Special Christmas Edition Our Cathedral The Newsletter of St Mary’s Cathedral, Perth, Western Australia Issue 8 - December 2013 Print Post Approved PP609481/000029 Embrace the Spirit of Christmas at St Mary’s Cathedral A Christmas Message Most Rev Timothy Costelloe SDB Archbishop of Perth Dear Friends, In a recent and in some ways rather startling interview which Pope Francis gave to a magazine in Italy, and which has been translated into many languages since, the Holy Father offered a very beautiful and very challenging image for an understanding of the role of the Church in today’s world. I see the Church,” he said, “as a field hospital after battle. It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and about the level of his blood sugars! You have to heal his wounds. Then we can talk about everything else. Heal the wounds, heal the wounds … And you have to start from the ground up”. The Pope also adds in this same interview that “the thing the Church most needs today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful. It (the Church) needs nearness, proximity… I have been personally very moved by these words and am trying to take them to heart as a programme for my own role as Archbishop of Perth. At the same time I would like to offer them as words of advice and encouragement to all of us. Particularly as we celebrate the great feast of Christmas I would like to suggest that the very best gift we can give to others, both family and friends, is the healing of wounds and the warming of hearts. We live in a beautiful world but it is a world, and a society, that is also deeply wounded. We carry some of those wounds in our own hearts and, even more tragically, we can be the cause of pain and suffering for others, even those we love the most. Sometimes it is in our own families that wounds most need healing and hearts most need warming. Christmas Eve Christmas Day Tuesday, 24 December 2013 Wednesday, 25th December 2013 6.00pm Children’s Mass Christmas Day Masses Children are asked to bring 8.00am a gift of non-perishable food for the 9.30am needy and dress-up as angels, shepherds 11.00am or other biblical figures. 5.00pm 9.00pm Vigil Mass Other Churches in the Cathedral Parish: For people wanting to celebrate a night Mass, but find Midnight Mass a little late. St Catherine’s, Bedford Avenue, Subiaco Christmas Day - 8.30am Mass 12.00am Midnight Mass Preceded by Lessons and Carols St Francis Xavier, Windsor Street, Perth 10.30pm – 11.30pm. Christmas Day - 9.30am Mass 2 from the Archbishop Christmas is a time when we remember that God has come near to us in Jesus, precisely to heal our wounds and warm our hearts. In the new born baby lying in the manger we see what it means to say that God loves us and that love is expressed in closeness, as love always is. God wants to be so close to us, in fact, that he becomes one of us, sharing in everything that is ours as human beings, except sin of course, and in turn inviting us to share everything that is his. The early Christians, reflecting on this, used to say with great boldness that God became one of us so that we might become one with God. This is why, in the Gospel of Matthew, the new born child is given the name “Emmanuel”, a name which means “God is with us” (Matthew 1:23). As this little child, born in the stable of Bethlehem, grows up and begins his life’s work he will describe that work in this way: “to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, to give sight to the blind, to set the downtrodden free, and to announce a year of favour from the Lord” (Luke 4:18-19). This is what it means, of course, to heal wounds and warm hearts. The four gospels are full of stories in which Jesus does precisely this. Sometimes he heals physical wounds, as when he restored the sight of the man born blind (John 9:1-40). Often he heals the deeper, spiritual wounds, as when he forgave Peter after Peter had denied him three times (John 21:15-17). In both cases, and in so many others, he warmed hearts that had grown cold and hard through fear, rejection, suffering or despair. Because we, as Christians, are followers of Jesus, we too are called to heal wounds and warm hearts just as he did. The giving of gifts at Christmas can be both a sign and a practical way of bringing warmth and healing into people’s lives. It all depends of course on whether the gifts we give really are an expression of what lies in our own hearts. If we want to be close to others, if we want to bring wholeness and joy to their lives, if we want to set them free from whatever is oppressing or troubling them, and we express this through our gift-giving, then we are the healers God is calling us to be. And of course, because it is what lies in our hearts rather than what lies under the wrapping paper that really matters, we will want to be and try to be “healers of wounds and warmers of hearts” not just on Christmas Day but every day. This is my wish and prayer for all of you at Christmas. May it be a time of deep happiness, of reconciliation and peace, and of joyful hope for the future. A happy and holy Christmas to you all. Yours sincerely, +Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB Archbishop of Perth 3 UWA School of Music celebrates with a performance at the Cathedral - 23rd August Contents The Dean’s Diary Forthcoming activities and events at St Mary’s Cathedral. NOVEMBER A Christmas Message from the Archbishop Pg 2 Sun 17th - 11am Mass: Equestrian Order of Holy See - Visiting Cardinal DECEMBER A Christmas Message from the Dean Pg 5 Sun 1st - Mon 9th - 7.30pm Novena - Immaculate Conception World Youth Day Commissioning Mass Pg 6 Mon 9th - 7pm Centenary of Archdiocese and Re-Consecration of the Archdiocese to the Immaculate Conception, Patroness of the Cathedral A Warm Welcome from the Dean Pg 7 Tue 10th - 6pm Graduation Mass - Notre Dame University Thurs 12th - 6pm Pregnancy Assistance Mass Spanning the Road Pg 8 FEBRUARY Tue 11th - 4.30pm Catholic Education Staff Mass St Mary’s Cathedral Welcomes a new Pg 9 Branch of Young Leaders Tue 18th - 6pm Mercedes College Family Mass MARCH 2013 Catholic Performing Arts Festival Pg 10 Tue 11th - 7.30pm Rite of Election for RCIA APRIL Archbishop Clune CSsR ‘Welcomed Home’ Pg 12 Tue 15th - 7pm Chrism Mass Thurs 17th - 7pm Mass of The Lord’s Supper Farewell to Sr Dolores Coffey RSM Pg 16 Fri 18th - 10am Good Friday - Stations of the Cross Fri 18th - 2.30pm Good Friday - The Seven Last Words National Marriage Day Mass Pg 17 Fri 18th - 3pm Good Friday - Mass Sat 19th - 7pm Easter Vigil Statue of Our Lady of Fatima Visitation Pg 18 Sun 20th Easter Sunday Masses - 8am, 9.30am, 11am, 5pm UWA School of Music Performance Pg 19 Ordination of Rev Fr Brennan Sia Pg 20 Confirmation in the Cathedral Pg 21 We wish to thank and acknowledge Rev Fr Robert Cross forSpecial the use of many Acknowledgements of the photos in this issue. Support “Our” Appeal Pg 22 We would also like to thank and acknowledge The Record Newspaper for many of the articles herein. Archbishop Thanks Parish Priests Pg 23 Other specific acknowledgements have been identified & Appeal Representatives on the appropriate page or image. 4 A Christmas Message from the Dean Rev Monsignor Michael Keating Dean, St Mary’s Cathedral, Perth Dear Friends, It is a real privilege for any priest to serve in St Mary’s Cathedral, Perth. Every Sunday, we see the Church Universal as it were. People of all ages and of all nationalities come to worship here. During lunch time on Sundays my assistant priests and I often share with the Archbishop, stories of the variety of people we have met as we stand at the front doors to greet them after the Masses. We welcome people from South American Countries such as Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela as well as people from the USA, Mexico and Canada. We see travellers from Africa and Europe – countries such as Italy, England, Ireland, Germany and France, as well as so many people from Asia - the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, China, India and so on. This is the Church ‘Catholic’. Regardless of where we live, how we live, the language we speak, the colour of our skin… United by Faith, we are indeed ‘One Catholic Family’. Everyone is welcome at St Mary’s Cathedral. We welcome people of all religions, all faiths, to join us in peace and friendship. Christmas at St Mary’s Cathedral is perhaps one of my most favourite times of the year, as thousands come to honour the birth of Jesus. It is truly uplifting to welcome so many people from Perth, interstate and around the world, all of whom come to embrace the real ‘Spirit of Christmas’. It’s lovely to see the families who come to each of our Christmas Masses – Mums and Dads, Grandmothers and Grandfathers, Aunts and Uncles, Brothers and Sisters, friends and loved ones.