Yesterday, Sunday 15 May, I attended the opening and consecration of the new St Francis Xavier’s Church, at Belmont. It was the third time that I have witnessed the consecration and commissioning of a place of worship for a Catholic community.
This last weekend we celebrated the feast of The Ascension, marking Jesus leaving his disciples and ascending to the Father. He left behind a rather puzzled and confused group of disciples who had just asked him “Lord, has the time come? Are you going to restore the kingdom of Israel?”.
The First Reading of the Sunday Masses of the Easter Season have been taken from the Acts of the Apostles and provide us with many insights into the life of the early Christian Church following Jesus’ Resurrection and Ascension and the descent of the Holy Spirit on the disciples.
As we welcome everyone back to the second term of the school year, I am struck by the fact that the commemoration of our ANZAC traditions has bookended our term one school holidays. Term one ended with schools engaging in various activities to honour our servicemen and servicewomen, and our return to school and commencement of Term 2 follows the commemoration services held in our communities.
This week we reach the end of the first school Term, and many of us will be looking forward to the opportunity for a break from the rigours of school life. As usual, Term 1 has been a particularly busy one with the celebration of Lent, Holy Week and Easter being a major influence on the life of our schools and Catholic Schools Office.
This week we celebrate the great mystery of the life of Jesus Christ − as the Son of God and as a truly human being − through the celebrations of Palm Sunday, the Last Supper, his crucifixion and death on the cross and his triumphant resurrection.