The movie “Alive” which came out in 1993, featuring John Malcovich and Ethan Hawke, is about the Uruguayan Rugby Team whose plane crashed on the side of the Andes and a lot of their team mates died, together with the pilots and the flight attendants.
The Palm Island community marked the 100th anniversary of the first Mass on the island recently, in a joyful celebration of culture and faith.
Townsville Bishop Timothy Harris was chief celebrant at the anniversary Mass, celebrated on the Feast of Sts Joachim and Anne, and marking 100 years since the first Mass was said in a classroom by Dr Kelly, the Parish Priest of Ingham, North Queensland, in 1924.
The recent formal approval of the Mass of the Land of the Holy Spirit by Australia’s bishops has been welcomed as a ‘big moment’ not only for the Indigenous Catholic communities of the Broome Diocese, where it originated, but also for other First Nations communities around the country.
Australia’s Catholic bishops have approved a liturgy which incorporates elements of Aboriginal language and culture.
Sometimes I ponder what sin I regularly commit? We commit sins “in my thought, in my word and in what I have done” as we often confess and ask for God’s forgiveness before Mass.
A beautiful surprise awaited Fr Francois d’Assise Andrianihantana SVD when he finally returned to his home in Madagascar to celebrate his post-ordination Thanksgiving Mass – nine months after he was ordained a priest in Melbourne and three years since he last saw his family.
The COVID pandemic had prevented Fr Francois from returning home earlier, but when he arrived back in his home village, those difficulties melted away as he was met by all the children of his village, singing a special song, composed by his mother.
Almost two years after his priestly ordination in Melbourne, Fr Clement Baffoe SVD was finally able to return to his home village in Ghana to celebrate his Thanksgiving Mass with family, friends and parish community members.
Fr Clement, who was assigned to the SVD Australia Province, and is currently serving in the Ministerial Region of the Good Shepherd in Townsville, Queensland, says the trip back home, after the long pandemic separation, was a graced opportunity to give thanks to God.
Today we celebrate a feast that is central to our faith. We celebrate the real presence of Christ in the bread and the wine that we consume during Mass. We believe that after the priest says the words of consecration during Mass, the bread ceases to become bread and it becomes the body of Christ.
For the first thousand years of Christianity, bishops, priests, and all the faithful would talk about the Christian Community as the “real” body and blood of Christ.
Divine Word Missionary communities throughout the AUS Province and the world have had much to celebrate in January, with the commemoration of two SVD saints – St Arnold Janssen and St Joseph Freinademetz.
St Arnold’s feast day was on January 15, the date of his death in 1909 in Steyl, Holland. He was the founder of the Divine Word Missionaries, as well as two orders of Religious Women, the Servant Sisters of the Holy Spirit and the Servants of the Holy Spirit of Perpetual Adoration.
It was an emotional moment for Fr Prakash Menezes SVD when, after weeks of celebrating Mass in front of a phone camera at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart church in Alice Springs, he was finally able to look out and see his parishioners again.
The Northern Territory government relaxed its COVID-19 restrictions on Friday, May 15, and that very same day Fr Prakash celebrated Mass for the people.
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