Gaudate. Rejoice!

This third Sunday of Advent is the day on which the rose-coloured candle on the Advent wreath is lit.  Tap this link to find out more about this Gaudate Sunday.

Advent III

The priests of the diocese continue to savour the graces of their retreat last month.  Many people of the diocese also heard Fr. Robert Barron at the public lecture.  Today you might appreciate his insights as he reflects on the readings for the Third Sunday of Advent.

Advent III.    Fr. Robert Barron

OLV school

This Sunday (11 December @ the 10.00am Mass) our parish hosts the school community for an end-of-year school Mass.  The 10.00am Mass will be followed by a gathering of parishioners and the school students, teachers and families in the presbytery garden.

It has been an extraordinarily difficult year. Someone commented to me that there has not been a year as difficult and disruptive to city life since the war. That is undoubtedly true. Our prayer is that these difficult days are now past. We pray for stability in the earth, and even more we turn to God for stability, peace and joy in every event and moment of our lives.

It has been encouraging to see our city community (with support from around the country and the world), and the smaller communities within the city, working together throughout the year to support and rebuild.  We have seen many examples of this in our own parish and school community.

In this our Catholic community has a significant advantage over secular institutions and schools. We do not simply rely on the goodness and generosity of people. We turn to God, and to the life of God gifted to us through the sacramental life of the Catholic Church.

This gift of God is the heart of the life of a Catholic school. A Catholic school exists to communicate the life of God using the teachings and tools of the Catholic faith.

It was the Sisters of Mercy who founded our parish school in 1956.  They lived at the VIlla Maria convent where their lives centred on God. They began every day with prayer and Mass in the chapel. Each day concluded in the chapel.  Throughout the day they took moments and minutes to remind their students that everything depended on God. 

Twenty years later, in the mid 1970’s, the NZ schools Integration Act defined this special character of a Catholic school: 

"a Roman Catholic School in which the whole school community, through the general school programme and in its' Religious instructions and observances, exercises the right to live and teach the values of Jesus Christ. These values are as expressed in the Scriptures and in the practices, worship and doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church, as determined from time to time by the Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Christchurch."

As we come to the end of this school year it is timely for us to remember that our school is a treasure. This treasure has been entrusted to us by earlier Catholic generations. Their generosity built this school. Today we govern, manage and support our school on behalf of our bishop who owns the school.

It is my prayer that at the end of this challenging year, the school community rests well and returns refreshed to continue God’s work in this place in 2012.

ad limina

Today Bishop Barry leaves NZ for the "ad limina" visit to Rome. There, with the other bishops of New Zealand, he will meet with the pope and with the offices of the curia.

Bishop Pat Dunn of Auckland has 'podcasted' this interview on the purpose and experience of the ad limina visit.

Podcast - The Bishop Reflects

Welcome to the first official Diocesan podcast! In each episode, Lyndsay Freer will conduct a conversation with the Bishop about topics relevant to his ministry and the Church in Auckland.

The first episode discusses the Bishop's ad-limina visit, as he prepares to leave for Rome.



Use the flash controls above to play the podcast, or click here to download the file (MP3, 7.4MB)




Copied from (and also hearable at) the website for the Catholic Diocese of Auckland

Advent: praying in the car

I have found the car to be a great 'monastic cell' for prayer. This is probably helpful since my appointment to North Canterbury will give me a lot more 'car-time' next year.  

The red traffic light encourages me to be still even more. I can spend the minutes at the red light frustrated at the slow change. OR, I can turn off the radio and take two or three minutes of stillness and silence.

Fr. Robert Barron (retreat preacher for the Christchurch priests last week) offers this reflection:

time for change

This is not the ideal way to break this news, so here goes...

I received a call from the bishop a few days ago asking if I would be willing to accept a new appointment next year to the parishes of North Canterbury. 

There was no pressure from the bishop at all, and he understood that this would be a significant wrench for me. But I said yes. This means that at the end of January I will begin as Parish Priest of the three North Canterbury parishes. (Cheviot, Hanmer Springs and Hawarden, with their seven churches).

I have always had a concern for the rural areas of our diocese. If there were no Mass on a Sunday at Our Lady of VIctories, the people of the parish have a choice of almost sixty Sunday Masses within the city boundaries every Sunday. The people in the rural areas of our diocese are often not as fortunate.

Having said that, the bishop's call last week was a completely unexpected surprise. I have spent twelve years as the Parish Priest of Our Lady of Victories. We have grown together a lot and through much. I will not find it easy to leave the people of this parish. The one year I have been PP of St. Joseph's Darfield has also been a privilege.

But I am a priest of the diocese rather than a particular parish primarily. So I am happy to receive this new and challenging appointment.

Unfortunately (despite an embargo) the news of this change 'leaked' in a couple of other parishes last weekend. As a result my plans for letting you know in good time and personally are not able to happen. I am sorry about that. 

I will be replaced here at Our Lady of Victories by Fr. Michael Pui who is presently Parish Priest of Kaiapoi.  The Assistant priest will be Fr. Paolo Filoiali-i  (presently PP of Hornby). He will continue to reside in Hornby and remain as PP of Hornby.

Fr. Michael has also been appointed as PP of Darfield (also to replace me). This appointment to Darfield is for one year until the new parishes are created (Hornby joining with Sockburn & Darfield joining with Leeston and Lincoln).

I am happy to remain as Parish Priest of Chatham Islands.

Let us pray that this transition for both priests and people happens easily and happily for all.

Blessings

John




Christchurch Diocese Clergy Changes for 2012

To the existing parishes of:

            Kaiapoi       Reverend Denis Nolan   Parish Priest

                             Reverend Augustine Palayal   Assistant Priest

                             (Father Denis will reside in Rangiora,

                              Father Augustine will reside in Kaiapoi)

Rangiora                 Reverend Denis Nolan   Parish Priest

                             Reverend Augustine Palayal   Assistant Priest

                             (Father Denis will reside in Rangiora,

                             Father Augustine will reside in Kaiapoi)

Sockburn                Reverend Michael Pui   Parish Priest

                             Reverend Paulo Filoiali-i   Assistant Priest

                            (Father Paulo will continue as Parish Priest of Hornby and reside in Hornby)

           

North Canterbury     Reverend John C O’Connor   Parish Priest

                             Chatham Islands        

Addington               Reverend John Craddock SM Parish Priest from May 2012

                             Reverend John Jolliffe SM Administrator February–May 2012 

To the new parishes of:

Cathedral               Reverend Christopher Friel   Administrator

                             Reverend Christopher Orr     Assistant Priest

Woolston                Reverend Daniel Doyle   Parish Priest

                        
Mairehau                 Reverend Simon Eccleton   Parish Priest

                             Reverend Job Thyikalamuriyil    Assistant Priest

                                                     (Father Job will reside at Burwood)

New Brighton          Reverend Bryan Parish   Parish Priest

Bryndwr                 Reverend Rick Loughnan   Parish Priest

Timaru and Waimate      Reverend Peter Costello   Parish Priest

                                    Reverend Kevin Foote   Assistant Priest

Opihi                            Reverend Brian Fennessy   Parish Priest

Mackenzie                  Reverend Jim Nicholas   Parish Priest

Please note the new parishes will come into existence by decree on 25 January, 2012.

Fr. Robert Barron in ChCh

A number of the priests of our diocese are on retreat in Christchurch this week.  The retreat is being led by Fr. Robert Barron, a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago.

He will give a lecture in Christchurch on Wednesday night. (details below)

Fr. Barron is well known as a sound and articulate theologian, and communicator of the beauty of the life of Catholic faith.

Have a look at his website www.wordonfire.org

and a couple of youtube clips. The first is the trailer promoting his new TV series "Catholicism"

and an introduction to Jerusalem

and an introduction to the Season of Advent:

Pass this blog-link on to whoever you think might be interested in attending Wednesday evening's Christchurch lecture.

Wednesday 30 November 2011, 7:30 pm 

@ Christ the King Parish Centre

NOTE NOT THURSDAY (as I blogged earlier) but WEDNESDAY

(the Thursday evening lecture is clergy only).