Catholics were not proselytizing in Russia.

Though still strained, Russian Orthodox relations with the Catholic Church improved greatly under Pope Benedict. After recent meetings this year with Russian Orthodox leaders, Cardinal Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, said historical tensions had been replaced by an eagerness to

Man For All Seasons, Robert Bolt’s play about Thomas More, illustrates this this point.

One of his old friends asks More why he would not sign the Oath of Supremacy: “Why can’t you do as I did and come with us, for fellowship!”

And More replies, “And when we die, and you are sent to heaven for doing your conscience, and I am sent to hell for not doing mine, will you come with me, for fellowship?”

Local politicians believed that he should have rubber-stamped the law, since he is just another cog in the political machine. But even a Grand Duke is a man, not a machine.

Had he sanctioned the euthanasia bill, his fellow citizens could easily have thought that euthanasia is consistent with democracy, solidarity and human dignity.

But it is not. On the contrary, legalised euthanasia abandons the sick and dying at the most vulnerable moments of their life.

It cheapens human life and corrupts the medical profession. It has immense potential for abuse.

Developments throughout the Western world in the last few months have shown that respect for conscientious objection is under threat.

After 40 years of idolising whim and caprice masquerading as conscience, the pendulum is swinging back the other way.

Governments are trampling on consciences even though they have been shaped by an objective moral law, not personal preference. Countering this trend takes courage.

Luxembourgers should be proud that their constitutional monarch is a man who refuses to become a constitutional mannequin.

Michael Cook is editor of MercatorNet.

cooperate. A meeting between Pope Benedict and Patriarch Alexy finally seemed possible, Cardinal Kasper said after a visit to Russia and the Patriarch in May. Even though no concrete agenda for a visit had materialised, there were “many signs of reconciliation,” the cardinal said at the time.

In a letter delivered to the Patriarch in May, the Pope wrote: “It is with joy that I reflect on the experience of growing closeness between us, accompanied by the shared desire to promote authentic Christian values and to witness to Our Lord in ever deeper communion.”

Helping to bridge the longstanding divide between the two churches was the Orthodox church’s recent effort to seek cooperation on highlighting Christian values in an age of increasing secularism, on Europe’s common roots in Christianity, and on themes like the family, bioethics and human rights.

Born in Estonia in 1929 to a family of Russian emigrants, Patriarch Alexy was enthroned as Patriarch in 1990, just a year after the collapse of the Soviet Union. He said his church had to work to help the Soviet people overcome bitterness left by years of repression. “Too serious is the disease caused by the virus of totalitarianism, which has contaminated human souls with hatred, spite and intolerance,” the Russian Orthodox Patriarch said in a talk at Georgetown University in Washington in 1991.

When the Soviet parliament granted religious freedom in the country for the first time since the Communist Party took power 70 years ago, the Patriarch took a leading role in revitalising the country’s pastoral life. He said the church needed help so it could reopen churches and monasteries, provide religious education, offer charity and carry out many other activities.

Uruguay president leaves Socialist party over abortion

MONTEVIDEO (CNA)

- An official from Uruguay’s Socialist Party revealed this week that President Tabare Vazquez resigned from the party several days ago after he broke with the party and vetoed a law that would have legalised abortion in the country.

According to sources quoted by the newspaper El Observador, Vazquez sent a letter to the party’s secretary general, Eduardo Fernandez, requesting that his affiliation with the party be terminated. He had been a member of the Socialist Party since 1983.

The newspaper explained that Vazquez resigned in response to the Socialist Party’s support for overriding his veto of the law on sexual and reproductive health, which would have legalised abortion, and for the criticism he received because of his decision.

Uruguayan lawmakers were unsuccessful in their attempt to override the presidential veto.

Other reports indicated the president also left the party over a lack of support for his proposals during the elections of October 2009.

Vazquez, who is a doctor by profession, based his veto on the fact that the law was an attack on human life and freedom of conscience.

Paid the price: Grand Duke Henri.

Fondly remembered: A woman places a candle near a portrait of Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow during a public viewing in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour on December 7.

PHOTO: CNS

Struggling with the Rosary

The Rosary is excruciating. There I said it. Archbishop Fulton Sheen said it was the most perfect prayer because it takes 19 minutes, which is the maximum time the average person can maintain a state of concentration.

The truth is the Rosary can be a real chore. St Thérèse, the Little Flower, was being more honest when she said: “I am ashamed to confess it, but the recitation of the Rosary costs me more than to use an instrument of penance. I feel I am saying it so badly. Try as I may to make myself meditate on the mysteries, I never manage to fix my thoughts on them.” Amen sister. I’m with you. And yet, like St Thérèse, I wouldn’t give up the Rosary for anything.

I’ll admit I’m not always perfect about making it my top priority. I “stink” at contemplating the mysteries. The best I can manage is to visualize a picture from one of my Rosary booklets or a scene from The Passion of the Christ.

Distractions? Don’t get me started. On my way home from work, I’m bombarded with thoughts of everything but the mysteries. “The third joyful mystery is the… now what was it I was supposed to pick up from the grocery store… Was that my 9th Hail Mary or my 10th? Oh man, I just ran a red light! Sorry Mary.”

So why do I persist if it’s such drudgery? Simple. I wouldn’t be where I am today had it not been for Mary’s intercession. This is my story. Since the age of 11, I was addicted to pornography. It began simple enough with sneaking peaks at my best friend’s father’s Playboys in the basement of his house.

But by the time I was 25, I was so hooked on Internet porn that I would itch for my wife to leave the apartment so I could secretly jump online. Several times over the years I tried to quit. Each time, not only did I fail, but the addiction got worse to the point where I gave up resisting.

Then a friend of mine, who knew nothing of my addiction, loaned me a book on Mary and her supposed apparitions in Međugorje. I’m undecided about whether those apparitions are real. I’ll leave that to the Church to

decide. However, I can tell you what is real. That book was what finally led me out of my addiction.

It was as if Mary reached up from the pages and grabbed me by the collar. I felt her say to me sternly, “Brian you’ve got to stop looking at that garbage. Starting now!” My earthly mother hardly ever scolded me when I was younger. I was always the “good son.”

But here I was at age 30 getting chastised by my Blessed Mother in a way I had never experienced. “What do you want me to do?” I asked helplessly. I turned the page. Pray the Rosary and wear the Scapular. I groaned. “Rosary? I’ve tried that before. It’s boring. It doesn’t work for me.” But Mary wouldn’t take no. “Try it again,” she insisted.

What about this scapular thing? I had no idea what a scapular was. I thought it had something to do with shaving your head like the monks of the Middle Ages.

That night I went online and ordered a Brown Scapular, and then I went to my bedroom dresser and pulled out my grandmom’s old Rosary. It had been in there for years, nothing more than an heirloom. I got on my knees, and I began to pray. The next night, I did

it again. Two nights in a row became three, then four, until before I knew it I had prayed the Rosary every night for a week. Well it’s been seven years, and I’m still going strong. I can count on two hands the total number of times I’ve missed.

OK so I pray the Rosary and I kicked a nasty porn habit. Ho hum. Big deal you think. Yes it is, because I should explain that when I say the addiction went away, I don’t mean gradually. I mean it vanished that first night. It was like someone reached inside my brain, found the switch for porn addiction, and turned it off. I can’t explain it.

I’m not a sex therapist, but I know that’s not supposed to happen. You don’t just put down a 19-year porn addiction like yesterday’s newspaper and walk away from it.

A lot of it has to do with a hormone called epinephrine that’s released in the brain each time you view pornography. It produces a high similar to cocaine. Epinephrine is the gift that keeps on giving because it has a nasty side effect of burning the images into your brain. That’s why even when I was in my late twenties I could still see those images from when I was eleven as if it were yesterday. And now they’re gone.

That brings me back to why I pray the Rosary daily, and why I think everyone should too. It’s because of who made the request.

Mary is our Blessed Mother, and she’s asked us to do this. If she wants us to pray the Rosary, it doesn’t matter if we don’t “get” anything out of it, and it doesn’t matter if we don’t understand how it “works”. The only thing that matters is that Mary is the one who asked.

She says she needs our help, and the way we can help her is to pray Rosaries. Let her worry about the mechanics. Did the servants at the wedding at Cana need to understand how Jesus was going to solve the wine shortage? No, they just needed to follow Mary’s advice. I hope Mary doesn’t mind if I borrow her line and say when it comes to praying the Rosary, “Do whatever she tells you.”

BY BRIAN PESSARO FOR GODSPY.COM.

Redeeming the Erotic for God

Body Language

By Christopher West

Someone recently sent me a link to a blog offering a review of my latest book, Heaven’s Song, which provides a guided tour of the undelivered and long-hidden talks of John Paul II’s Theology of the Body which consist primarily of reflections on the erotic poetry of the Song of Songs.

This blogger found my book “dirty and immodest to the core,” adding that that “which is erotic is simply not appropriate for Christian consumption.”

Then he asks, “Where can we find this type of thing in Scripture or Tradition?”

Never mind that my book itself is a reflection on the most commented-on book in all of Scripture (the Song of Songs). Never mind that I draw extensively from the writings of St John of the Cross, St Teresa of Avila, and St Louis de Montfort. For this blogger, I might as well be writing on behalf of Lucifer himself.

There are layers of errors in this blogger’s thinking that I don’t have time to get into in this column. But one serious error is a failure to see how Lucifer actually works and why he is so intent on perverting our sexuality. Odd as it may

seem to some, a proper vision of our sexuality provides the clearest window for catching a glimpse of the “great mystery” of God’s plan to unite all things in Christ (see Eph 5:31-32). Conversely, a distorted vision of our sexuality –including a fearful, puritanical view of the body – serves as one of the most effective blocks to understanding who God really is, who we really are and what the “great mystery” of Christianity is really all about.

Christianity is all about holy Communion with Christ. And, as we learn so clearly from John Paul II, the call to holy Communion with Christ is stamped right in our bodies and in the call of man and woman to a holy communion.Lucifer hates this plan and aims all his arrows straight at it. He is the great plagiarizer. He takes what belongs to Christ and puts his own name on it, claiming the erotic realm for himself.

Tragically, it seems many Christians are content to let him have it. It is not uncommon to encounter people who –in the name of a supposed “piety” – find the very idea of linking erotic love and Christ’s love unconscionable.

Adopting this attitude, however, we do not overcome the deceiver’s lies; we unwittingly buy into them. We must not surrender the erotic realm to the enemy! We must not let his distortions bind us to our own lusts and blind us to the “great mystery” revealed through our bodies!

Precarious as it is, we must be courageous in reclaiming the erotic sphere for Christ and his Church. For, as both Old

and New Testaments teach us – and as we see especially in the Song of Songs –the erotic sphere is the privileged realm of a divine revelation.

Reclaiming the erotic sphere for Christ does not mean, of course, that we bring eros back “as is” from the enemy’s turf. Rightly do the pious recoil at this idea. For appealing to the lustful distortions of our sexuality as images of divine realities would be blasphemy. Rather, in the process of reclaiming the erotic realm for Christ, we must submit all that is “erotic” to a radical transformation.

We are often prone to what John Paul II called “the interpretation of suspicion” (see TOB 46), an attitude that can’t imagine any prism other than lust through which to see or discuss erotic matters.

Lust is certainly a powerful force that can cloud and even dominate our thinking. However, as John Paul II insisted, we “cannot stop at casting the ‘heart’ into a state of continual and irreversible suspicion due to the manifestations of [lust] .... Redemption is a truth, a reality, in the name of which man must feel himself called, and ‘called with effectiveness’” (TOB 46:4). This means that God’s grace, through its power to heal and transform us inwardly, can lead us to a pure way of seeing and thinking about our bodies and the gift of our sexuality. We can come to see, as countless saints and mystics have, that the boldly erotic poetry of the Song of Songs is not only not “inappropriate for Christians,” but offers a bright illumination into what Christianity is.

In the Church, God works in ordinary lives

Hazel Hathway

Ibecame a Catholic because my husband John and three children Dawn (43), Paul (40), and Angela (38) are Catholic. Eventually I caught up with them and converted 24 years ago. I took my time about it.

I was expecting Dawn when we got married and she was born six months later. It was a real stigma then but I wanted to have her. I think she’s a miracle. All my children are. I’m blessed to have three children and seven grandchildren. I’m very passionate about mothers being there for their children.

Why I became Catholic

with Debbie Warrier

Originally I lived in the UK and belonged to the Church of England. I went quite regularly. It was a matter of habit.

Some time later I just started going to the Catholic Church.

Three and a half years after that my parish priest, Fr Perry said: “Isn’t it about time we have a few lessons?”

I said: “Why not?” I saw him for six months. In the end I converted.

Sadly my father never talked about my conversion. I think he had some bad experiences with religion growing up. At the time the IRA were very much in the news and Catholics have had bad press.

All I could remember about Catholic Churches was that there were always lots of people outside after Mass. They all seemed happy.

There is an emphasis on community in Catholicism.

John’s work brought us to Australia in 1991.

Now I am a member of the RCIA team at my parish, St Patrick’s Basilica, in Fremantle. It’s the most wonderful journey to travel with people.

I feel so privileged to be part of it. My parish priest, Fr John Sherman, is very special.

Once there was a man with cancer who attended our group. He had an operation that made him blind. He didn’t often speak. However, when he did, he came out with some gems of wisdom. Often he was quite humorous.

If I had a small percentage of that bravery it would feel like I had an ocean of it. He died a year later.

In 2002 my poor sister had a horrendous mental breakdown and then she discovered that she had breast cancer. God’s plans are beyond us. I went over to the UK to bring her back to Australia. I used to take her to Sunday Mass.

She didn’t seem to be the slightest bit aware of what was going on around her. Despite this I’d go up to a statue of Our Lady and light a candle for her. We found her a wonderful psychiatrist too.

One day we went to St Mary’s Cathedral in Perth and there was veneration of St Therese of Lisieux relics. One of St Therese’s last promises was that she would send down a shower of roses when she died and this was inscribed on the wall. It somehow made me feel a connection with St Therese and I prayed really hard for her intercession. A week later my sister made significant progress and recovered.

I can’t see substance in a life without God. You can talk to God anytime you like. He’s always there. I can’t imagine how people can get by without that support and comfort. I see Christ in the joy of nature and the way people are. debwarrier@hotmail.com

Win! a unique and historic St Mary’s Emperor Fountain Pen

(No 8 with handcrafted box)

Our new survey is designed to help The Record better understand its readership. Please fill in the form and send it back to The Record, by Friday 12 December and you will go into the draw to win a St Mary’s Emperor Fountain Pen and Box. Competition drawn Monday 15 December 2008

Name .......................................................................................................................

Address........................................................................................................................

How many in your household?................

How many in your household read The Record? ............

Please circle your answer

Person 1

Age: 15-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55+

Reads The Record? Yes No

Gender: Male Female

What most do you like/not like about The Record?

Person 2

Age: 15-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55+

Reads The Record? Yes No

Gender: Male Female

What most do you like/not like about The Record?

What other publications/newspapers do you read regularly?

What would you like to see in The Record ie more Parish/National/World News/Puzzles/ recipes etc.........................................................................................................................................................

Have you purchased anything from the Bookshop? Yes No

What products/resources would you like to see in the Bookshop?

Do you use the internet? Yes No

Household income: $10,000-24,000, $25-34,000, $35-44,000, $45-54,000, $55-64,000, $65-74,000 $75,000+

Highest level of education in the household?

High School Trade Degree Post-graduate

Please send your filled-out questionnaire to: Record Survey Competition PO Box 75 Leederville WA 6902

Perth ministry

offers helping hand to futurepriests of the pacific

Perth group reaches across the ocean to help struggling Fijian seminary

■ By Robert Hiini

ON Sunday November 23, the feast of Christ the King, members of the Voice of the Voiceless, a ministry set up to support seminarians, priests and religious, made a pilgrimage to New Norcia to hear about and assist a struggling seminary in the pacific nation of Fiji.

Over 50 members of the ministry heard from their guest, Moira Selvage, a retired teacher from England who has been volunteer-teaching with the Columbian Order since her retirement in 2006; teaching in China and Fiji.

Whilst in Fiji she made contact with seminarians in Suva at the Pacific Regional Seminary (PRS) of St. Peter Chanel which was established in 1972 and has since grown from 18 students to 111.

Students hail from Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Kiribati, Vanuatu, Tahiti, Wallis and Fortuna, Cook Islands, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and Australia.

She says that some of the seminarians have given up careers in banking, even as professional musicians to become priests with some studying to be priests in such orders as the Columban Missionaries, the Vincentians, and Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, the Marists, and the Salesians of Don Bosco.

In its short life, PRS has produced four bishops: Bishop Amando of the Caroline Islands, Bishop Michel of Vanuata who sadly passed away in 2007, Archbishop Alapati of Samoa and the most recently, Bishop Soane of Tonga.

Before Ms Selvage’s talk, Father Nicholas Nweke celebrated Mass, assisted by Deacon Bonaventure Echeta in the beautiful chapel of New Norcia’s St Ildephonsus College.

PRS students were chosen to conduct the Gospel procession in the final Mass at World Youth Day in Sydney this year. In honour of Our Lord, they danced and sang in true Fijian custom. PRS students are also well known for their harmonized renditions of hymns and other Mass parts.

After the Mass, the Voice of the Voiceless Ministry presented Ms Selvage with a donation of $800 to pass on to the Rector of the PRS to help with its upkeep.

Ms Selvage says that, like most seminaries, “funds are always needed to maintain the education and formation of God’s chosen shepherds”: staff are required, building extensions, maintenance and the updating of information technology.

“So thank you Heavenly Father for all your Graces and Blessings you bestow on us all daily. Thank you Voice of the Voiceless for your wonderful work in your ministry in supporting seminaries, seminarians and retired priests.”

The ministry’s founder, Fr Nicholas Nweke, Parish Priest of Corrigin/Kulin says that their donation was the first of many they hope to make to struggling seminaries and seminarians throughout the world.

Fr Nweke is well acquainted with the difficulties experienced by seminarians, particularly those studying in countries other than their own telling The Record in March about his joy at meeting Archbishop Barry Hickey in Rome where he went to study from his native Nigeria.

The next Voice of the Voiceless initiative is a Mass and “get together” for retired clergy of the archdiocese which will be held at Our Lady’s Assumption Parish in Dianella at 11am on February 21 next year, with all retired priests welcome.

For more information about the Voice of the Voiceless Ministry contact Fr Nicholas Nweke on 0403 577 074

Happy to help: From left, Rev Deacon Bonaventure Echeta, Voice of the Voiceless Coordinator John Sutton, guest speaker Moira Selvage and the ministy’s founder Fr Nicholas Nweke during their second annual pilgrimage to New Norcia.

PHOTO: COURTESY OF VOICE OF THE VOICELESS

Kids bitz colouring/activities

Mary and Joseph had to share the stable with lots of animals.

artist of the week

I N T E R E S T I N G B I B L E FAC TS INTERESTING BIBLE FACTS

The word is a lamp (Psalms 119:105) Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

The Bible is the word of faith. (Romans 10:8) But what does it say? The word is close to you, even in your mouth, and in your heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach.

The Bible was written as inspiration through the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:21) For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

They wrote not in human words but of a divine nature (1 Corinthians 2:13) Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

1. SALTY AND DEADLY

The Dead Sea - the lowest point on the face of the earth - is the saltiest body of water in the world. The water is so dense you can’t sink. This makes it the world’s largest natural flotation device.

2. NEW ROADS FROM OLD

Until the Romans came along, roads and paths in Biblical times were dirt tracks, which became impossibly muddy during rainy seasons. The pathways of these dirt roads would keep changing as caravans searched for smoother ground to cross.

3. IS IT A MIRAGE?

Oases were wonderful places of relief set in the heart and heat of the desert regions. The Israelites stayed at the oasis of Kadeshbarnea in the northern Sinai desert.

FREE WEEKLY GIFT FROM RECORD BOOKSHOP

KIDS BITZ ARTIST OF THE WEEK will receive a free gift from the Record Bookshop. All you need to do is post or email in a drawing, poem or colouring picture. This week we are giving away a Faith Stone keyring.

please post or email :

PUZZLE

Write the book from the Bible for each of the categories below. The first letter of each book is given. Can you name others? The first four are from the Old Testament, the last four are from the New Testament:

1. Pentateuch or law (G)

2. Prophecy (E)

3. History (K)

4. Poetry (P)

5. Gospel (J)

6. Another Gospel (L)

7. A letter (R)

8. Another letter (G)

Justine Stevens, The Record, PO Box 75 Leederville WA 6902 or email production@therecord.com.au

SPOTLIGHT ON SAINTS

St Catherine Laboure

Catherine Laboure (1806-1876) was the daughter of a French farmer, with the given name of Zoe. Since she never went to school, she did not learn how to read or write, and when she was 8 years old, her mother died.

After her sister left home to join the Daughters of Charity, Catherine had to take over the duties of her sister, which were being a housekeeper and helping her father.

When Catherine was 14, she also wanted to join the Daughters of Charity. Her father was opposed to the idea, but eventually gave his consent. At this time, Zoe changed her name to Catherine.

Catherine soon began to have a series of visions of a “shining child” and of Mary. One of these visions was of a medal which featured the letter M beneath a cross and two hearts. One of the hearts had a crown of thorns on it, and the other was pierced with a sword.

The bishop gave permission for 1,500 medals to be made. So many miracles were attributed to them that it became known as the Miraculous Medal and millions of medals have been produced around the world

Corey Irwin, Homeschooled, is Our Artist of the Week. Congratulations Corey you will be receiving your Dove Pendant in the mail.

A roundup of events in the Archdiocese PANORAMA

Panorama entries must be in by 12pm Monday.

Contributions may be emailed to administration@therecord.com.au, faxed to 9227 7087, or mailed to PO Box 75, Leederville, WA 6902.

Submissions over 55 words will be edited. Inclusion is limited to 4 weeks. Events charging over $10 will be a put into classifieds and charged accordingly. The Record reserves the right to decline or modify any advertisment.

Saturday December 13

ST PAUL’S COMMUNITY  THREE SPRINGS CHURCH FUNDRAISING

Launch and sale of recorded CD called – Crowing in the Midwest, at Christmas Dinner. Cost of CD is $5 plus postage of $3. If you would like to order the CD please forward payment to PO Box 213, Three Springs WA, 6519. All welcome to join us in our celebrations. Enq: Myrtle 08 9954 1135.

Saturday December 13

ST PADRE PIO PRAYER GROUP

8.30am at St Bernadette’s Church, LJ Goody Centre, 49 Jugan Street, Glendalough. St Padre Pio DVD, 10am Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, Rosary, Divine Mercy, silent Adoration and Benediction. 11am Mass, using St Padre Pio liturgy. Confessions available. 12noon lunch; bring a plate, tea and coffee provided. Enq: Des 6278 1540.

Thursday December 18

ST PEREGINE HEALING MASS

7pm at SS John and Paul Church, Pinetree Gully Road, off South Street, Willetton, in honour of St Peregrine, Patron of Cancer sufferers and helper of all in need. The celebration will include Veneration of the Relic and Anointing of the Sick. Enq: Patrick, paddyjoe@iinet.net.au

Friday December 19

MEDJUGORJE  EVENING OF PRAYER

7pm to 9pm at Holy Spirit Parish, 2 Keaney Place, City Beach, commencing with Adoration, Rosary, Benediction and Holy Mass. Free inspirational DVD of Fr Donald Calloway may be obtained on evening. Enq: Eileen 9402 2480.

Sunday December 21

STATIONS OF CHRISTMAS

3pm at St Theresa’s Church, 678 North Beach Road, Gwelup. The Balcatta Fraternity of the Secular Franciscan Order invites you to prepare for Christmas with the Stations of Christmas. The celebration will conclude with afternoon tea at the Community Centre. Enq: Anne-Marie 9447 4252 after 6pm.

Saturday December 27

NOVENA DEVOTIONS TO OUR LADY OF GOOD HEALTH, VAILANKANNI

5pm at Holy Trinity Church, Embleton followed by Vigil Mass at 6pm. Enq: Parish Priest 9271 5528 or George 9272 1379.

Wednesday December 31

NEW YEAR’S EVE

10.45pm to 11.45pm at Holy Trinity Church, Embleton, Eucharistic Adoration, followed by Midnight Mass, and then fellowship at the parish hall. Please bring a plate. Enq: Parish Priest 9271 5528 or George 9272 1379.

Friday January 2

MIDNIGHT MASS

11.55pm at Glendalough Parish Church, corner Leeder and Jugan Street, celebrated by Fr David Watt, preaching on Modern Means of Communication.

Friday January 2

THE ALLIANCE, TRIUMPH AND REIGN OF THE UNITED HEARTS OF JESUS AND MARY

5.15pm at St Bernadette’s Church, Glendalough. Confessions, Mass 5.45pm, followed by exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, hourly Rosaries, hymns and reflections etc throughout the night. Vigil concludes with midnight Mass in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Enq: Fr Doug Harris 9444 6131 or Dorothy 9342 5845.

Media over-exposure bad for children’s health: many studies

Saturday, January 3

DAY WITH MARY

9am to 5pm at St. Columba Church, Almondbury and Roberts Street, Bayswater. 9am Video on Fatima. Day of prayer and instruction based on the Fatima message. Reconciliation, Holy Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, Sermons on Eucharist and Our Lady, Rosaries, Procession of the Blessed Sacrament and Stations of the Cross. BYO lunch. Enq: Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate 9250 8286.

Sunday January 4

DIVINE MERCY

1.30pm at St Joachim’s Church, Shepperton Road and Harper Street, Victoria Park. Holy Rosary and Reconciliation. Sermon with Fr Joseph Asnabun on Adoration of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament followed by Divine Mercy and Benediction. Refreshments, followed by DVD on Body and Blood of Jesus Part 3 with Fr John Corapi. Enq: John 9457 7771 or Linda 9275 6608.

Saturday January 10

ST PADRE PIO DAY OF PRAYER

8.30am at St Joachim Church, 122 Shepperton Road, Victoria Park; St Padre Pio DVD, 10am Exposition Blessed Sacrament, Rosary, Divine Mercy silent Adoration and Benediction. 11am Holy Mass, celebrant Fr Tiziano Bogoni, St Padre Pio Liturgy. Confessions available. 12noon lunch bring a plate. Tea and coffee provided. Enq: 6278 1540.

Friday January 23

MEDJUGORJE  EVENING OF PRAYER

7pm at St Joachim’s Parish, Shepperton Road, Victoria Park; an evening of prayer, commencing with Adoration, Holy Rosary, Benediction and concluding with Holy Mass. Free inspirational DVD of Fr Donald Calloway on night. All warmly welcome. Enq: Eileen 9402 2480.

Sunday January 25

PILGRIMAGE TO BOVE FARM SHRINE OF OUR LADY OF THE MOST HOLY ROSARY

Exposition, Rosary, Divine Mercy Prayers, Chaplet of Divine Mercy, and Praises of Divine Mercy. Holy Mass, celebrant Fr Douglas Harris and Fr Marcellinus Meilak, other Priests invited to concelebrate. Conclude with Divine Mercy Way of the Cross, for those able to walk the bushland. Refreshments and barbecue provided. Enq: South Perth – John 9457 7771, North Perth - Charles 9342 0653.

EVERY SUNDAY DIVINE MERCY PRAYER AS NOVENA

3pm St Aloysius Church, 84 Keightley Road, West Shenton Park, commencing 14 December, an opportunity for all to gather once a week and say the powerful Divine Mercy, Eucharistic Adoration, healing prayers followed by Holy Mass at 4pm. Enq: 9381 5383.

ACCOMMODATION NEEDED

Female overseas student aged 23, with 3 months old baby, needs accommodation and support with a family, preferably north of the river for approximately 12 months. Phone: Lydia, Pregnancy Assistance, 9328 2929.

JOSEPHITEMARY MACKILLOP 2009 C ALENDARS

Special Edition Centenary Year, of Blessed Mary MacKillop’s death. Each month has an Inspirational Quote from Mary MacKillop’s writings and a beautiful colourful scene. Too inspiring to miss out! To purchase a copy please ring the Secretary 9334 0999.

An American team found almost 1800 studies conducted since 1980 on the effects of media consumption on children. From those, they selected 173 that met certain criteria, including that they controlled for variables such as the socio-economic status of children.

In a clear majority of those studies, more time with TV, films, video games, magazines, music and the internet was

INTERPARISH SOCCER: A NOTICE TO ALL PARISHES

The young parishioners in Lockridge are interested in having soccer matches against other parishes. It is a great way for a bit of ‘friendly rivalry’; keep up fitness whilst having fun and all in a good atmosphere. Enq: 0433 646 208 or 0431 951 772.

Every 1st Thursday of the Month

PRAYER AND MEDITATION SERVICE USING SONGS FROM TAIZE

7.30pm at Our Lady of Grace, 3 Kitchener Street, North Beach. The service is a prayerful meditation in which we sing beautiful chants from Taize together, spend time in prayerful, meditative silence, bathed in candlelight reflecting upon themed readings. Enq: Beth 9447 0061.

Every First Friday and Saturday of Month

COMMUNION OF REPARATION  ALL NIGHT VIGIL

7pm Friday at Corpus Christi Church, Mosman Park, 47 Lochee Road. Mass with Fr Bogoni and concluding with midnight Mass. Confessions, Rosaries, Prayers and silent hourly adoration. Please join us for reparation to Two Hearts according to the message of Our Lady of Fatima. Enq: Vicky 0400 282 357.

Every First Friday

CATHOLIC FAITH RENEWAL

7.30pm at Sts John and Paul Church, Willetton; praise and worship, teaching and Mass offered by Fr Saminedi, then supper and fellowship. All very welcome! Enq. Maureen 9381 4498.

Every First Friday

HOLY HOUR FOR VOCATIONS TO THE PRIESTHOOD AND RELIGIOUS LIFE

7pm at Little Sisters of the Poor Chapel, 2 Rawlins Street, Glendalough. Mass celebrated by Fr Saminedi. 7.30pm, Adoration with Fr Don Kettle. All welcome. Refreshments provided.

Third Sunday of the Month

OBLATES OF ST BENEDICT MEETINGS

2pm St Joseph’s Convent, York Street, South Perth, affiliated to the Benedictine Abbey of New Norcia. All those interested in studying the rule of St Benedict, its relevance to lay people’s day-to-day life are welcome. Vespers and tea conclude meetings. Enq: 9457 5758

Every Saturday

HOLY SPIRIT OF FREEDOM CHARISMATIC PRAYER MEETING

10.30am to 12.30pm at St Peter the Apostle Church Hall, 91 Wood Street, Inglewood. All are most welcome.

Every Sunday

LATIN MASS KELMSCOTT

The Latin Mass according to the 1962 missal will be offered every Sunday at 2pm at the Good Shepherd Parish, 40-42 Streich Avenue, Kelmscott, with Rosary preceding. All welcome.

Every 4th Sunday of the Month

HOLY HOUR PRAYER FOR VOCATIONS TO THE PRIESTHOOD AND RELIGIOUS LIFE

2-3pm at Infant Jesus Church, Wellington Road, Morley. The hour includes exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. Let us implore God to rain an abundance of new life into our Church, open our hearts and those of the young people of the world to hear His Word for us now, today. All welcome! Enq: 9276 8500.

linked to rises in childhood obesity, tobacco use and sexual behaviour. A majority also showed strong correlations with drug and alcohol use and low academic achievement. There was a weaker link with attentiondeficit hyperactivity disorder. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and a non-profit, Common Sense Media, whose CEO, Jim Steyer, said: “The average parent doesn’t

Every Sunday

PILGRIM MASS

2pm at Shrine of Virgin of the Revelation, 36 Chittering Road, Bullsbrook; with Rosary and Benediction. Reconciliation is available in Italian and English. Anointing of the sick; second Sunday during Mass. Pilgrimage in honour of the Virgin; last Sunday of month. Side entrance and shrine open daily between 9am and 5pm. Enq: 9447 3292.

Every Tuesday

NOVENA TO GOD THE FATHER

7.30pm St Joachim’s Parish Hall, Shepperton Road, Victoria Park; incorporating a Bible teaching, a Perpetual Novena to God the Father and Hymns. Light refreshments will follow. Bring a Bible and a friend. Enq: Jan 9323 8089.

Every Monday

ADORATION, RECONCILIATION AND MASS

7pm at St Thomas, corner Melville and College Roads, Claremont; Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament with Evening Prayer and Benediction, spend 40 minutes quietly before our Lord for the health, faith and safety of yourself and your loved ones; Reconciliation 7.30pm, Mass and Night Prayer 8pm.

Every Sunday

MUSICIANS AND SINGERS

6pm at the Redemptorist Monastery Church, Vincent Street, North Perth; the Shalomites have been providing the music and singing for over thirty years. We are looking for new members. All interested singers and musicians welcome. Enq: Stephen or Sheelagh 9339 0619.

Every 1st Sunday of Month

DIVINE MERCY

Commencing with 3 o’clock Prayer at Santa Clara Parish, Bentley, followed by the Chaplet, reflection and Benediction. All friends and neighbouring parishes invited. Tea and coffee provided. Enq: Muriel 9458 2944.

Every 2nd Wednesday of Each Month

CHAPLETS OF THE DIVINE MERCY

7.30 pm at St Thomas More Catholic Church, Dean Road, Bateman. All welcome to a beautiful, prayerful, and sung devotion. Enq: George 9310 9493 home or 9325 2010 work.

Every Thursday

JOURNEY THROUGH THE BIBLE

7.30pm, Acts 2 College of Mission and Evangelisation, Osborne Park using The Bible Timeline; The Great Adventure can be studied towards accredited course or for interest. Resources provided. See http://www. acts2come.wa.edu.au/ or Jane 0401 692 690.

CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS

Jesuit Volunteers Australia calls for part-time volunteers to respond to the needs of people in the community who live in marginalised circumstances. At the heart of this program is a reflective process, based on Gospel values, which underpins the work of the volunteers. Enq: Kevin 9316 3469 or kwringe@iinet.net.au, www.jss.org.au

BOOK DONATIONS WANTED

We urgently need donations of Altar Vessels, Catholic books, Bibles, Divine Office, Missals, Lectionaries, Sacramentaries etc. Telephone: (08) 9293 3092.

understand that if you plop your kids down in front of the TV or computer for five hours a day, it can change their brain development, it can make them fat, and it can lead them to get involved in risky sexual activity at a young age.” He and others want the government to intervene to promote media education and more responsible behaviour by industry.

in brief...

Births, marriages, cohabitation boom in Ireland

Good news and bad news in the matched and hatched statistics from Ireland. Marriage and birth rates soared during the economic boom years of 1995 to 2006 - but so did extra-marital births and cohabitation.

And while there are more three-child families in Ireland than practically anywhere else in Europe, families on average are getting smaller.

There was a 77 per cent rise in one-child households, and a 59 per cent drop in four-child households, between 1981 and 2006. Professor Tony Fahey of University College Dublin said the increase in births in recent years suggested the state of the economy and the labour market may have a bigger impact on childbearing than the level of government support.

Overall, births were up 46 per cent.

The surge in marriages over the past decade has been partly driven by the growth in numbers of people in the 20 to 40-year age bracket, and marriages over the age of 30 are on the rise.

However, compared to the 40 per cent rise in marriages from 1995 to 2006, there was a fourfold rise in cohabitation.

There has also been a five-fold increase in marriage breakdown since 1986 - from 40,000 to 200,000 in 2006.

The percentage of births outside marriage stood at 33.2 per cent in 2006 and the average age of mothers giving birth outside marriage has risen from 22.2 years in 1980 to 27.1 in 2006.

The number of lone parent families rose by 30,000 between 2002 and 2006; today, more than one in five families with children under 15 years are headed by a lone parent.

These, and two-parent families with more than four children are most at risk of poverty, the statistics show.

Stewardship

THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT

The third Sunday of Advent brings with it the familiar theme of Joy. St Paul in today’s second reading reminds us that we should ‘rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and give thanks in all circumstances’. The Christian steward finds that a life full of joy is rooted in constant prayer and thanksgiving. “To be a Christian disciple is a rewarding way of life, a way of companionship with Jesus, and the practice of stewardship as a part of it is itself a source of deep joy. Those who live this way are happy people who have found the meaning and purpose of living.”

NCCB 1992 Pastoral Letter – Stewardship a Disciple’s Response ”

For further information on how stewardship can build your parish community, call Brian Stephens on 9422 7924.

Walking with Him Daily Mass Readings

14 S 3RD SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Vio Isa 61:1-2.10-11 The Lord’s anointing

Ps/Lk 1:46-50.53-54 My spirit rejoices

1Thess 5:16-24 Pray constantly

Jn 1:6-8.19-28 John, a witness

15 M

Vio Num 24:2-7.15-17 Far-seeing eyes

Ps 24:4-9 Your love of old

Mt 21:23-27 John’s baptism

16 T

Vio Zeph 3:1-2.9-13 A humble people

Ps 33:2-3.6-7.17-19.23 Bless the Lord

Mt 1:1-17 Sinners believe

17 W

Vio Gen 49:2.8-10

Listen to Israel

Ps 71:1-4.7-8.17 Justice shall flourish

Mt 1:1-17 Genealogy of Jesus

18 T

Vio Jer 23:5-8 A branch for David

Ps 71:1-2.12-13.18-19 Fullness of peace

Mt 1:18-24 Mary with child

19 F

Vio Jgs 13:2-7.24-25 You will conceive

Ps 70:3-6.16-17 A rock of refuge

Lk 1:5-25 Do not be afraid

20 S

Vio Isa 7:10-14 Ask for a sign

Ps 23:1-6 Reward from God

Lk 1:26-38 I am a virgin

MISSION MATTERS

Missionary reflection on the 3rd Sunday of Advent Yr B

“…A voice cries in the wilderness…” During my first month of my time as a missionary in a refugee camp, I remember being called out in the middle of the night to locate and transport a pregnant woman amongst a group of a few hundred new arrivals in the middle of the forest. Makeshift shelters of blue plastic around smouldering campfires were scattered everywhere. I was wondering how we were going to locate this woman without disturbing everyone when I heard a cry, the cry of a woman in labour. By the time I got there, another little voice was heard amidst the mother’s cry. A refugee child was born in the wilderness. I remember the mixture of joy and helplessness I felt at the scene. Please pray for children born as refugees, that their cries will resonate through the brokenness of our world to touch all hearts during this season of Advent. Mission Office 9422 7933

Subscribe!!!

Name:

Address:

Suburb:

Postcode:

Telephone:

ACCOMMODATION NEEDED

Female overseas student, 23 yo, with 3 mth old baby, needs accomm and support with a family, preferably north of the river for approx. 12 mths. Ph Lydia at Pregnancy Assistance, 9328 2929.

BUILDING TRADES

■ THE PAINTERS REG NO 5846

"We take the pain out of painting” Residential & Commercial. Phone Jim: 0412 123 630

■ BRICK REPOINTING Phone Nigel 9242 2952.

■ PERROTT PAINTING PTY LTD

For all your residential, commercial painting requirements. Phone Tom Perrott 9444 1200.

■ BRICKLAYING

20 years exp. Quality work. Ph 9405 7333 or 0409 296 598.

■ PICASSO PAINTING

Top service. Phone 0419 915 836, fax 9345 0505.

BOOK REPAIRS

■ REPAIR YOUR LITURGICAL BOOKS

General repairs to books, old bibles & missals. 2ndhand Catholic books avail. Tydewi Bindery 9293 3092.

COMPUTERS

Make the most out of your computer with oneon-one tutoring on basic IT applications like HTML, CSS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. PC maintenance also available. Call Collin on 0438 643 070.

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY

Work from home - Call 02 8230 0290, or visit website www.dreamlife1.com

HOLIDAY ACCOMODATION

■ MANDURAH

Townhouse in Resort Complex. Fully furnished. Sleeps 6. Phone 9381 3495 or email valma7@bigpond.com

■ DUNSBOROUGH

Beach cottage, 3 bedrooms, sleeps 7, 300m to Quindalup beach. Great price for Dunsborough! Tel: Sheila 9309 5071 / 0408 866 593 or email: shannons3s@optusnet.com.au

EDUCATION/COUNSELLING

Accredited experiential “Advanced Diploma of Educational Counselling” (Theology & Psychology) also relationship and faith building courses for parents and youths. Ph 9418 1439.

the Parish the Nation the World

MUSIC

■ GUITAR LESSONS

Learn to play the guitar and bring out the musician in you. Learn what you want to learn and at your own pace. Call Collin on 0438 643 070.

■ ORGAN

Yamaha El 25 in excellent condition. $2000 ono. Contact St Luke’s Parish, Woodvale 08 9409 6291

FURNITURE REMOVAL

■ ALL AREAS

Mike Murphy 0416 226 434.

PERSONALS

■ CHRISTIAN SINGLES

Widowed, divorced or never married. All age groups. Meet-for-Drinks, Dinner Seminars and Individual Dates. Phone 9472 8218. Tues-Fri 10am - 6pm. www.figtrees.com.au

RELIGIOUS PRODUCTS

■ KINLAR VESTMENTS

‘Modern meets tradition.’ Quality hand-made & decorated. Vestments, altar cloths, banners. Vickii Smith Veness. 9402 8356 or 0409 114 093.

■ CATHOLICS CORNER

Retailer of Catholic products specialising in gifts, cards and apparel for baptism, communion and confirmation. Ph: 9456 1777. Shop 12, 64-66 Bannister Road, Canning Vale. Open Mon-Sat.

■ RICH HARVEST  YOUR

CHRISTIAN SHOP

Looking for Bibles, CDs, books, cards, gifts, statues, baptism/communion apparel, religious vestments, etc? Visit us at 39 Hulme Court (off McCoy St), Myaree, 9329 9889 (after 10.30am Mon to Sat). We are here to serve.

■ OTTIMO

Shop 108 TRINITY ARCADE (Terrace Level)

671 Hay St, Perth. Ph 9322 4520. Convenient city location for a good selection of Nativity sets, cards, books, CDs, Christian gifts and fashion accessories. Opening hours 9am-6pm MondayFriday.

SETTLEMENTS

EFFECTIVE LEGAL, family owned law firm focusing on property settlements and wills. If you are buying, selling or investing in property, protect your family and your investment, contact us on (08) 9218 9177.

The Record Bookshop

Gift ideas to keep Christ inChristmas

DVD of the Week!

DEMOGRAPHIC WINTER

THE DECLINE OF THE HUMAN FAMILY

DVD: 56 MINUTES

A ground-breaking film that draws on experts in many disciplines – demographers, economists, sociologists, psychologists, civic and religious leaders, parliamentarians and diplomats – to reveal in chilling soberness the dangers facing society and the world economies, dangers far more imminent than global warming and at least as severe. For those concerned about the future and well being of our planet.

$32.95 + P/H

ADVENT AND CHRISTMAS WITH THE SAINTS

COMPILED BY ANTHONY F CHIFFOLO

This book is arranged for use on every day of the Advent and Christmas seasons. Each day’s reflection includes a scriptural quotation, a prayer and words from inspiring saints such as Francis of Assisi, St Therese of Lisieux, St John of the Cross and many more.

$19.95 + P/H

ADVENT & CHRISTMASTIDE WITH THE SAINTS

PRAYERS AND MEDITATIONS

This pocket-sized booklet is a collection of sayings drawn from biblical sources, the fathers of the Church, saints and inspiring Christians that is designed to recapture the true spirit of Christmas that has become buried under the modern-day frenzy of secularism.

$6.95 + P/H

GOSPEL CHAMPIONS A CATHOLIC ACTION ADVENTURE COMPUTER GAME

Help Zack and Mary Martha on their journey from the Garden of Eden to Peter’s prison in Jerusalem in this exciting adventure through the Old and New Testament. Encounter challenging obstacles, tasks and puzzles while learning Catholic prayers and teachings.

For ages 6 and up.

$34.95 + P/H

ADVENT AND CHRISTMAS WISDOM FROM G K CHESTERTON

This book is designed for the period of Advent with each day incorporating selected words from Chesterton as well as Scripture, a prayer and a suggested Advent Action. It provides the reader with the wisdom and insight of one of Christianity’s most spiritually enlightened writers.

$17.95 + P/H

INTRODUCTION TO THE BIBLE A CATHOLIC GUIDE TO STUDYING SCRIPTURE

By Stephen J Binz

Attentive to the many reasons Catholics give for not reading the Bible, Binz provides helpful and practical guidance designed to provide readers with insight and understanding that will draw them to the transforming power of God’s word. $12.95 + P/H

EVERY DAY OF ADVENT AND CHRISTMAS

A BOOK OF ACTIVITIES FOR CHILDREN

A delightful and fun-filled selection of puzzles, drawings, colouring-in pages, secret messages and a countdown Advent calendar that will entertain children from 4-10 while teaching them why Jesus is the true meaning of Christmas.

$7.95 + P/H

ADVENT ARTS AND CHRISTMAS CRAFTS WITH PRAYERS AND RITUALS FOR FAMILY, SCHOOL AND CHURCH

By Jeanne Heiberg

A delightful book that combines step by step instructions for creating numerous decorations and gifts for the Christmas season while simultaneously providing children and teens with a fun-filled way of becoming involved in the true celebration and meaning.

$22.95 + P/H

PRAYERS CHRISTMAS BOOK

In this beautiful book, Faith Teddy tells the story of the first CHRISTMAS. Along the way, kids are encouraged to pray and learn the importance of

$9.95 + P/H

ORTHODOX HYMNS OF CHRISTMAS

St Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary Choir CD: 19 Hymns

An inspiring collection of hymns that follows the traditional cycle of the Feast of Christ’s Nativity from preparation to celebration of the Incarnation and beyond. A beautiful and powerful presentation for those seeking to enjoy the spiritual depths of Christmas. $30.95 + P/H

The Voice of a Child CD $34.95 + P/H

POPE JOHN PAUL II

This epic film follows Karol Wojtyla’s journey from his youth in Poland through to his final days on the Chair of St Peter. John Voight’s powerful Emmy-nominated performance as John Paul II has been praised as one of his best works. Pope Benedict XVI said of this movie, “Watching this film has renewed in me a sense of profound gratitude to God for having given the Church and the world a Pope of such an exalted human and spiritual nature.”

$49.95 + P/H

FOLLOW THE STAR

$7.95

TEDDY

PRAYER!