Archbishop’s Liturgical Service

2 NOVEMBER 2021 Archbishop’s Liturgical Service

for Parish Priests & Appeal Representatives in advance of The Archbishop’s Christmas Appeal for LifeLink

Archbishop Costelloe SDB, joined by Auxiliary Bishop Donald Sproxton (Chairman, LifeLink), Rev Fr Peter Whitely (Vicar General) and Rev Dr Sean Fernandez (Dean, St Mary’s Cathedral) warmly welcomed more than 140 parish priests, parish representatives and invited guests to a special Liturgical Service at St Mary’s Cathedral.

Archbishop Timothy said: “I am so grateful to the parish priests and parish appeal representatives who made time to join Bishop Sproxton and me for this event, particularly given it was All Souls and Melbourne Cup Day. This annual Service is an opportunity for Bishop Don and I to thank everyone for the wonderful support they provide in helping to make this appeal possible each year, and most importantly, for us to join together to reflect on and pray for people struggling in our community who rely on our Church agencies for help.”

In his speech for the occasion, Archbishop Costelloe emphasised that we need disciples who are faithful and faith-filled. “This has always been what God is asking of us as members of His Church. The challenge comes in delving more deeply into the question of what being faithful actually looks like and what being faith-filled actually looks like. To be a faithful Christian it is essential that we are as committed to the way of Jesus as we are to the truth proclaimed by Jesus. And the way of Jesus is found primarily in an ever-deepening understanding of the way Jesus acts when he encounters people in the many and varied concrete realities of their own situations.”

“Firstly, and most importantly, it is an invitation to each of us to recognise that it is our encounters with those in need, our presence to them, will be life changing for them, irrespective of how much or how little financial assistance we can offer them. This is true of everybody who seeks to walk in the way of Jesus.

But each person’s capacity and opportunity to engage directly with those in need depends on that person’s own unique situation. The support of our LifeLink agencies is a second and very significant way in which we can support those who, in a very real sense on our behalf, do encounter in very real and concrete ways, those in our society who are lost, or lonely, or despairing.

It is those who work in our LifeLink agencies who, on our behalf, look into the eyes of those in need with the compassion, the understanding and the acceptance of Jesus, who does not seek to condemn or to blame, but only to encourage, to support, to lift up and to accompany on the journey to a more hope-filled future. We must live by the truth of Jesus, and as we do so we must also walk in the way of Jesus.

Holding these two things together we will become what we are supposed to be: signs and bearers of the new life which is the Lord’s gift to everyone. ‘I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life,’ said Jesus. It is through us that he seeks to be this in the Church and in our society still today,” he said.

LifeLink Manager, Brett Mendez, said without the enthusiastic and generous support of parish priests and parishioners, this appeal would simply not be possible. “More than 60 per cent of the funding which the Archdiocese provides for our social outreach agencies each year is provided through the gifts made to the Christmas Appeal. It is fitting that we celebrate Pope Francis “World Day of the Poor” on our appeal launch weekend.

As Pope Francis included in his message to us this year “The World Day of the Poor should help local churches evangelise by meeting the poor personally wherever they may be.

We cannot wait for the poor to knock on our door; we need urgently to reach them in their homes, in hospitals and nursing homes, on the streets and in the dark corners where they sometimes hide, in shelters and reception centres’. It is important to understand how they feel, what they are experiencing and what their hearts desire,” he said.

The Archbishop’s Christmas Appeal was launched throughout the Archdiocese on the weekend of 13/14 November 2021.

The Archbishop’s video message can be found on the LifeLink website – www.lifelink.com.au – where you may also donate securely online. Gifts over $2 are tax deductible.