What a contrast there is between last Sunday’s Gospel, when Peter was proclaimed the ‘rock’ on which the church would be built, and this Sunday when Jesus rebukes him for being a different kind of rock - a ‘stumbling block’! Can a stumbling block become a stepping stone on the path to life? Read more & download Lectio Divina for this Sunday.

Celebrating At Home 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time PDF
Celebrating At Home 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time EPUB

You can join with the Jamberoo Lay Carmelites on Tuesday 1 September at 2.00pm for the World Day of Prayer for Creation. It will be a one hour prayerful, meditative way to pray for our planet, to ask God’s blessing on the minds and hearts of us all, to encourage us to help turn around the destruction and damage being done, and to care for the place we love so much which we call HOME, planet Earth.

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The first day of Spring is coming up and the Season of Creation is upon us, commencing with the World Day of Prayer for Creation on Tuesday 1 September.

This month we give our attention to our planet Earth; to marvel at God’s creation and to wonder and ask ourselves how we can Care for our Common Home. Peter Thomas invites us to give some thought to our planet’s early beginnings and down through the ages.

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Join the 2020 Season of Creation - a time for Christians to come together, take action, and show the world what love for creation looks like. The Season of Creation, 1 September – 4 October, is a time to renew our relationship with our Creator and all creation through repenting, repairing, and rejoicing together. This year, amid crises that have shaken our world, we’re awakened to the urgent need to heal our relationships with creation and each other. “This is the season for letting our prayer be inspired anew by closeness to nature  . . . to reflect on our lifestyles . . . for undertaking prophetic actions . . . directing the planet towards life, not death.” Pope Francis Visit the website  |  Watch the video

Meeting people wearing masks can be a bit of a challenge. Often it’s hard enough to correctly match names and faces. Now, when half the face is covered, that challenge seems to have doubled. Who is that behind the mask?

There’s a similar sense of confusion at the beginning of this Sunday’s gospel. Who is Jesus?  All sorts of answers emerge when Jesus asks the disciples who other people think he is. Then he asks the disciples who they think he is. It’s Peter who blurts out his answer, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God”. Read more.

At this point in St Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus and his chosen ones have travelled and lived together for some time. He now invites them to explore what they understand about his identity: Who do people say the Son of Man is? The disciples tell Jesus what they have heard from others: John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah or one of the prophets. Jesus then asks the disciples, “But, who do you say I am?” Read more & download Lectio Divina for this Sunday.

Celebrating At Home for 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time PDF   
Celebrating At Home for 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time iPhone & iPad

We have a variety of online opportunities for you during August and September. Lectio Divina, Meditation, Centering Prayer, Spiritual Direction and Pastoral Supervision. As well, we have 2 sessions exploring the writings of Fr Richard Rohr on You are the Body of Christ and Judy Racz explores the Mystical Teachings of the Jewish Tradition. Read more.

One thing we are very good at as human beings is spotting differences rather than similarities. We do it all the time. Often, instead of seeing the human person in front of us, we take an inventory of all the ways they are different to us. The problem is that we actually don’t see the person, only the differences of skin colour, facial features, gender, dress, hair styles and so on. And pretty soon we have arrived at a judgement which almost never changes. We so often identify others by how they are different to us instead of all the ways in which they are the same as us. Read more.

Today’s Gospel marks a turning point in the ministry of Jesus. He sees himself as sent ‘only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel’. That is, to those who were deemed sinners because they could not keep the Law of Moses, and were considered beyond the care and concern of God by religious authorities. Read more & download Lectio Divina for this Sunday.

Celebrating At Home for 20 Sunday in Ordinary Time PDF   
Celebrating At Home for 20 Sunday in Ordinary Time iPhone & iPad

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Assumption of Mary into heaven at the end of her life. It is a great feast of hope because it celebrates God’s plan that, like Mary, we are destined to share the same glory of heaven, through Christ’s resurrection.

“Like Mary, we too must accept God in our hearts and carry him in our hearts, nourish him and make him grow in us so that he is born of us and lives with us as the God-with-us, Emmanuel.” Blessed Titus Brandsma, O.Carm.

On the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (16 July) Brs José and Anacleto renewed their vows for another year during Morning Prayer in our community at Middle Park (VIC). Fr Paul Cahill (Prior Provincial) received their vows. On 19 July Brs Amandio, Narcizio, Silvestre, Agostinho and Frangelino renewed their vows during Mass in our community in Hera, Timor-Leste. Fr Carlito Da Costa Araújo (Provincial Delegate for Timor-Leste) received the vows on behalf of Fr Paul who was unable to be present due to coronavirus restrictions. Congratulations, brothers! See photos

Sometimes it can feel like we are sinking beneath the waves in these terrible times. Every day our news services are telling us how we are being swamped by the number of coronavirus cases, buffeted by potential economic disaster and failures in our healthcare system. It’s easy to lose faith and heart.

There is a strong sense of being swamped and sinking in this Sunday’s Gospel, too. The disciples are out on a boat in the middle of a storm. The seas are pitching and rolling as they battle the wind. Anxiety is growing. Jesus appears, walking on the water. For the moment, fear is forgotten. Is this vision really Jesus, they ask. Read more

Trust is an essential element in the formation of our faith and in any relationship we have with others. This section of St Matthew’s Gospel is about the Kingdom of God being seen in the Church when human needs are responded to with the life of God. Read more & download Lectio Divina for this Sunday.

Celebrating At Home for 19 Sunday in Ordinary Time PDF   
Celebrating At Home for 19 Sunday in Ordinary Time iPhone & iPad

As we struggle with the uncertainty and, for many, distress and sickness, we are constantly reminded of the importance of just how connected we are as a human family and how what might seem like minor actions on the part of one person can have a profound impact on the lives of many. In particular in this difficult time our ageing relatives and friends become more precious; our prayers and consciousness are directed to their needs. 

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It’s a natural question to ask, faced as we are with a pandemic showing few signs of being overcome. Some Christians are suggesting lengthy prayers and acts of penance to turn the wrath of God’s angry punishment away from us. That will save us, they say. Pope Francis says it’s the wrong way to look at what is happening. God is not punishing his beloved sons and daughters. God’s will is never about punishment.

I think we are often blind to the hidden presence of God. God is deeply enfolded in, often hidden in human beings, human activity and human situations - just as God ‘hid’ himself in Jesus when he became a human person. Read more

This week’s Gospel is the beginning of a new section of St Matthew’s Gospel which talks about the Kingdom of God on earth and the Church as a visible sign of the Kingdom. The Kingdom is found where human beings are. It is deeply enfolded and immersed in the world of human experience: hunger, fear, disease, the sound of sheer silence, celebration, joy, hope, forgiveness, mercy, justice, in hearing and keeping the word of God. Read more & download Lectio Divina for this Sunday.

Celebrating At Home for 18 Sunday in Ordinary Time PDF   
Celebrating At Home for 18 Sunday in Ordinary Time iPhone & iPad

What would you be prepared to do to see life return to normal, the pandemic ended, freedoms restored? That’s the question being put to us every day in this experience. Some people don’t want to let go of anything, don’t want to wear masks, don’t want to socially distance, just want to hold on to what they did before the virus. The issue of holding on and letting go is very much at the heart of the Gospel this Sunday. Read more & download Lectio Divina for this Sunday.

Celebrating At Home for 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time PDF
Celebrating At Home for 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time iPhone & iPad

The funeral for Fr Leo (Patrick) Harney will be celebrated tomorrow, Friday 24 July. Due to Coronavirus restrictions we are unable to invite you to share with us in person but you can join us via live stream at http://tobin.5stream.com/webcast/55715 from 10.00am.

Thank you for your many messages of sympathy and for your tributes to Fr Pat. He was loved and admired by so many. May he rest in peace.

Today’s Gospel parable is a parable about wheat and darnel growing together in a field. Apparently darnel, a weed, looks so similar to wheat that it is almost impossible to tell the two apart until the ears appear at harvest time. The parable urges patience and to leave final judgement to God. What appears to be darnel may yet turn out to be wheat. Only time will tell. Read more & download Lectio Divina for this Sunday.

Celebrating At Home for 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time PDF
Celebrating At Home for 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time for iPhone & iPad

"We have lived with restrictions and with some fear now for many months. Families are grieving. Hospitals are still taking care of victims of the virus. Doctors, nurses and the whole medical profession and staff have shown all their dedication, professionalism and zeal, beyond the call of duty. People have made sacrifices to make sure there was bread on our tables, and as everywhere people are counting the toll that the virus has taken on their lives through bereavement, illness, loss of employment and livelihood, we might say that we are seeing an explosion of humanity." Fr Míceál O’Neill, Prior General of the Carmelites has written to the Carmelite Family for the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Read the full letter  |  pdf Download the letter. (138 KB)