<April 2008>

Let us rejoice that Christ has been granted to us, and let us fear no enemies of Christ in this age. Just notice, after all, who it is that has been granted to us: In the beginning was the word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. That’s Christ, that’s the only-begotten Son of God, that’s the one who is coeternal with the one who begets him. All things were made through him. How can the things that were made through him not have been granted to us, when he himself has been granted to us, through whom all things were made? And to show you that it really is himself, The Word was made flesh, and dwelt amongst us.

Desire and long for the life of Christ that has been granted you; and until you get there, hold on to the death of Christ as your guarantee. He couldn’t, after all, have given us a greater guarantee, when he promised he was going to live with us, than to die for us. “I have borne,” he says, “your evils; will I not pay you back my good things?”

He promised, he made out a promissory note, he gave us a pledge; and are you still hesitant about trusting him? He made the promise when he was walking around here among people; he made out the promissory note when he wrote the gospel. It is to his pledge that you say “Amen” every day. You have received his pledge, it is offered you every day. You really needn’t despair, you that are living on the pledge.

A small oasis of quiet and hospitality in suburban Sydney, Australia, the Augustinian Centre at Greystanes seeks to assist persons and groups of all faith backgrounds in their spiritual journey. The resident Augustinian community there offers spiritual direction, reflection days, courses in prayer, meditation and personal development, and individual residential directed retreats.

The first of the College staff retreats for 2008 (see photo above) took place in mid-March. It involved a group of teachers from St Augustine's College, which is located in Brookvale within the Sydney metropolitan area. These participants had all previously been for a retreat at the Centre so the programme was one specifically designed for those who had already undertaken the introduction to Augustinian spirituality retreat.

In this second module the content addressed the themes of leadership, St Augustine's use of scripture and St Augustine's later life. There was also the opportunity to experience the practice of meditation. As always the liturgies and the conversations at the meal table were a significant part of the retreat.

On Holy Saturday the Centre hosted a group of teenage catechumens, their sponsors and catechists for a retreat to prepare them for their baptism at the Augustinians' Holy Spirit Parish, St Clair at the 2008 Easter Vigil. The retreat centred on the theme of gifts. Each person on the retreat had the chance to appreciate their unique gifts for the Christian community and affirm the gifts of others.

If any group associated with the Order of Saint Augustine and its ministries is interested in a program or retreat by the Centre staff, please contact Fr Peter Jones O.S.A. at Greystanes at (02) 9896-6794 or osaspirit@bigpond.com.au .

On Friday, 4th April 2008 Father David Austin O.S.A., Parish Priest, was invited to bless the workers who are constructing the motorway tunnel under the Brisbane River, to bless the work that they are doing and to invoke the protection of St Barbara so that they may return to their families in safety.

Equipped with stole, prayer book, hard hat and safety vest and, of course, a statue of St Barbara, Father Austin (photo above left) prayed for God's protection on the people of the worksite.

St Barbara has traditionally been regarded as the protector of artillery gunners, miners, tunnellers and of anyone who works at risk of sudden and violent death. Read more on the parish web site at
http://www.stjames-coorparoo.org.au/patronage_of_st_barbara.htm

The golden jubilee of St Canice's Church (photo at right) at Lockington, Victoria, Australia was marked with a Mass and a social gathering on Sunday, 6th April 2008. Lockington is part of the Rochester Parish, and in 1958 its pastor was Fr Declan Treacey O.S.A.

He dedicated the church to the glory of God under the patronage of an Irish saint, St Canice, because this was the religious name of Fr Terence McGoldrick O.S.A., a much-loved Augustinian who had died in Rochester in September 1956 after serving thirty-six years there.

The Rochester parish was handed to diocesan clergy about a decade ago, with Fr Peter Austin being the present parish priest. Eight priests concelebrated the jubilee Mass on 6th April, including five Augustinians who returned there for this special occasion.

Augustinian Volunteers Australia has commenced its Justice and Peace activity. This is happening in an outer-western suburb of Sydney, Australia. Five young adults are participating. With others, during February 2008 they undertook a formation period in social justice, Catholic social teaching, critical analysis and Augustinian spirituality.

On 25th February 2008 they then began assisting three already-established social justice ministries of the Catholic Church in the suburb of Mount Druitt, Sydney.

These Augustinian Volunteers serve one full day per week in activities that include an education support program, migrant family assistance and men’s shelter assistance. The Volunteers live at their respective home addresses elsewhere in Sydney.

Augustinian Volunteers Australia is directed and supervised by Paul Wilson (see photo), a layman who is employed full-time as the Justice and Peace Officer of the Australian Augustinian Province.

It is anticipated that the Augustinian Volunteers program in coming years will also have provision for full-time members who will live in an Augustinian Volunteers lay community for twelve months, as already occurs within Augustinian Volunteers (U.S.A.).

Augustinian Volunteers Australia invites interested young adults to assist its future planning by completing the obligation-free survey attached to this web site.

More details about Augustinian Volunteers Australia are available on the social justice section of this web site.

Contact:

Mr Paul Wilson, Justice and Peace Project Officer, c/- St Augustine’s Priory,
P.O. Box 679 Brookvale NSW 2100, Australia. Mobile phone: 0438 646 294

Fr George Lawless O.S.A. (photo below), one of the best-known contemporary scholars and writers on the thought of St Augustine, is presently on a speaking tour in Australia under the sponsorship of the Australian Augustinian Province.

After a distinguished teaching career at Villanova University in Pennsylvania U.S.A., this U.S.-born Augustinian has in recent years concentrated his teaching in Rome, particularly at the Augustinianum, which is the Church's official patristic institute that is conducted there by the Augustinian Order. He has also been a visiting professor at both the Angerlicum and Gregorian Universities in Rome.

As well as addressing fellow academics in Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane he will speak in all Augustinian parishes and schools in eastern Australia.

He arrived in Australia on 7th April 2008. His itinerary includes Greystanes and St Clair in western Sydney (8th-13th April), St James’ Parish at Coorparoo, Villanova College and Australian Catholic University in Brisbane (14th-18th April), St Thomas of Villanova Parish at Mareeba in northern Queensland (18th-23rd April), Australian Catholic University in Canberra (24th-25th April), St Joseph’s Parish at South Yarra in Melbourne (26th-27th April), St Augustine’s College at Brookvale and the Parish of North Harbour at Manly Vale/Balgowlah and the CIS at Strathfield in Sydney (28th April – 6th May).

Fr Lawless will also be a guest speaker at regional meetings that have been scheduled for the Augustinians during this period.

More specific details of these various speaking engagements are available from the Augustinian Provincial Office at Brookvale (Sydney); phone (02) 9905 3049 during business hours.

Three Augustinian novices in Korea, Paul, Matthew and Francis (photo below), made their first profession of vows at the St Rita Spirituality Center in Incheon, South Korea at 2.00 pm on Saturday, 1st March 2008.

Fr. Brian Buckley O.S.A., who is one of the founding members of the Order’s entrance into Korea twenty-five years ago, was the principal celebrant at the Mass of Profession. The homilist was Fr John Sullivan O.S.A., who was novice master of these three young Koreans during the past twelve months. Frs Buckley and Sullivan are Australian Augustinians who in their youth attended Villanova College at Coorparoo (Brisbane).

One World Week With Augustine

This is an Irish initiative to bring people together to explore some of the spirituality of St. Augustine, to have fun in the process, and to have a sense of being united with others elsewhere in the world who are enjoying a similar experience.

The idea was developed by Kate Everitt, of the Augustinian youth ministry in Drogheda, Ireland from her experience of the One World Week with youth groups. Kate, along with Bernadette Toal and two Irish Augustinians are organising the project.

Up to fifty groups have enrolled in Ireland, England, USA, Australia, Ecuador, Kenya, Philippines, Netherlands, Spain and Canada have signed up as participants. One World Week With Augustine will therefore take place in at least
ten nations that are spread over all six inhabited continents of the world.

Participating groups will undertake to study a particular aspect of the spirituality of St. Augustine, and then celebrate the fruits of their exploration in a Celebration Day. In this they will be united in spirit with other groups celebrating elsewhere during the designated One World Week With Augustine. It is also possible that groups geographically near to one another may come together for this event.

The theme chosen for exploration is friendship in the spirituality of Augustine. Each group will explore the theme in a series of four meetings at any time of their choice between early April and the week of 11th-18th May 2008, using materials that will be prepared and provided by the coordinating committee mentioned above.

Then each group will be invited to hold a celebration day in the week May 11th-18th, 2008. This week was chosen because May 16th is the feast of St Alypius. Groups that are nearby may decide to come together for this celebration day.

Suggestions will be offered for the format of this day, but each group will be free to give it the shape most suitable for itself. It is suggested that each group make some record of the event for circulation to others by whatever means they wish – photos, You Tube video clips, emails, website, print, etc.

Groups can be of any age, and of any range of ages. Persons can enquire about and/or express interest in forming a group to participate by visiting the home page of the Augnet web site http://www.augnet.org by following the prompts. Background reading and resource materials are already uploaded on Augnet.

Enrolment of new groups is possible via the Augnet web site, where there is also a forum available by clicking on the bottom banner of the Augnet page.

Holy Spirit Parish at St Clair in western Sydney, Australia, was established twenty-five years ago, and has been administered by the Order of Saint Augustine for the past eleven years.

In recent years a feature of the Good Friday liturgy has been a dramatic re-enactment of parts of the Passion of Christ in the 3.00 pm liturgy on that day. All of the windows of the church were covered with heavy drapes, so that during that part of the ceremony the only illumination of the sanctuary came from two spotlights.

About thirty young adults of the parish participated in this dramatic presentation (see image above), and the church was filled to capacity.

Mareeba is located on the tableland behind the tropical tourist city of Cairns, in northern Queensland, Australia.

The Parish of St Thomas of Villanova in Mareeba has been staffed by the Order of Saint Augustine since it began almost a century ago.

Photo above: St Thomas of Villanova Church, Mareeba. It is within the Diocese of Cairns.

The March 2008 issue of In Contact, the newsletter of the parishes of Mareeba and Dimbulah, reports a variety of activities. In Contact itself has a new editor in the person of the new Parish Secretary, after Kay Morrow retired as editor after producing the previous twenty-five issues.

It’s all happening! The colossus that will be the ninth international Augustinian Encounter for Young Adults is now over a year into its planning stage.

(Photo at left: the Encounter's musical director.)

This Encounter will commence initially at Brookvale and then for its final six days be based at the Collaroy Conference Centre on Sydney’s northern peninsula. It takes place from Monday afternoon, 21st July 2008 until the morning of the following Sunday.

(Monday 21st July 2008 is the day immediately after the conclusion of World Youth Day 2008 with the Pope's Mass at Randwick.)

It is anticipated that attendance at the Augustinian Encounter will be at least 350 young adults and their Augustinian mentors. Already the following countries have indicated their likely participation: Indonesia, Belgium, England, India, Nigeria, Panama, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Slovakia and South Korea.

Furthermore, registrations are anticipated from Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Panama, South Africa, Spain, USA, and Vietnam. In the coming months this list will grow.

Michael Dela Cruz, who attended the meeting of Augustinian Youth Animators in Rome in July 2007, is employed by the Australian Province as the full-time projects officer for World Youth Day (15th – 20th July 2008) and the International Augustinian Encounter (21st-26th July 2008).

St Augustine's College is an Augustinian day school for over 1,000 male pupils in the upper primary and secondary years of education. Founded in 1956, it is located at Brookvale (Sydney), Australia.

It was the venue for eight days of events featuring the U.S.-born religious songwriter, Jesse Manibusan. These events took place in the Brimson Centre on the college's campus (see photo above).

The event on Friday afternoon, 28th March had the 1000-plus student body and teaching staff of St Augustine's College as the audience.

On Friday, 11th April the Brimson Centre was again the venue of a gathering of the entire school community, this time to welcome the Cross and Icon of World Youth Day to the College (see photo above). Some parishioners and Catholic pupils from nearby Catholic primary schools and secondary public schools also attended.

* The College’s Orphanage Project 2007. A daily blog of the infirmary construction project during April 2007 at the orphanage in Bulacan, Philippines is uploaded on the internet. Go to:
http://augustineorphanageproject.blogspot.com

The Catholic Community of North Harbour (a parish conducted by the Augustinians in metropolitan Sydney, Australia) brought the internationally-acclaimed religious songwriter, guitarist and singer, Jesse Manibusan (see photo below) from Texas, USA to Sydney, Australia for a series of events on 24th-30th March 2008.

He offered a series of liturgical workshops for adults, a youth festival for young adults and educational events for school groups. These events were held at St Augustine’s College (see previous news item), which is located nearby in Brookvale.

Two married women parishioners in the Parish of North Harbour have released three books (with an accompanying CD in each case) that integrate the learning outcomes of Australian Values Education into song for various levels in primary schools. The books have been released commercially. Read all about it on the Internet at http://www.keystonecreations.com.au

Villanova College, Coorparoo

Villanova is an Augustinian day school for over 1,000 male students in the upper primary and secondary years of education.

It was begun by the Irish Province of the Order of St Augustine at a smaller location in Whinstanes (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia) on 25th January 1948, under the rectorship of the late Fr R.B.("Ben") O'Donnell O.S.A.. Villanova then transferred to its present site at Coorparoo (Brisbane) in 1954.

During March 2008 Villanova continued the tradition of co-presenting biennial musical comedies with Loreto, a Catholic secondary college for girls which like Villanova is located in Coorparoo. The musical this time was The Wiz, and students from both colleges participated onstage, backstage and in the band.

The season was a "sell out", and it is estimated that there was sufficient demand to have warranted two additional performances. The Wiz was hosted by Loreto, hence it will be the turn of Villanova staff to be in charge of the next production, which will be due in 2010.

Augustinian Friends is a lay group conducted in Australia for those wishing to learn more about the spirituality of Saint Augustine, and to have contact with others who share this goal.

Branches of the Friends operate at a number of Augustinian venues in Brisbane, Mareeba, Melbourne, Northern Victoria, and Sydney.

The position of Co-Leaders of the National Committee is presently being shared by Ruth McGowan and Maureen Atkins of northern Victoria (see photo), and Fr. Paul Maloney O.S.A. is chaplain of the group.

The English and U.S. Augustinians are involved with generally similar Augustinian Friends movements in their respective nations.

Amici is the Friends' newsletter. For a newsletter subscription or for any additional information on the Friends, contact Fr Paul Maloney at Greystanes (Sydney) at paulmal@bigpond.com.au or phone him on 02 9631.0340.

Augustinian Formation Association (AFA)

The AFA prays for and raises funds for the formation of future Augustinians. It is based in Sydney. Among its office bearers for 2008 are Trudi McFadden (president), Eddie Robinson (treasurer), Lesley Sing (assistant treasurer) and Yvonne Clark (secretary). Along with Sue Colwell and Marian Milne, they form the AFA Executive.

Events planned so far for 2008 include the Annual Mass, luncheon and Dutch Auction at Manly Vale (Sydney) on 31st August, and a day trip by bus to the monastery of the Benedictine nuns at Jamberoo, south-west of Sydney, on Sunday, 28th September. The 2008 Christmas Party will occur at the Wakehurst Golf Club on 29th November.

For more information about the Augustinian Formation Association generally, contact Fr Laurence Mooney O.S.A. (AFA chaplain) or the staff of the Provincial Office on (w) 02 9905 3049.

Augnet, a comprehensive web site on Saint Augustine and the Order of Saint Augustine, was fully redesigned and renovated in May 2006.

It now carries 1,384 pages of text, which contain over 1,860 illustrations. The Augnet web site was officially "launched" at a ceremony in Sydney in August 2002, with the Augustinian Prior General from Rome as the guest of honour.

New technical features in the renovated Augnet include a search engine, which searches every page of Augnet for any word or phrase that is nominated by a user, and a site map, which quickly allows a visitor to see and understand the local arrangement of Augnet's sections and sub-sections.

Over 2,600 large images in extensive photo galleries illustrate Augustinian events and places internationally. The photo galleries most recently added illustrate Sydney, Australia, and three galleries of Augustinian ministry in India, London (England) and at the Escorial (Spain), and additional images are regularly added to other galleries whenever they become available.

Since May 2006, over 84,000 separate (distinct) visitors have used Augnet at least once, in a total of 536,000 visits (i.e., an average of over six visits each). These persons have made a total of 1,037,416 Augnet page visits. There was a monthly record of 38,166 visits to Augnet during July 2007, which is an average of 1,210 visits a day.

On 12th October 2006 Augnet received 1,000 visits within one 24-hour period for the first time. On 16th January 2008 there was a new daily record of 2,353 visits attained.

Because of the international usage of Augnet, the web site has almost an identical usage rate in each of the twenty-four hours of the day, and also equal usage on all days of the week (except for a slight decrease on Saturdays). The average duration per visit is three and one half minutes.

Contact:

Augustinian Ministry Websites 2008