AUGUSTINIAN BULLETIN BOARD – July 2006

The miracle of the whole world believing

Listen to the apostle being hungry and thirsty, and for justice of course, insofar as justice can be had, can be practiced in this life. Which of us, after all, would have the nerve to put ourselves on his level, let alone put ourselves before him? But what does he say? Not that I have already received, or am already perfect. Notice who’s talking; the chosen vessel, and the end, as it were, of the hem of the Lord’s garment, but still the thing that cured of her flow of blood the woman who touched it and believed; being the last and the least of the apostles; and again, I am not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God; but by God’s grace I am what I am; and his grace has not been in vain; not I, though, but the grace of God with me. You, on hearing this, imagine you are hearing him as one who is complete and perfect. Well, you’ve heard what he belches out; now hear what he hungers after: Not that I have already received, or am already perfect. I do not consider myself to have attained; one thing, though, forgetting what lies behind, stretching out to what lies ahead, according to intention I follow on toward the palm of God’s calling from above in Christ Jesus. He says he is not yet perfect, because he had not yet received, not yet attained; he says he is stretching out , says he is following on to the palm of the calling from above. He is on the way; he’s hungry, he wants to be filled, he’s busy about it, he longs to arrive, he’s simmering with impatience, nothing seems to him to be so long delayed as his casting off and being with Christ.

St Augustine: Sermon 400,1

Fr. William Bernard Connolly O.S.A. - R.I.P.

As reported in the current news here last month, Fr William Bernard Connolly O.S.A. died on 1st June.

His funeral service began with a Requiem Mass at St Kieran’s Church, Manly Vale (Sydney) on 7th June. Fr Patrick Fahey O.S.A. (Provincial) presided, accompanied by Most Rev David Walker (Bishop of the diocese), diocesan clergy and Augustinians from Sydney and Brisbane. The burial (see photo) was in the Augustinian section of the French’s Forest Cemetery.

Because of Fr Bernie’s early life and 29 years of Augustinian ministry in Brisbane and in far north Queensland, a memorial Mass was celebrated in Brisbane by the Order of Saint Augustine at St James Church in Coorparoo on 17th June 2006. An obituary was published by the Courier Mail (Brisbane) and the Cairns Post.

Provincial Chapter

In the final week of June 2006 (and this is being written shortly beforehand), the Augustinians in Australia will conduct their Provincial Chapter. In accord with the Constitutions of the Order of Saint Augustine, this is a formal gathering every fourth year in which the Prior Provincial (regional superior) is installed, and the program of the Province for the forthcoming fours years is drafted and voted upon.

In a spirit which shows equality within the Augustinian fraternity, all members of the Province enjoy voting rights at the Chapter, which is therefore an assembly of all members of the Province who are well enough to attend. The chapter is taking place in the modern new buildings of Saint Augustine’s College at Brookvale (Sydney).

St Augustine on national radio

Father Paul Maloney O.S.A., the chaplain of Augustinian Friends in Australia, in June and July 2006 is presenting the Sunday night program called Meditation on the network of ABC local radio that can be heard throughout Australia.

In these programs written and spoken by Fr Maloney, the meditations are based on the spirituality of Saint Augustine. It is anticipated that his series of seven fifteen-minute meditations will later be sold commercially in the ABC Shops throughout Australia.

Fr Maloney can be heard here at 11.45pm Sundays and soon after 2.00am Mondays (Eastern Australian Standard Time).

ABC Radio from Sydney can be heard via "streaming" on the Internet via Windows Media Player at:
http://www.abc.net.au/streaming/702/702stream.asx
For a short time, details about the program are available on the ABC website at: http://www.abc.net.au/sundaynights/stories/s1654185.htm

For persons in other international time zones to calculate the time of day in your country to hear this ABC Radio broadcast, go to the time zone converter:
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

Further details are available on Augnet at : http://www.augnet.org/default.asp?ipageid=1329

Parish of North Harbour

Another step happened on 13th June in the creation of the Parish of North Harbour by the union of the parishes of Manly (Saint Kieran’s) and Balgowlah (St Cecilia’s) in metropolitan Sydney. On that date, the office facilities and staff of both parishes moved to a working common space at Manly Vale.

The photo above shows Fr Peter Wieneke O.S.A. (pastor) seated with the pastoral workers, Sr Josie (Manly Vale) and Eileen Luthi (Balgowlah). Standing behind them are the combined secretarial staff.

The liturgical commemoration of the formation of the parish of North Harbour occurs on Sunday, 2nd July 2006 with a Mass of Union at the Brimson Centre of St Augustine’s College, Brookvale at 10.00 am. The Mass at that time will be the only weekend Mass (which includes Vigil Masses Saturday evening) in the new parish, so that all parishioners can gather simultaneously and meet one another.

The new Parish of North Harbour web site is http://www.northharbour.catholicau.com

Parish St Clair

Plans are now well developed for the celebration late in October 2006 of the anniversary of Holy Spirit Parish, which is located at Saint Clair in western Sydney (Diocese of Parramatta). The Augustinians resumed responsibility for staffing this parish in 1995.

The ten days of celebration will include two weekends. There will be a Parish Ball, and Sundays 22nd and 29th October will each have a special focus. On the former Sunday there will be a family Mass of Thanksgiving, followed by a parish family picnic. The Bishop of the Diocese of Parramatta will be present at a Mass on 29th October.

As a prelude to the ten days of celebration, five jubilee candles are now moving through the parish. These candles (see photo above) are 1.50 metres tall, and were especially made and decorated in South Australia. Four of them are handed over at a different one of the four Sunday Masses in the parish, and will stay with a family a week apiece. Sufficient families have already volunteered to have the candles “booked out” every week until 22nd October. The fifth candle is moving on a similar basis through the school classrooms and nursing homes of the parish.

Fr Brian Fitzpatrick O.S.A. (moderator) commented, “The planning committee now regrets that even more candles were not made.”

Augustinian Solemn Profession

Just after this bulletin is being published, there will occur in Sydney the Augustinian solemn profession of Minh Tan Hoang O.S.A. (see photo). This will happen at a 12.30 pm Mass at St Kieran's Church, Manly Vale on Sunday, 25th June 2006.

Born in Vietnam, Tan came to Australia as a refugee during his childhood, completed his education and qualification as a nurse in Australia, and then joined the Order in Brookvale, Sydney in February 2002. He will now move to Rome for two more years of theology before being ordained to the priesthood.

Details and photographs of the event will be included here in the next edition of Current News.

Augustinian World Young Adult Encounter

An international Augustinian Encounter for Youth (aged from 18 to 26 years inclusive) takes place every three years. Australia has always been represented at these encounters, even though all of them have taken place in Europe. The next gathering will take place on 1st-8th August 2006.

The venue has been chosen for the Eighth Augustinian International Youth Encounter on 1st - 7th August 2006. The encounter will take place at the outdoor summer conference facilities in the grounds of the fourteenth-century Visconti Castle at Pavia in northern Italy. The building is now managed by the City of Pavia, which uses it as a museum and as a conference venue.

Pavia is the city in which the tomb of Saint Augustine is located. The tomb is located in an ancient Augustinian Church dedicated to Saint Peter. In the photo (above) taken in March 2006, the Augustinians who will be involved with the forthcoming Youth Encounter are seen outside this church.

A group is being organised in Australia to attend this Youth Encounter, which will bring together between 300 and 500 young adults (under 30 years of age) from all continents. To see three hundred photographs of the previous youth encounter in Spain in 2003, go to http://www.augnet.org/default.asp?ipageid=6 and choose the gallery named Spain: Gaudarrama.

Background information on Pavia's centuries of Augustinian connections can be found by going to the Augnet web site at http://www.augnet.org/default.asp?ipageid=1008

St Augustine 's College

St Augustine’s College in Brookvale (Sydney) launched its third annual ‘art for art’ show on the evening of Friday, 16th June 2006. Over 300 guests including VIP’s, artists and the College community joined with MC and television presenter Johanna Griggs (see photo) to hear feature artist Stephen Coburn deliver an inspiring speech on his childhood and schooling days at St Augustine’s College. Stephen had fond memories of his time in art classes and the influence of his former teachers. The audience were enthralled to hear tales of Stephens’ father, the infamous artist John Coburn and his antics with other artists and performers such as Arthur Boyd and Spike Milligan.

Stephen is most widely known as a former band member of ‘Mental as Anything.’ He and his fellow band players, Reg Mombassa (Mambo), Martin Plaza and David Twohill, all displayed several pieces of their artwork at the College’s ‘art for art” show – works which sold very quickly.

The three-day ‘art for art’ show has continued to grow over the last three years and has been hailed another great success this year. Profits from sales, go towards the building of the proposed Year 11 and Year 12 Study Centres and a Multi- Purposed Outdoor area.

The college web site is: www.saintaug.nsw.edu.au

Its entry on Wikipedia (a free access Internet encyclopedia, with no connection to the College) is located at:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Augustine's_College,_Brookvale

Villanova College

For the first time since the abolition of public external examinations in
secondary schools in Queensland thirty years ago, the press recently secured the right to publish a table of Year 12 OP results for all schools in the state.

The newspapers reported that Villanova, the Order’s college at Coorparoo in Brisbane, had 83% of its graduating Seniors of 2005 obtain an official OP score in the 1 - 15 range (i.e., the university matriculation range) from the Queensland Studies Authority. This placed Villanova third on the list of boys-only schools in Queensland.

The College Rector (Principal), Fr Michael Morahan O.S.A, in a newsletter to parents in May 2006, while celebrating the success of the students and their teachers, had this to say about the release of all schools OP scores to the public.

“We should be cautious about simple measures of success in schooling but the recent publishing in the press of the percentages of students achieving in the 1 – 15 OP range was encouraging. This really gives the percentage matriculating to university, since this is the range of OP scores that generally gives entrance to a city university. A fairer measure may be the average of this percentage over three or four years as there can be marked differences in cohorts of students from year to year. Fortunately at Villanova this percentage has been improving over a number of years however it still tends to jump around a little.

Another assessment of the strong academic performance at Villanova was indicated recently when for the ninth time since 1995 a Senior student (see photo) gained the prestigious Australian Students Prize. These awards are given annually to the top 500 Year 12 students in the nation.

The web site of Villanova College is www.vnc.qld.edu.au

Augustinian Friends

Over the past few months local groups of Augustinian Friends have been meeting from Mareeba to Melbourne. Representatives from each local group will be present in the Augustinianum in Rome(see photo at left) during July 2006 for the Second International Congress for Augustinian Laity. A Power Point presentation depicting the Australian experience of Augustinian Friends is ready for this Congress. It is to be presented in three versions: English, Italian and Spanish.

Planning for the Third National Congress for the Laity is well under way.

This Congress, to be held in South Yarra, Melbourne, runs from Friday 20th April 2007 to Sunday 22nd April 2007. The keynote speaker will be Fr Art Purcaro O.S.A.. He is from the United States, and is presently stationed in Rome as an Assistant General of the Order.

The title is: Augustine, Ancient & New Vision for the Future. So how about coming to Melbourne in 2007 to experience Augustine in Autumn?!

For further information about the Augustinian lay congress in Melbourne in April 2007, contact Augustinian Friends via the parish office of the Augustinian parish of South Yarra (ph. 03 9827 9117), or contact Fr Paul Maloney O.S.A. at the Centre for Augustinian Spirituality, 2 Hewitt Avenue, Greystanes, NSW 2145 (phone 02 9361 0340) or by e-mail at paulmal@bigpond.com.au

Korea

Augustinians first arrived in Korea in 1985, and in April 1994 opened what is now their central house in Incheon in April 1994.

The principal Augustinian ministry in Incheon since 1994 has been the holding of one-day and two-day retreats at the centre in Incheon. As a result, some people have sought retreats and spiritual advice.

About 35 attend daily Mass, and 100 attend the special 10.00am Saturday Mass in honour of the Augustinian saints, Augustine, Monica, Rita of Cascia and Nicholas of Tolentine.

Situated beside the Incheon central house is the Augustinian social apostolate house for disadvantaged male youth (opened in April 2000).

The growth of all of these activities has demanded additional building space. Construction is now under way, and is due for completion in September. The site is adjacent to the present Priory, and the excavation was blessed (see photo) on 1 st May 2006.

For more on the Augustinians in Korea go to
www.augnet.org/default.asp?ipageid=694

Augnet

Augnet, a comprehensive web site on Saint Augustine and the Order of Saint Augustine, has just been re-designed and renovated. It contains over 1,000 pages of text, which also contain over 1,300 illustrations. The Augnet web site was officially "launched" at a ceremony in Sydney in August 2002, with the Prior General 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 1,000 large images in extensive photo galleries illustrate of Augustinian events and places internationally. Between August 2002 and April 2006 Augnet has served 63,000 different hosts/URLs, and presumably many of these hosts have visited Augnet more than once.

These hosts have downloaded 734,000 pages of Augnet. This is an average of 17,000 pages per month, 580 pages per day and 24 pages per hour throughout that period of forty-four months

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

FOR SOME CURRENT NEWS ABOUT THE ORDER OUTSIDE AUSTRALIA Click here

AUGUSTINIAN CENTRE FOR SPIRITUALITY PROGRAM 2006
2 Hewitt Avenue
Greystanes 2145
Enquiries 9896 6794
www.augustinians.org.au/communities/greystanes.html