AUGUSTINIAN BULLETIN BOARD – for January 2008

We have Christ as an infant; let us grow up with him

The Lord Jesus wished to be human for our sakes. Do not hold this kindness cheap; Wisdom is lying there on the earth. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. O food and bread of the angels!

The angels take their fill of you, they are content with you, and they don't grow tired of you; they derive their life from you, their wise judgment from you, their bliss from you. And where are you for my sake? In a cramped and crowded hostelry, in rags, in a manger.

For whose sake? The one who regulates the stars is sucking his mother's breasts; he fills the angels, speaks in the Father's bosom, is silent in his mother's. But he is going to speak when he reaches the right age, and to fill up the gospel for us. Going to suffer for our sakes, going to die for our sakes, going to rise again as the model for our reward, going to ascend into heaven before the eyes of the disciples, going to come from heaven in judgment.

There you have the one who was lying in a manger; he made himself small, but didn't lose himself; he took on what he was not, but remained what he was. There you are, we have Christ as an infant; let us grow up with him.

St Augustine, Sermon 196, 3

Introducing….

Augustinian Volunteers

The Order of St Augustine in Australia, commonly known as Augustinian Fathers and Brothers, is introducing an outreach of lay women and men to the needy places of ministry in Australia and, in the future, further afield in South-East Asia.

If you are interested in hearing about this concept, you are invited to click here to learn more, and to contact the Augustinian Justice and Peace Office at Brookvale, N.S.W., if desired.

Contact:

Paul Wilson, c/- St Augustine’s Priory, P.O. Box 679 Brookvale NSW,  2100

Email: paul.wilson@augustinians.org.au

Website: www.augustinians.org.au

You may also respond by e-mail or on-line as above, or directly to Paul Wilson, Justice and Peace Project Officer  Ph. 0438 646 294.

Solemn Profession in Korea

The Augustinian Delegation of Korea is affiliated with the Augustinian Province in Australia, under the direction of the Augustinian Provincial Council in Australia.

Twenty-nine year old Br. Luke Yong Tae Park OSA of the Delegation of Korea made his Solemn Profession of vows in the Order of St. Augustine at Incheon, Korea on the 16th December 2007. Fr. Brian Buckley OSA, who is one of the founding members of the Korean Delegation, was the principal celebrant and homilist at the liturgy.

Two hundred people attended, including Br. Luke’s parents and family, parishioners from his home parish of Kumi (about 200km southeast of Seoul), members of the Augustinian Korean Delegation, and friends of the Order. They gathered at the St. Rita Spirituality Centre, Incheon, to celebrate the occasion. Fr. Michael Morahan OSA, Rector of Villanova College, Brisbane, Australia, also came to the celebration.

Br. Barnabas Kim OSA, the regional superior of the Korean Delegation, accepted Br. Luke’s vows on behalf of the Prior General.

Br. Luke was baptized as an infant and had his primary and secondary education in the city of Kumi, South Korea. He began to consider God’s call to religious life while in his first year of study at the Daegu Catholic University. Through a friend, who was also considering such a path, he made contact with the Augustinian community in Incheon.

The friend later decided that religious life was not his calling from God but Br. Luke entered the Augustinian initial formation community at St. Nicholas of Tolentine Priory, Kang-hwa in February 1999 and began studying philosophy and theology at Incheon Catholic University.

During the past nine years Br. Luke also completed his compulsory national service, undertaking two and half years in the Korean Navy. He entered novitiate at St. Augustine’s Priory, Incheon in 2003, and made his first profession of vows on 1st February 2004.

The Korean summer holidays in 2006 saw Br. Luke travel to Australia for English study and pastoral experience. While there he stayed with the Augustinian communities in Sydney and Brisbane. He still has two years to complete in postgraduate study at Incheon Catholic University in preparation for priestly ordination. He is particularly interested in faith education and spiritual direction.

Augustinian Centre for Spirituality, Greystanes

During late November and early December 2007 Fr Paul Maloney O.S.A. offered a meditation course at the Uniting Church parish at North Parramatta, west of Sydney, NSW. This invitation came about as some members of that congregation had already experienced a similar course at the Centre, and there had been an enthusiastic response from the participants.

Formally the year’s activities drew to a close at the Centre (see picture above) on 3rd December 2007 with the celebration of the Eucharist and refreshments that followed. About twenty-five friends of the Centre attended. The Advent theme of hope was an opportunity to reflect on the nurturing of Christian hope in ourselves and in face of global concerns as a key theme of Christian spirituality.

Otherwise the month of December has been very much a tapering off time at the Centre when the activities of the year wind down and the team begins to plan for 2008. Already a few specific requests have come in as well as the team giving thought to the courses and reflections days to be offered next year. Participants in 2007 were asked for their ideas as to how the Centre could continue to respond the aspirations and needs of people in the area in spirituality.

In that context the Augustinian Spirituality Team based at the Centre invites individuals and Augustinian groups to contact us (osaspirit@bigpond.com.au ) as to ideas you may have with regard to ways the Centre may be able to respond your needs in 2008.

The Augustinian Spirituality Team wishes each of you and your families a peaceful and blessed Christmas and all the best for the New Year.

The passing to eternal life of Fr. Ralph Cameron O.S.A.

After a brief illness, on Sunday afternoon, 21st October 2007, the death occurred at Manly Hospital of Fr Ralph Raymond Cameron O.S.A. of the Catholic Community of North Harbour.

He was eighty-two years old, and in his fifty-first year of priesthood.

Memorial cards of the late Fr Cameron will be mailed by the Provincial Office upon request. Write to P.O. Box 679, Brookvale NSW 2100, Australia or e-mail osaadmin@bigpond.com


Ninth Augustinian International Encounter for Young Adults 2008

This Encounter will take place at Collaroy (Sydney, Australia) from the evening of Monday, 21st July to noon on Sunday, 27th July 2008, which is immediately after the conclusion of World Youth Day 2008.

A competition has been announced to compose and select a theme song for this Encounter. Details of the competition appear on the Encounter web site http://www.aye2008.org

The winning song is required to be centred on the Scriptural verse that is the theme of the Encounter, "And all those who believed shared all things in common” (Acts of the Apostles 2:44). It will need to reinforce the ideas of community, diversity, prayer, and of the People of God as being the Body of Christ.

As well, the lyrics and music of the song will need to be able to stir and enthuse young adults at the Encounter in 2008.

Since the competition was announced last month, it has attracted considerable interest in Australia, and already one overseas entry has been received from the Philippines.

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). He has said that the winning song will be prominently used throughout the 2008 Augustinian International Encounter.

The Encounter web site is http://www.aye2008.org and Michael’s e-mail is michael.delacruz@augustinians.org.au

These Augustinian international encounters have been regularly held for the past twenty years. The previous ones all took place in Europe – four in Italy, two in Spain, one in Germany and one in Ireland.

The venue for the Encounter of July 2008 will be the Collaroy Conference Centre. It is located overlooking the Pacific Ocean and some of Sydney’s northern beaches. As well it is not far from an Augustinian parish (North Harbour) and primary/secondary school (St Augustine’s College, Brookvale).

Images of the conference centre and of Collaroy generally can be seen on the Internet in the photo gallery of http://www.augnet.org that is entitled "Augustinian Encounter 2008.” General images of Sydney appear there in a separate gallery named “Australia: Sydney.”

St Augustine’s College, Sydney

Two religious statues were installed and blessed in the Brookvale grounds of St Augustine’s College on 21st November 2007.

The small limestone statue in abstract form of the Blessed Virgin Mary holding the infant Jesus was located in the Good Counsel Primary School area (left photo below) and a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary was placed in the College’s Memorial Garden (right photo below).

The Principal of St Augustine’s College, Mr Tim Cleary, recently commissioned these statues for the College from the Marble Mountain area in Vietnam. 

The statues were blessed on Wednesday, November 21st  by College Chaplain, Fr Peter Tangey OSA, together with Tim Cleary, Principal, Chris Govers, Assistant Principal, Head of Middle School, Sr Joan Infante OSA, Madeleine Conlon, Head of RE and representatives from the Student Representative Council and Years 5 & 6 students.

The statues were purchased, in part, from the $10,000 kindly donated by St Augustine’s brother school in Queensland, Villanova College in Brisbane.

The College web site is www.saintaug.nsw.edu.au

* 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

Augustinian Parish, St Clair.

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.

The Parish has announced its most recent proposed revision of its pastoral plan.

As recongifured, the pastoral planwill have (1) Goals that frame action and Strategies that direct the “how to” to achievement, and (2) Commissions ~ to bring them alive and involve not only Councillors but also other parishioners with skills in these areas.

The Goals are:
Community: We aim for a welcoming community that offers a warmth and opennessthat invites inclusiveness and offers a sense of belonging and a feeling of wellbeing.
Culture: We acknowledge each culture as gift to Our Parish and Australia. We arehowever, aware of the differences. This goal aims to raise awareness of this and togive all parishioners skills to address these cultural aspects through an enlighteningeducation process.
Education: Encourage a renewed learning in faith and a positive integrating of it intoour daily lives and faith life.
Governance: We model collaboration – working together in all our activities.
Social Justice: Creating a just society, working towards the common good, promotingthe dignity, well being and equality of all people. Modelling this in our relationships withfamily, fellow parishioners, neighbours, and together with our world sisters & brothers.
Spirituality: Deepening that vital relationship with our God in and through our prayer,our daily reflection on the Word and our time in daily meditation and retreat & reflection experiences. We hope to provide reflection and direction experiences to assist with the growth in faith, relationship and integration.

The Holy Spirit website is located at http://www.holyspiritstclair.com.au

Augustinian Parish, South Yarra

In Melbourne, the capital city of the Australian state of Victoria, the Augustinians have care of the Parish of Saint Joseph, South Yarra. The parish also has a second church, dedicated to St Thomas Aquinas, at Bromby Street, South Yarra. The Order has been present in the parish since 1976.

Since the complete renovation of a former parish school building into the commodious St Joseph's Parish Centre in December 2006, progress has been made on the development of a functioning Parish Library. One of its aims is to expand the parish's connection with the local community.

A progress report in mid-November 2007 detailed the purchase of additional books, the cataloguing of materials already donated, and a listing of additional equipment required.

Opening hours of the library are ad experimentum Sunday 11.30 am to 12.30 pm, Tuesday and Thursday 4.00 pm to 7.00 pm, and possibly 10.00 am to noon as well. The library depends on volunteers to fulfil all necessary tasks.

An official opening of the library will occur in the first months of 2008.

St Joseph’s Parish web site is www.ozemail.com.au/~osasthyarra

Augustinian Parish of North Harbour, Sydney

North Harbour Parish has a new associate pastor in the person of Fr Michael Belonio O.S.A. A member of the Cebu Province of the Augustinian Order, he will assist in the parish and reside at St Kieran's Priory while doing postgraduate studies in philosophy at the University of Sydney.

The North Harbour Catholic Community web site is: http://www.northharbour.catholicau.com/

Villanova College, Coorparoo

Villanova is an Augustinian day school for approximately 1,000 male students in the upper primary and secondary years of education. Fr Michael Morahan O.S.A is now the Rector (Principal), the seventh in the college's history.

Villanova began at a smaller location in Whinstanes (Brisbane, Queensland) on 25th January 1948, and moved to its present site at Coorparoo (Brisbane) in 1954.

The College will thus be sixty years old on 25th January 2008. None of the four Augustinians brought out from Ireland to be the main "first day" teaching staff in 1948 are still alive, but Fr Denis K O'Shea O.S.A. who soon afterwards was brought from North Queensland to join the Whinstanes staff is still alive. At an advanced age, he is now a member of the Augustinian community at Manly Vale (Sydney), and is hospitalised with ill health.

The Villanova College web site is located at http://www.vnc.qld.edu.au


Augustinian Friends

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, and Fr. Paul Maloney O.S.A. is chaplain of the group.

There was a Friends' gathering at St Kieran's Parish Centre, Manly Vale, Sydney (photo above) on Sunday, 18th November. Father Paul Maloney spoke about the present activities of the Order of Saint Augustine throughout the Asia-Pacific. This was preceded by a Mass, and followed by a meal.

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

In England, “Friends of Augustine” has now begun its own website:
http://www.friendsofaugustine.org In the United States, the web site is http://www.augustinianfriends.org

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 2007 are Trudi McFadden (president), Eddie Robinson (treasurer), Lesley Sing (assistant treasurer) and Yvonne Clark (secretary). Along with two new members, they form the AFA Executive.

The most recent AFA event was the annual end-of-year celebration on Saturday evening, 1st December 2007 in the dining room of the Manly-Warringah Master Builders Club, Dee Why. Seventy members and guests attended the celebration.

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: what's new?!

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 over 1,310 pages of text, which also contain over 1,770 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.

About 2,500 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 42,416 separate (distinct) visitors have used Augnet at least once, in a total of 253,380 visits (i.e., an average of eight visits each). These persons have made a total of 664,994 Augnet page visits. There was a monthly record of 37,613 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 9th June 2007 there was a new daily record of 2,314 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.

Visit this web site at http://www.augnet.org

Augustinian Ministry Websites 2008

• St Augustine’s College – Brookvale NSW Australia
  Website: www.saintaug.nsw.edu.au

• St James’ Parish – Coorparoo Qld Australia
  Website: http://www.stjames-coorparoo.org.au/

• Villanova College – Coorparoo Qld Australia
  Website: www.vnc.qld.edu.au

• Parish of North Harbour – Manly Vale & Balgowlah, NSW Australia
  Website: http://www.northharbour.catholicau.com

• St Joseph’s Parish – South Yarra Vic Australia
  Website: www.ozemail.com.au/~osasthyarra

• Holy Spirit Parish – St Clair NSW Australia
  Website: www.holyspiritstclair.com.au

• Augustinians in Korea
• Website: http://www.osakorea.or.kr

FOR SOME CURRENT NEWS ABOUT THE ORDER OUTSIDE AUSTRALIA Click here

The Augustinian international web site is: http://www.osanet.org/en/default.htm

AUGUSTINIAN CENTRE FOR SPIRITUALITY PROGRAM 2007
2 Hewitt Avenue
Greystanes 2145
Enquiries 9896 6794
www.augustinians.org.au/communities/greystanes.html