Good Friday reflection
Scientists have been able to use DNA from skeletons in
London, to reveal secrets from the Black Death. In one
case they were able to determine that a man had been
breast-fed as a baby, had moved to London from
another part of England, suffered bad tooth decay in
his childhood, worked as a labourer, and died in early
adulthood from bubonic plague!
The Black Death or plague, is thought to have killed
at least 75 million people, including more than half
of Britain’s population, mostly within a two year
period in the 14th century. There have been further
outbreaks including a serious outbreak in the 17th
century. Isolated cases still occur today. It is very
difficult to imagine what it must have been like to have people in your family or
work place, dropping dead, literally, all around you. How could you have hope? A
popular belief at the time was ‘This is the end of the world’.

The Afternoon of Christianity: The courage to change by Tomáš Halík,
A review of the book by Dr John Saxbee (Retired Anglican bishop of Lincoln)
“‘We have empty hands and empty nets, we worked all
night and caught nothing,’ said the tired and
frustrated Galilean fishermen to the wandering
preacher standing on the shore. Many Christians in a
large part of our western world have similar feelings at
this time. Churches are being emptied, and tens of
thousands are leaving the Church.
The Christian faith no longer confronts militant atheism or harsh persecution,
which might awaken and mobilise believers, but instead there is a far greater
danger — indifference.”
Tomáš Halík, a Czech Roman Catholic priest and psychotherapist, might be seen as
just another purveyor of a long list of woes, forecasting, the terminal decline of
religious belief and practice. But Halík’s challenge to organised religion, in general,
and the Roman Catholic Church, in particular, is gilded with hope for the future of
faith predicated on affirming, and fanning into a flame, a hunger for spirituality
seemingly at odds with the siren voices of secularism.

The stories behind the names
Behind the names of the persons listed regularly there are stories that are not told
for personal or privacy reasons. These include spouses caring for their loved one
suffering from illness, disease or the effects of ageing. Their loving care is
inspirational. here are some whose names do not appear among those we
publically pray for, at the request of relatives, so just our Passionist community
prays for them.
It was a great delight to see Errol Lovett (in a wheel chair) at Michael O’Callaghan’s
funeral. It is sad when because of illness, some who have worshipped with us for
many years like Tina Molinaro, Maureen Charnley and Rod Smith, are unable now
to come to Mass. John Mignone is one of the most recent in this situation.

Funerals: Paul Darbyshire and Michael O’Callaghan
Over the past week we have celebrated the funerals of two significant men, both of whom had great faith and a great sense of humour. Paul was aged 65 and Michael, 93. Paul and Linda met when he was 17 and she was 15, and they married four years later. Despite their young age they were married for nearly 45 years. Michael and Joan also met when they were young, and he was 26 and Joan (a bit younger!) when they married, just a little short of 65 years ago. We give thanks for such witness to life, love, laughter, family and faith.

Attitude
“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company...a church....a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.
We cannot change our past...we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude...I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you...we are in charge of our attitudes.” (Anonymous)

Passionists a good fit for Phi
Written by Jenny Brinkworth from Adelaide Archdiocese ‘Southern Cross’

Fr Phi in the Sacred Garden at The Monastery prior to his ordination on March 8.

“His journey to the priesthood has not been as smooth as some but Cao Anh Phi’s perseverance and commitment was rewarded when he was ordained in Adelaide this month”.
A time of joy for the Passionists of Holy Spirit Province and the parish of St Paul of the Cross, his ordination by Archbishop Patrick O’Regan fittingly took place on March 8, the first Saturday of Lent. With the charism of the Passionists founded on the Passion and Death of Jesus, the timing of his ordination wasn’t lost on Phi as he spoke to The Southern Cross ahead of the big day.
“It’s very special,” he said. “As far as I know I’m the first Passionist priest from Vietnam to be ordained during Lent.” Equally special will be his first Thanksgiving Mass on March15th in his home village of Buon Ho Town in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. More than 800 people are expected at the Mass. This will be followed by three weeks of celebrations with family, friends and fellow Passionists.

Commemoration of the Passion
On the Friday before Ash Wednesday, Passionists celebrate the feast of the Commemoration of the Passion. Paul of the Cross was able to get Pope Pius 6th to agree to this feast, which Paul wanted in order to reflection the joy and hope of the cross and passion, before Lent began, rather than the usual focus on suffering and pain, highlighted especially on Good Friday.

We were delighted to have Joachim Rego join us for a special Chris Monaghan dinner include Bombe Alaska! Joachim completed two terms as General of the Passionist Congregation last October and is now living in Marrickville. We also welcomed good friends Sandra and George Johnson, and our brothers from Donvale, Kevin Hennessy and Luke Bully.

St Gabriel’s festa
The feast of St Gabriel is celebrated on February 27th, and with the customary hard work and planning of the local St Gabriel’s Committee, Holy Cross celebrated the St Gabriel’s festa last Sunday, with other devotional events that always precede the big day. To increase the attraction, an array of vintage cars were on display.

Unfortunately, I was away in Vietnam, and although the celebration went ahead, a deep sadness is that our friend Bruno Petrocco who has been the driving force behind this annual celebration, suffered an injury on Saturday while helping with the set up for the big event, and while in typical fashion he soldiered on with the preparations and participated on the day, he required hospital treatment on Sunday afternoon. He has remained in hospital without visitors. He did suffer a head injury, and while brain scans were clear, he has remained heavily sedated this week. Bruno also has four broken ribs. Please keep him in your prayers.

Greetings everyone and welcome to our Letter 263. Most of the letter is written by
Brian and I have added a few more news just to help bring it to 7 pages. Most of my
additions are pictures.
Tri is back
On Tuesday morning Tri arrived
back from Vietnam. This photo was
taken because Brian was just about
to check-in to go to Vietnam while
Tri had just arrived at the airport.
They got to at least say hello to each
other for a second. John Aurum was
also there, about to check-in for his
flight to PNG. He had been here for
the provincial council meeting. We
enjoyed having John around and we
wish him the very best with his
ministries.

Jerome
Jerome had surgery on Monday morning and he heard and saw nothing of the doctor over the next three days. He had been bleeding and they wanted to get that trouble cleared up. Finally, yesterday the doctor told him, “you can go home tomorrow”. We are not sure what time that will be. His breathing was laboured, but he was in cheerful spirits yesterday when I saw him yesterday afternoon. On that same of his surgery as most of you know, at 2.30pm, his sister, Mary James passed away. Mary was a Baptist, and she did not want a funeral. There will be a memorial when all the family, especially Jerome, can make it up to Benalla. Thank you to all the people who sent messages which I was able to pass on to Jerome.