This week the Provincial Council met face-to-face for the first time since November, 2019. Tom McDonough Provincial), Denis Travers, Brendan Connell, Chris Monaghan and myself, met from Monday to Thursday at Holy Cross. Provincial Secretary, Fr Giltus Matthias was also here and generously cooked some delicious meals for us. The Council has met many times using Zoom, so it was a welcome change to have protracted time for face-to-face communication. We still did use Zoom to have a prolonged session with Symon Scott, our business manager, and another session with Joachim our brother who is serving as General of the Passionists. We learned from Joachim that after ten days isolation with COVID, he was still positive, so he spent another week in isolation. This was how he spent the major part of his holiday!

For those who could be present last Sunday, Pastor spoke gently (as he always does) about his gratitude for the very warm welcome he received from ‘everyone at Holy Cross’. He spoke of how ‘at home’ he has felt.

When he first came to Melbourne, Pastor was appointed to our Endeavour Hills community and the parish where he was much loved. He undertook a two year programme in spiritual direction and became qualified to teach others.
This was always seen as a mutually beneficial arrangement between his Vice-Province and our Province. We were able to fund his learning which he could not do in Tanzanaia and we benefited from his presence ad his ministry.

Creation 20: Life on earth 5 (Humans)

The oldest known civilization was established in Sumer in Southern Iraq, beginning around 5300 BCE. King Sargon of Akkad united the warring Sumerian cities to create the Akkadian empire around 2300 BCE. Skilled agricultural methods and the storage of food had led to a great population increase so that by 4000 BCE Sumer had taken a leadership role in the transformation to urban culture by the creation of a dozen city states, each with its own temple, dedicated to a god or goddess, with its own priest protector or king. It is estimated that ninety percent of the population lived in these cities.

Creation 19: Life on earth 4: Humans (continued)

Science has helped us learn that there have been significant climatic changes, including ice covering and then retreating across the globe through several eras. It is suggested that skin colour changed because pigment was required in the colder European climates, whereas it was not needed in the hotter climates. In the same way, it is possible that facial adaptations occurred such as the smaller chubby Asian nose and heavy eyelids, responded to breathing and eyesight needs in times of glaciation.

The Northern Hemisphere suffered an extensive ice age beginning about one hundred and twenty thousand years ago. It began to recede eighteen thousand years ago, and while glaciation ended just twelve thousand five hundred years ago, we are technically still living at the end of this ice age.

Sunday feast: The Baptism of Jesus
In the Eastern church, the birth of Jesus, the Epiphany and the Baptism of Jesus are celebrated as one feast. This is to show the continuity between Jesus entering the world in Bethlehem, being recognized by all peoples through the Magi as the Messiah (Christ) and the initiation of Jesus into his ministry by being baptised by John in the Jordan river.

Warm greetings and less reading this week!

We are close to Christmas! We have had a focus of hope, peace and joy over the first three weeks. The theme for the final week is love. The community extends warm greetings and blessings to each person connected with us.

Creation 16: Life on Earth (Part 1)
A little over four and a half billion years ago, some of the materials created in a supernova, spun off to form our sun. In turn some of that material collected into the shape we have come to know as Earth. It was the right size and in the right place in relation to the sun, that when allowed to cool, it could establish life. That took a very long time! For several hundreds of millions of years, earth was showered and shaken by debris from the new solar system, as meteors and large rocks crashed into its surface. As a result of this activity, earth boiled for five hundred million years.

Chris’ 40th
There was a real buzz in the chapel last Sunday, and not only was it inspiring to acknowledge Chris Monaghan’s 40th ordination, but quite moving to hear him speak about the years, his gratitude to God and to ‘the people’. Tim Horlock’s words of appreciation for Chris’ ministry were also very touching. We enjoyed a cuppa and morning tea on the grassed area behind the chapel. It is the first time we have used that area for morning tea, but surely it will not be the last. There were suggestions of doing this ‘once a month’.

Advent
Advent means ‘the arrival’ and we understand this to refer to the arrival of Jesus at Christmas. Advent marks the beginning of the new liturgical church year. This is Year C which features Luke’s gospel.

Originally Advent was a time of preparation for January 6th (the feast of Epiphany, and this was related to the visit of the wise men from the East. Often they are called kings and usually people refer to them as the ‘three’ wise men, but Matthew does not tell us anything other than ‘wise men (or astrologers) from the East followed a star and came to Bethlehem. These wise men only appear in Matthew, so we won’t hear about them in Year C.

Epiphany was an important feast because it celebrated Jesus as the universal Lord. The men from the East signified that people from ‘east and west’ had come to pay homage to Jesus, the ultimate revealer of God’s love and fellowship. The period of advent started on December 17th and it was a festival period of prayers & activities celebrating Jesus’ arrival, rather than it being a preparation period during which we wait for Jesus to arrive.