AUGUSTINIAN BULLETIN BOARD

- for December 2011 & January 2012

The primacy of love..

When the apostles urged upon us the absolute primacy of love, they could only be belching forth what they themselves had eaten.

The Lord himself, in fact, feeding them on the word of truth, the word of love, which he is  himself, the living bread which came down from heaven, said, A new commandment I give you, that you should love one another. And again, By this shall everybody know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

He came to put an end to the corruption of the flesh by the mockery he endured on the cross, and to unfasten the old chain of our death by the newness of his death; and so he made the new person with a new commandment. It was, after all, an old matter, stale news, that people should die. To prevent this prevailing over humanity forever, a new thing was done, that God should die. But because he died in the flesh, not in his divinity, through the everlasting life of his divinity he did not permit the destruction of the flesh to be everlasting.

And so, as the apostle says, He died on account of our transgressions, he rose again on account of our justification. So because he has brought the newness of life into action against the oldness of death, he himself sets a new commandment against the old sin. Any of you, then, who wish to extinguish the old sin, douse cupidity with the new commandment, and embrace love. Just as cupidity, you see, is the root of all evils, so in the same way is love the root of all good things.

St Augustine: Sermon 350,1....

Augustinian Profession & Reception Ceremony

Two Augustinian novices will make their First Profession of Vows and another five young men will become Augustinian novices during the 9.30am Sunday Mass at St Kieran's Church (see photo below) on 5th February 2012. The Church is located at Condamine Street, Manly Vale (Sydney), near the intersection with King Street. All are welcome to attend the ceremony.

The Augustinian Formation Centre is located in the adjacent suburb of Brookvale, and it is there that these seven young men are living. One of them is becoming a novice on behalf of the Augustinian Vicariate of Japan, and the other six are being accepted by the Australian Province to prepare for eventual ministry variously in Australia and further afield within the Asia-Pacific.

Come and See video clip

The Australian Province of the Order of St Augustine has a You Tube account. Featured there is Come and See, a four-minute presentation for those interested in a brief look at life in the Augustinian Order, particularly for its latest candidates in Australia.

There are also a number of other video presentations there for viewing.

Go to http://www.youtube.com/osaaustralia

Book available

A publication was launched recently by the Augustinian Order in Australia at St Augustine’s College, Alfred Road, Brookvale (Sydney), NSW (see photo below), and was then subsequently highlighted at a similar ceremony at St Joseph's Parish, South Yarra (Melbourne), on 4th November 2011.

This book, “Grace Chapel – Augustinian Sacred Space,” illustrates and describes the art works in Grace Chapel at the Order's Formation Centre at Brookvale.  

Awarded author Judith Clarke launched the book. Kris Smith, the book's photographer, as well as the artists who contributed works to the chapel, addressed the eighty people at the book launch.

Fr Laurence Mooney, the book's author, and Fr Tony Banks spoke at these ceremonies.

Enquiries about purchasing a copy of the book can be made at the Augustinian Province Office: phone (02) 9938 0200 during office hours, or by e-mailing osaadmin@bigpond.com

Villanova College, Coorparoo

Villanova is a college of the Order of Saint Augustine at Coorparoo in Brisbane, Australia. Villanova is a day school of over 1,200 male students in the upper primary and secondary years of education. It began at Whinstanes on 25th January 1948, and in 1954 moved to its present location at Coorparoo, on the southern side of the Brisbane River.

The College Newsletter indicates that extracurricular activities in the recently-completed Term Four were varied and numerous. One particular highlight in which Villanova musicians participated was the annual festival, Strings in the Cathedral, at 2.00pm on 30th October 2011 in St John's Anglican Cathedral in central Brisbane.

At this event, all Villanova's string ensembles performed, even to the youngsters in the Year 5 Strings and Year 6 Strings. Seating in the entire cathedral was filled.

On a less formal note, planning for the production of the Broadway musical, Grease, is well under way, with casting now completed. Villanova teams with Loreto College, a girls' school also located in Coorparoo, for a major musical production every couple of years.

In the first week of November, Villanova was host to Ben Marshall (see photo), a musician and student from the Conservatorium of Music in Sydney.

For three days, he coached classes from Year Six to Year Eleven in congregational singing. He was introduced to the students by the College Chaplain, Fr Peter Wieneke OSA.

The college web site is: http://www.vnc.qld.edu.au

St Augustine's College, Sydney

St Augustine's College is an Augustinian day school for approximately 1,100 male pupils in the upper primary and secondary years of education. Founded in 1956, it is located at Brookvale (Sydney), Australia.
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For a number of years staff and students of the College have adopted the practice of preparing Christmas hampers for local families in need who are known to the Society of St Vincent de Paul (“Vinnies”). For this activity, each tutor group within the College is assigned a particular family, and then buy presents to suit the age levels of members in that family. The hampers are then delivered by Vinnies.

As a result, well over forty hampers were prepared at the College last month; there are thirty-two tutor groups in the secondary section of the College, another six groups in the primary section, and further hampers are produced by those staff members not involved in the tutor groups.

The photograph (above) shows Fr Senan Ward OSA of the College Chaplaincy Team blessing the hampers before they were collected by Vinnies for distribution to the allotted families.

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

Augustinians in South Korea

The Order of Saint Augustine first went to South Korea in 1985, and two Australian Augustinians were in the group of four priests initially sent there. The Order in Korea accepted its first Korean-born candidates in 1990, and still regards the task of training its Korean-born Augustinians as a primary ministry.

The Augustinian Delegation of Korea has three communities, located at Incheon, Kanghwa Island and Yeon-Chon (north of Seoul).

There are nine students in initial formation within the Augustinian Delegation of Korea. Two are clerical students in solemn vows, two are clerical students in simple vows, and four are postulants, one of whom is now in his second year of Navy training. All the students are attending the local Incheon Catholic University.

The most recent development was the election of Fr Jacobo (photo at left) as Delegation Superior, the second Korean-born Augustinian to have assumed this office.

For a summary elsewhere on this web site of Augustinian involvement in South Korea since the Order's arrival there in 1985, click here.

St Thomas of Villanova Parish, Mareeba

The Parish of St Thomas of Villanova in Mareeba has been staffed by the Order of Saint Augustine since it began a century ago. Mareeba is located on the tableland behind the tropical tourist city of Cairns, in northern Queensland, Australia. It is part of the Diocese of Cairns.

The first one hundred years of the parish of St Thomas of Villanova, Mareeba, has been penned into book form by parishioner, Jeanette Hartley. The title of the book, “Where the Pelican Builds,” pays tribute to the Irish Augustinians who travelled so far from their homeland in Ireland to carve out what would become a diocese in Far North Queensland, with Mareeba being part of that diocese.

The book's title links with Saint Thomas of Villanova himself, who featured a pelican on his episcopal coat of arms.

The book has 211 pages, and is filled with anecdotes of the parish of Mareeba, profiles of all the priests who have ministered there in one hundred years, details of the three churches, the work of the Sisters of Mercy, the many (and changing) committees and societies throughout the years and the celebrations, both religious and secular.

It was written as a three-way tribute to the Augustinians, the Sisters of Mercy and the parishioners.

Interspersed with many photos and naming well-known and hardworking families of the one hundred years, the book is proving to be popular with its readers.

To obtain a copy
..........Available at St Thomas’s Priory, P.O. Box 308, Mareeba, Qld 4880.
..........For mail orders, please calculate the cost of the book ($25.00) plus postage:
..........Posting Australia wide: $3.50. Posting overseas by airmail: $25.00
..........Cheques should be made out to St Thomas’s Catholic Church.

The parish web site is: http://www.stthomass.com.au

Augustinian Centre for Spirituality, Sydney

A small oasis of quiet and hospitality in western suburban Sydney, Australia, the Augustinian Centre for Spirituality at 2 Hewitt Avenue, Greystanes NSW 2145 (see photo below) assists persons and groups of all faith backgrounds in their spiritual journey.

Some members of its Augustinian community offer spiritual direction, reflection days, courses in prayer and meditation, and individual residential directed retreats.

The final public activity at the Augustinian Centre in 2011 was an End of Year Mass and celebration on the evening of 5th December.

The full program of the Augustinian Centre for 2012 will be published here as soon as it is completed. For general information about the Centre, please phone (02) 9896 6794, or e-mail osaspirit@bigpond.com.au

St Joseph's 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 of St Augustine has ministered in the parish since 1976.

The Parish conducted three short courses in Adult Faith Education during September and early October 2011. The first two courses took place on the Mondays of September, and were entitled Science, Faith and the Universe, and Changed Catholicism.

A further course was then presented in early December, entitled What is the Future? Scientific, Secular and Advent Responses.

The venue was the Barry Library in the Parish Centre.

A data projector has been installed in St Joseph's Church. It backlights a large screen that is located behind the altar. Relevant liturgical slides and texts for weekend Masses have been prepared, and volunteers have been recruited to operate the equipment at each Mass.

The Parish can be contacted by phone on (03) 9826 9677 during working hours or by e-mailing stjosephsparish@internode.on.net

The South Yarra parish website is: http://www.parishofsouthyarra.org.au

Augustinian Parish of North Harbour, Sydney

The Catholic Community of North Harbour in the Diocese of Broken Bay is the union, which happened on 1st July 2006, of the two previous adjacent Augustinian-administered parishes of Manly Vale and Balgowlah in the northern beaches area of Sydney, Australia's largest city.

The Augustinians began their pastoral leadership at Manly Vale in 1952 and at Balgowlah in 2004.

After a recent election process, the new Parish Pastoral Council has begun its term of office. As part of their formation, the Council members participated in a special Retreat Day in the Parish Centre at Manly Vale on Saturday, 3rd December 2011 (see photo below).

The parish website, now extensively renovated, has received many plaudits. A new feature is the addition of video clips. It contains a four-minute presentation on Celebrate Sunday, which centres on the 6.00pm Sunday Mass at St Kieran's Church, Manly Vale. Go to http://www.vimeo.com/15978171

The parish web site is located at http://www.northharbourcatholic.org.au

Augustinian Parish, Coorparoo

The Parish of St James, Coorparoo (Brisbane) has been in the care of the Augustinians since 1952. Villanova College, also conducted by the Order, is located within the parish.

The parish is offering the program called RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) for those wishing to embrace full communion with the Catholic Church.

Contact the parish office at (07) 3397 1671 for further details.

The parish web site is: http://www.stjames-coorparoo.org.au/

Augustinian Parish, St Clair

Holy Spirit Parish at St Clair in western Sydney, Australia, was established in 1981, and has been administered by the Order of Saint Augustine since 1995.

The Parish promoted and participated in Carols in the Park on 11th December 2011.

This was organized by St Clair Combined Churches, and took place at Mamre Homestead in the adjacent suburb of St Marys. The evening had a family and religious focus, and was well attended.

Details about parish life appear on the web site of Holy Spirit Parish: http://www.holyspiritstclair.com.au

Augustinian Formation Association (A.F.A.)

The Augustinian Formation Association prays for and raises funds for the formation of current Augustinian candidates and for future Augustinians.

It has now fulfilled this role for a number of decades.

Based in Sydney, Australia, its current office bearers are Trudi McFadden (president), Eddie Robinson (treasurer), Lesley Sing (assistant treasurer) and Yvonne Clark (secretary).

The AFA is hoping to expand its membership, especially seeing that the number of Augustinian students in formation is increasing, meaning that additional support would be very timely.

The final AFA event for 2011 was the annual Christmas Dinner on 26th November at the Warringah Golf Club. The students from the Augustinian Formation Centre in nearby Brookvale performed choral singing for the occasion, and $1,450 was raised to help in the support of these students.

To obtain more details about the Augustinian Formation Association generally, contact the staff of the Provincial Office at Brookvale on (02) 9938 0200 during office hours.


Augustinian Friends

Augustinian Friends is a lay group conducted in Australia for those wishing to learn more about the spirituality of Saint Augustine of Hippo, 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 Friends' newsletter, Amici, has now reached its tenth anniversary, and much has happened within Augustinian Friends during this decade. For example, there have been four Lay Congresses: in Echuca in 2001, in Brookvale (Sydney) in 2004, in South Yarra (Melbourne) in 2007, and in Coorparoo (Brisbane) in 2010.

An annual meeting of the National Committee of Augustinian Friends took place at the Augustinian Centre for Spirituality at Greystanes (Sydney) on the weekend of 6th-8th November 2009 (see photo below). The most recent annual meeting took place there on 17th-19th September 2010, and the 2011 national committee meeting took place on 15th-16th October 2011.

These meetings approved a parish programme for the Easter period developed by the Augustinian Spirituality Team. Local Augustinian groups have offered to run the programme in Augustinian parishes. It is particularly suitable for those who have just completed the RCIA program.

The leader of the Augustinian Friends for 2011 is Sylvia Phillips, and Fr. Paul Maloney O.S.A. is the chaplain of the group.

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

For an Amici 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.

For additional information about Augustinian Friends on this web site, click here.

Augustinian Volunteers Australia 2011

Horn of Africa Famine Appeal: We encourage you to donate online to Caritas Australia. Go to www.caritas.org.au 

In February 2008, Augustinian Volunteers Australia was launched with a group of five part-time co-workers. These three women and two men offered their assistance to Church ministries in the poorer suburbs of Western Sydney. This was subsequent to a formation course which included an immersion experience in that same region of Sydney.

.............................................Report of July 2011.

Augustinian Volunteers Australia provides supervised placements for those who complete the three week course in Justice & Peace at the Augustinian Administration Centre, Brookvale, each February. In 2011, ten completed this Formation Course (see photo below) and were inducted as Augustinian Volunteers by early March. Since then three new Volunteers have been operating in Brisbane and six in Sydney and one has been studying. Adding to the two in Queensland continuing from last year, this has meant a total of eleven Volunteers currently in service out of a possible thirteen at the end of the Course.

Augustinian Volunteers work in edge ministries in close proximity to Augustinian Parishes. In Sydney this has meant service occurs at Redfern in the city, supported from the Augustinians at Brookvale; and at Western Sydney supported from the Augustinians at St Clair Parish and at the Augustinian Spirituality Centre at Greystanes. In Brisbane, Volunteer sites are spread across the city with the Augustinians at Coorparoo being the focus of Volunteer community and support.

Redfern is a particularly challenging site for Volunteer service since it occurs this year at De Porres House, run by the Cana Community. De Porres House accommodates people from the streets as well as those recently rehabilitated from prison. Our volunteers, Catherine and Dom along with Sarah their mentor, have joined with those of Cana in providing meals, Eucharist and conversation on two days per week. Augustinian Novices work a third evening in the same residence to provide cleaning assistance and a meal.

In Western Sydney, Sarah volunteers at Mamre Homestead, a venue providing employment opportunities and services for refugees. Sarah’s work is with Sudanese children in the Mamre crèche. In another operation in the West, two of our Volunteers, Patrice and Theresa, have been volunteering in the Tongan Homework Centre in Mt Druitt, providing assistance to young people struggling to complete homework in a language that may be their second or third major language, or at least at odds with the language spoken at home.

Brisbane Volunteers have taken longer than their Sydney counterparts to be suitably located and to commence service. The Brisbane floods earlier this year have had a continuing effect on the work of welfare organizations and support services in Brisbane, largely because of the disruption to the extensive tracking systems required by the State Government.

Liz is working well at her venue with Micah services in South Brisbane and is also a significant member of the Coorparoo Parish Justice and Peace Committee. Arya and Anjali are both at present completing first Semester science exams, but will return to volunteering in early July, one with St Vincent de Paul refugee services operating also from South Brisbane and the other in Reconnect community development services based in Nundah.

This vibrant group of Volunteers has already met twice in six weekly Community Gatherings. It has been keen to consolidate the work of the Augustinian Volunteers in Australia. With so many Volunteers commencing across the two Eastern cities, and with new Augustinian ministries promised connection to the Volunteer movement next year in Melbourne and Mareeba (Far North Queensland), there is hope for significant growth in the Augustinian Volunteer movement through 2011 and 2012.

Mr Paul Wilson, who is employed full-time as the Justice and Peace Officer of the Australian Augustinians, said, “Augustinian Volunteers situate themselves at the most needy places in our society. They come to this program looking to help others, but soon learn that their own transformation is tied up in the change they are seeking for our world. Much reflection is needed by the Volunteers to understand all that happens during their service. Hence the emphasis on the spiritual as much as on the social dimension of Volunteering. The social and spiritual form one process.”

A young man named Tada, who has volunteered with Augustinian Volunteers over the past three years, is about to return to his home in Thailand. A final text message from him is indicative of what the Volunteers have meant to him, “Sorry I couldn’t be at your Volunteer gathering. I will go back to Thailand next month on the 24th.  Hope to see you before I leave here. Thank you for the many opportunities provided for me by the Volunteers.”

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

For further information go to http://www.aymaustralia.org.au/ministries/augustinian-volunteers

Contact:

Mr Paul Wilson, Justice and Peace Officer, c/- St Augustine’s Priory, P.O. Box 679, Brookvale NSW 2100, Australia. Mobile phone: 0438 646 294 Email: paul.wilson@augustinians.org.au Website: www.augustinians.org.au

Augustinian Ministry Websites 2011

• St Augustine’s College – Brookvale Sydney NSW Australia
  Website: www.saintaug.nsw.edu.au
  
• St James’ Parish – Coorparoo Qld Australia
  Website: http://www.stjames-coorparoo.org.au/
  
• Villanova College – Coorparoo Brisbane Qld Australia
  Website: www.vnc.qld.edu.au
  
• St Thomas of Villanova Parish – Mareeba Qld Australia
  Website: http://www.stthomass.com.au
  
• Parish of North Harbour – Manly Vale & Balgowlah, NSW Australia
  Website: http://www.northharbourcatholic.org.au
  
• St Joseph’s Parish – South Yarra Vic Australia
  Website: http://www.parishofsouthyarra.org.au
  
• 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/home.asp

AUGUSTINIAN CENTRE FOR SPIRITUALITY PROGRAM 2011
2 Hewitt Avenue
Greystanes 2145
Enquiries (02) 9896 6794
www.augustinians.org.au/communities/greystanes.html