AUGUSTINIAN BULLETIN BOARD – June 2007

Thanks be to you!

There are just two sayings: God and neighbour; the one who made you, and the one he made you with. No one has told you, “Love the sun, love the moon, love the earth and everything that has been made.”

These are the things in which God is to be praised, the maker to be blessed. How magnificent are your works, we say: in wisdom you have made them all.

They are yours, you have made them all. Thanks be to you! But you have made us over all of them. Thanks be to you!

For we are your image and likeness. Thanks be to you! We have sinned, we have been sought. Thanks be to you! We have been negligent, we have not been negligent. Thanks be to you!

When we despised you, we were not despised; in case we should have forgotten your divinity and should lose you, you even took upon yourself our humanity. Thanks be to you! When and where can there not be thanks?

St Augustine: Sermon 16A, 6.

Augustinian Solemn Profession in South Korea

Within the Delegation of Korea of the Order of Saint Augustine, the solemn profession of Brother Salesio Lee took place on Saturday, 26th May 2007. The ceremony was conducted at St Rita's Spirituality Centre of the Augustinian Priory at Incheon, South Korea.

After graduating from high school, Br. Salesio completed a two-year college degree in business management. After compulsory military service he found employment in the city of Jin-Hae. He continued to be involved in his local parish, where he was a voluntary catechist for five years.

It was during that time that he began to feel the call to be a religious brother. He happened to read about the Augustinians in a book which had a photograph of the community praying in the chapel of St. Augustine’s Priory in Incheon. He then joined the Order in 1999.

Since entering the Order he has completed a course of studies in scripture and theology at the Seoul Seminary Catechetical Institute. As well, he studied psychology and social welfare part time, and for the past eighteen months has been an assistant pastoral worker in the “No-Rang Na-Rang” Group Home in Incheon – a community for boys from broken families founded and looked after by the Augustinian Delegation of Korea.

About 170 people, including Korean Augustinians, Br. Salesio’s parents and family (see photo above), many religious, priest, and lay friends, attended the Solemn Profession Mass. Principal celebrant of the Mass was Fr Michael Sullivan O.S.A.. He is one of the pioneer Augustinians who came to Korea and established the Order there over twenty years ago.

During the ceremony Br. Barnabas Jeong Dok Kim O.S.A., the Korean Delegation superior, received Br. Salesio’s vows on behalf of the Augustinian Prior General, Fr. Robert Prevost O.S.A.

Letters of congratulation from the Augustinian Order in Australia were read aloud during the reception after the profession Mass.

Sixty photos of the Order of Saint Augustine in Korea are available on the Internet by selecting the photo gallery named Korea after you click on http://www.augnet.org/default.asp?ipageid=6

Asia-Pacific Augustinians meet in Sydney

Augustinians from the Philippines (two), Japan, Korea and India came to a meeting in Sydney, Australia on 28th-30th May 2007 to assist with the preparations for the Augustinian International Encounter for young adults that will take place in Sydney immediately after World Youth Day 2008, from 21st-27th July 2008. (See photo below.)

The Australian Province of the Augustinians will host this event, which is the eighth in a series of similar gatherings that have occurred over the past two or three decades in Italy, Spain, Germany and Ireland. The Encounter planned for Brookvale and Collaroy in July next year will be the first of these Augustinian Encounters to be held outside Europe.

The meeting in Sydney on 28th-30th May 2007 ensured that Augustinian youth leaders from the Asia-Pacific were fully briefed about next year's Encounter. Because of the distance from Europe, the Asia-Pacific Augustinian nations have not largely been represented at the previous Encounters. Planning for the Augustinian Encounter in 2008 is making provision for as many as 400 participants from up to twenty-six nations.

Further details can be obtained from the Provincial Office at Brookvale, Australia at prior.provincial@augustinians.org.au

Augustinian Parish of North Harbour

Being located in metropolitan Sydney, the Parish of North Harbour (the former parishes at Manly Vale and Balgowlah combined) will be involved in the World Youth Day 2008, which will culminate in a Papal Mass at Randwick in eastern Sydney on Sunday, 20th July 2008.

The World Youth Day Cross, which the Pope blessed in Rome and then has sent throughout the world, reaches Sydney in a few weeks’ time.

St Kieran's Church in the Parish of North Harbour is one of the places where it will be a centre of activities and remain overnight.

To initiate the process of awareness-raising for this event on 10th July 2007 and for World Youth Day 2008 generally, a ceremony was held as a prelude to the Masses of Pentecost Sunday, 27th May 2007 at St Kieran’s Church in the suburb of Manly Vale.

Before Mass began, a colourfully-dressed figure entered the church and drew a person from the congregation (see photo) to ignite from the pascal candle a small prepared fire in front of the altar.

The parish web site is: http://www.northharbour.catholicau.com/

Centre for Augustinian Spirituality

In February 2007 Fr Peter Jones joined Frs Paul Maloney and John McCall on the Augustinian Spirituality Team. They conduct the Centre for Augustinian Spirituality, which is based at St John Stone house, an Augustinian priory at Greystanes, in western metropolitan Sydney, Australia.

Peter has been appointed as the Centre’s Director. A major focus for the early months of 2007 has been a settling in for the team and planning for the year’s programme.

To date, the retreats at the Centre for staff from Augustinian colleges have continued, with a group coming each from St Augustine’s College (Sydney) and Villanova College (Brisbane - see photo) and four more retreats to follow. These retreats take place in the context of an experience of Augustinian community.

These retreats seek to provide a space for people involved in Augustinian ministry to reflect on their faith journey and deepen their awareness of Augustinian spirituality. It is intended to widen the audience for these retreats by offering them to ministry teams in Augustinian parishes.

The first of the three courses offered by the Centre took place during May. Paul led the course which provided guidance on the use of the Christian meditation method as developed by Dom John Main OSB. The course complements the regular meditation meeting that takes place weekly at the Centre.

Also May 2007 saw the first prayer day at the Centre for the current year. Fr John McCall guided those who attended on an experience of contemplative prayer.

In addition to the programmes involving groups the members of the Spirituality team are involved in spiritual direction ministry and guiding individual retreatants.

For full details and dates of the entire 2007 program at the Centre for Augustinian Spirituality, go to the bottom of this page and follow the prompts.

The Centre for Augustinian Spirituality can be contacted by telephone on (02) 9896 6794 or by e-mail at osaspirit@bigpond.com

Villanova College

Villanova is an Augustinian day school for approximately 1,000 male students in the upper primary and secondary years of education. It began at a smaller location in Whinstanes (Brisbane) in 1948, and moved to its present site at Coorparoo in 1954.

(At left): Part of the college complex.

With the Australian school year extending from late January to late November, the present school year is nearing its midpoint. A myriad of activities are reported in the college’s weekly parents’ newsletter, which the families of the college can access via the Internet.

On 18th May, the Senior-Staff Banquet was held. In this event, the Senior Class (graduating later in 2007) celebrate with staff members. On that occasion, the opening remarks by the 2007 College Captain were, “We are gathered here to celebrate a most unique and enjoyable occasion; an occasion that signifies our Augustinian heritage, and which represents the basis of our life at Villanova. We may be gathered here tonight as teachers, students and parents, but most importantly we share this evening tonight as friends. As we enjoy one another’s company this evening, let us remind ourselves of the bonds of compassion and friendship that have been fostered during our time at Villanova.”

The college’s web site is located at http://www.vnc.qld.edu.au

Holy Spirit Parish, St Clair

The 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. As well as celebrate Pentecost Sunday on 26th May 2007 as the “feast day” of Holy Spirit Parish, special mention was made of Sorry Day, in which Australians express their sorrow for past acts of injustice, dispossession  and inhumane treatment of Australia’s Aboriginal people.

The first Sorry Day was held on 26th May 1998, exactly a year after the tabling in Federal Parliament of the report, Bringing Them Home. This report recommended that a Sorry Day be held. A Sorry Day procession was held in the streets of central Sydney on 26th May 2007 (see photos).

Holy Spirit Parish also recommended that its parishioners support the program, Make Indigenous Poverty History as part of the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations. More information is available at http://www.ncca.org.au/natsiec/indigenous_poverty

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

Affiliates’ meetings

With the 1967 revision of the Constitutions of the Order of Saint Augustine, the affiliation of laity to the Order was approved.  This has provided Provinces with the opportunity of taking the initiative of binding more closely to the Order those laity who have, over many years, identified with the ethos and ministries of the Augustinians in a significant way. Today, there are more than sixty laity affiliated to the Order in Australia since that time.

The need has been expressed for providing the affiliates with a deeper knowledge of Augustine, Augustinian Spirituality and of the Order itself. For this purpose the present Prior Provincial, Tony Banks, together with his Provincial Council, appointed Father Pat Fahey to be chaplain to the Affiliates of the Province.

Fr Pat Fahey is in the process of meeting with the Affiliates throughout the Province.  Meetings have been held at Manly Vale (Sydney), Adelaide (see photo above) and Brisbane.  Other meetings are being planned for North Queensland, Northern Victoria and Melbourne.

The structure of the meeting is simple: (1) celebration of Mass; (2) sharing a meal; (3) presentation of some aspect of Augustinian spirituality; (4) discussion; and (5) prayer.  It lasts no more than about two hours.

What is further envisaged is the publication of a simple Newsletter in which the Affiliates themselves will receive news of each other and be encouraged to share in each other’s lives by prayer and even by direct contact (through letter or visits). 

St Augustine’s College, Brookvale

During twenty days of the school vacation in April 2007, six staff members and twelve students from an Augustinian secondary school in Australia travelled to the Philippines to erect an infirmary (see photo below) in an orphanage for street children conducted by the Augustinian Sisters of Our Lady of Consolation.

The travellers were from St Augustine’s College in Brookvale (Sydney, Australia), which the Order began in 1956. Sister Joan O.S.A., an Augustinian Sister of Our Lady of Consolation, is a member of the school’s chaplaincy team.

The “Augustine Orphanage Project” has involved the entire school community. Sufficient funds were raised to buy all the necessary building materials in Australia, so that many students could pre-fabricate the building in Brookvale before shipping it to the Philippines for assembly.

The orphanage is Tahanan Mapagkalinga ni Madre Rita (TMMR). It is located in Bulacan, about 56 kms from the central Manila.

TMMR houses and cares for up to eighteen children aged between four and fourteen years. The separate infirmary building is important because previously any sickness could easily spread to all children in the dormitories of the orphanage.

The infirmary, five metres wide and 12 metres in length, was completed on schedule. While in the Philippines, the staff and students from St Augustine’s College also attended the final profession of Sister Joan O.S.A. (see next news item below).

The volunteer team at Bulacan was able to keep in daily contact with the entire school community at Brookvale by means of a daily “blog” on the Internet. The text and photographs are still able to be seen at http://augustineorphanageproject.blogspot.com

The college’s web site is http://www.saintaug.nsw.edu.au

Fr Tony Banks O.S.A., Australian Provincial, visited the TMMR orphanage at Bulacan during the construction phase.

Augustinian Formation Association (AFA)

The AFA prays for and raises funds for the formation of future Augustinians. Based in Sydney, its office bearers for 2007 are Trudi McFadden (president, pictured), Eddie Robinson (treasurer), Lesley Sing (assistant treasurer) and Yvonne Clark (secretary).  

Along with two new members, they form the AFA Executive.

The AFA has agreed to an increase in fund-raising activity in 2007, accompanied by a membership drive.

For more details 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.

Augustinian Friends in the eastern U.S.A. has a web site: http://www.augustinianfriends.org

.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 1,280 pages of text, which also contain over 1,720 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 2,180 large images in extensive photo galleries illustrate Augustinian events and places internationally. The photo galleries most recently added illustrate 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 36,247 separate (distinct) visitors have used Augnet at least once, in a total of 244,467 visits (i.e., an average of eight visits each). These persons have made a total of 529,994 Augnet page visits. There was a monthly record of 26,765 visits to Augnet during May 2007, which is an average of 860 visits a day.

For the first time, on 12th October 2006 Augnet received 1,000 visits within one twenty-four period. On 12th January 2007 there was a new daily record of 1,411 visits.

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

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