AUGUSTINIAN BULLETIN BOARD – September 2006

Call on the Lord for help

When you begin to find the going hard in your fight against the lusts of the flesh, walk by the Spirit, call upon the Spirit, start seeking the gift of God.

And if the law for your members is fighting back against the law of your mind from the lower part, that is from the flesh, and is holding you captive under the law of sin, even that will be corrected, even that will be changed into the rights of victory.

All you have to do is cry out, all you have to do is call upon him. It is necessary to pray always and not grow slack. Just go on calling on him constantly, calling on him for help. While you are still talking, he will say, look, here I am.  Next, try to understand, and you hear him saying to your soul, I am your salvation.

So since the law of the flesh has begun to fight back against the law of the mind, and to take you prisoner under the law of sin which is in your members, say in prayer, say in confession, Wretched man that I am. What else, after all is man? What is man, except that you remember him? Say, Wretched man that I am, because unless the Son of man had come, man would have perished. Cry out from the fix you are caught in, Who will deliver me from the body of this death, where the law in my members is fighting back against the law of my mind?

For I take delight in the law of God according to the inner self. Who will deliver me from the body of this death? I you say this faithfully, say this humbly, you will receive the truest answer there can be: The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

St. Augustine: Sermon 163,12

Augustine's Confessions

The Centre for Augustinian Spirituality is conducted at the Augustinian Priory at Greystanes, western Sydney. A series of gatherings on the Centre’s calendar each year are conducted with the Augustinian Friends group especially in mind. These events, however, are open to anyone who wishes to attend.

These Sunday gatherings, each at 11.00am and followed by shared lunch. The next gathering occurs on Sunday, 17th September 2006. It will focus on Augustine’s framed spiritual book, Confessions.

The Centre’s brochure describes the activity or 17th September thus: “A fresh look at this best loved book of all Christian history. Who did he include in his story? What was he confessing? How Augustine's story of grace can illumine the chapters of our own life story.”

For a series of pages on many aspects of the Confessions, go to:

http://www.augnet.org/default.asp?ipageid=959

For the 2006 calendar of events at the Augustinian Centre for Spirituality, as published on this web site, go to:

www.augustinians.org.au/communities/greystanes.html  

Calvary Health Care

Fr Patrick Bourke O.S.A. is a chaplain in the palliative care unit of Calvary Health Care at Bethlehem Hospital in the bayside district of Melbourne, Victoria.

Approximately eighty staff and friends of Bethlehem people, including the sisters, patients and volunteers, attended a multi-faith religious service, in which Fr Pat was the participating Catholic priest (seen in the centre of the photo below).

Representatives from the Jewish, Muslim, Catholic, Anglican and Uniting Church faith traditions joined in a simple service celebrating community and humanity, followed by a celebratory lunch.

Bethlehem Hospital is a service of the Sisters of the Little Company of Mary. Fr Bourke is a member of the Augustinian community at St Joseph’s Parish in the Melbourne suburb of South Yarra.

Augustinian Friends maintain bishops' graves

Between 1848 and 1948 six Irish Augustinians served as bishops in Australia. The first two of them who ministered in tropical Queensland, Australia are buried at Cooktown, an isolated area that declined in commercial importance seventy years ago.

The Augustinian Friends group in the Augustinian Parish at Mareeba, 200 kilometres away, have made three journeys to Cooktown (see photo below). These journeys were of three days’ duration, and involved as many as ten people.

 In what was a major project after decades of deterioration, the Augustinian Friends fully renovated and restored the special fenced section of Cooktown Cemetery that holds the mortal remains of two Augustinian bishops and seven Sisters of Mercy.

From Mareeba they brought with them a portable electric generator, equipment to pressure clean the tombstones and to repair the welding on the metal fencing, paint, cement and ornamental pebbles (see photo). On all three journeys they were assisted in their labour by Fr Robert Greenup O.S.A., the parish priest at Mareeba.

The Augustinian bishops buried in Cooktown are James Dominic Murray O.S.A.(photo on left), who died in 1914, and John Hutchinson O.S.A. (photo on right),who died during an epidemic of tropical dengue fever in 1897. Because of the isolation of Cooktown and the need for a quick burial, the other Augustinian then serving in Cooktown was the only ordained person at the burial of Bishop Hutchinson.

This priest was Fr Joseph Augustine Coleman O.S.A., who from 1880 to 1886 had been the President of Villanova College (now University) in Pennsylvania, U.S.A. In the Cooktown Cemetery in October 1897, Fr Coleman conducted what was the loneliest episcopal funeral in Australian history.

This news item also appears on the Augustinian international web site: http://www.osanet.org/en/default.htm

Aware of the plight of others

At St Augustine’s College in Brookvale (Sydney) on Saturday night, 19th August 2006, one hundred and twenty students, parents and staff came together for a Winter Sleep Out to raise money for the homeless in Australia.

They slept on the college grounds. For this purpose, families and senior students erected tents on the college oval. Before it was time to sleep, there was a BBQ meal, a talent quest, a movie and finally marshmallows around the bonfire.

Funds raised went to the Society of St Vincent de Paul Night Patrol Van, a service that sends volunteers into central Sydney to give out tea, coffee, and the hand of friendship to the lonely and destitute.

Before it was time to sleep, the participants farewelled the Year Eleven students as they boarded the Vinnies Van as they left for their night patrol (see photo at left). This is an activity that St Augustine's College offers to senior students within the college’s Community Service Program.

Overall, the Winter Sleep Out raised Aus$2,375. Some of that amount came as donations from members of the college who were unable to be there on the night.

Madeleine Conlon, the college’s Religious Education Co-ordinator, commented, “It is in events such as these, that we as an Augustinian school community, live out the ethos of our College, an ethos where the love of God and our fellow human beings is visible in smiling happy faces and hands extended in true Augustinian friendship.”

Catholic Community of North Harbour

A new member of the ministry team at the Catholic Community of North Harbor is Paul Skippen, (photo right) who is now working full-time as the Youth and Family Ministry Coordinator. Previously he was doing similar work with youth in Queensland.

Paul said, I am delighted to be here, and am looking forward to working with the ministry team to support a vibrant ministry to youth and family ministry at the Catholic Community of North Harbour.”

While Fr Peter Wieneke O.S.A. (Moderator) is away until January 2007 on a semester of sabbatical study leave, Father David Austin O.S.A. is taking his place. Father Austin knows the area from his years as Rector (Principal) of St Augustine’s College in Brookvale from 1983 to 1993 inclusive, and comes with the recent experience of having been pastor of two former Augustinian parishes in northern Victoria: Kyabram (1999 - 2005) and Echuca (simultaneously 2003 - 2004).

Immediately before moving to Manly Vale in mid-August, Father Austin completed a semester of sabbatical study leave in Italy and Ireland.

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

Augustinian Formation Association (A.F.A.).

The AFA prays for and raises funds for the formation of future Augustinians. Based in Sydney, its office bearers for 2006 are Trudi McFadden (president), Eddie Robinson (treasurer), Lesley Sing (assistant treasurer) and Yvonne Clark (secretary).

The August event of the AFA was their annual Mass at St Kieran's Church, Manly Vale on Sunday afternoon, 20th August. It was followed by a luncheon and a Dutch Auction in the parish centre adjacent to the church. Seen in the photo (above) is the lady auctioneer and an AFA office bearer.

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

St Augustine’s College

This year Saint Augustine's College at Brookvale (Sydney) celebrated the feast of St Augustine in a number of ways. On Friday, 25th August 2006 there was a Mass for all staff and students in the Brimson Centre at the college (see photo at left). Open-air Patron's Day activities planned for after the Mass were cancelled because of the weather.

The actual feast day of Monday, 28th August was designated as one of the pupil-free days of the year so that the entire staff of 100 persons were able to attend a two-day Augustinian retreat at Dooralong, north of Sydney (photo at right). The retreat was conducted by Frs L. Mooney O.S.A. and P. Maloney O.S.A. from the Centre for Augustinian Spirituality at Greystanes (western Sydney)

The college was begun by the Order of Saint Augustine on its Brookvale site in 1956, and is now under the leadership of its second lay Principal, Mr. Tim Cleary. Practices to maintain the Augustinian traditions commenced in previous administrations are being strongly maintained.

The college has an enrolment of over 900 male day pupils, from Year 5 to Year 12 (i.e., the upper years of primary education, and all six years of secondary schooling in the State of New South Wales).

A 50th Anniversary College Dinner Dance for past and present parents of the College is being held on Saturday, 9th September 2006. The venue is Miramare Gardens at 289 Mona Vale Road, Terrey Hills.

The St Augustine’s College web site is: Web site: www.saintaug.nsw.edu.au

Korean Augustinian Visitors

Two young Korean Augustinians visited Australia in July and August. On 18th August they returned to the Augustinian Priory at KangHwa in Korea, where the house of formation dedicated in honour of Saint Nicholas of Tolentine.

The KangHwa community contains nine persons: two priests (both Australian-born), and seven Koreans, of whom one has already made his simple (first) profession in the Order of Saint Augustine. Some of the remaining six will make their novitiate year in 2007.

Two of these young men, Paul and Luke (see photo above), came to Australia as part of a policy to give them support in learning the English language. They took an intensive English-language program in Sydney at the Augustinian Formation Centre, Brookvale. All involved deemed the instruction a success, and it will surely be repeated with other young Korean Augustinians in years to come,

While in Australia, they took the opportunity of visiting all four Augustinian communities in Sydney (Brookvale, Manly Vale, Greystanes and St Clair), and the two in Brisbane (both in Coorparoo).

Numerous photos of the Augustinian activities and personnel in Korea are available by going to http://www.augnet.org/default.asp?ipageid=6 , and then choose the gallery named Korea.

The Augustinian Delegation of Korea will celebrate the solemn profession of two of its members on 10th September, which is the feast day of St Nicholas of Tolentine O.S.A. For details about St Nicholas, go to http://www.augnet.org/default.asp?ipageid=1065

More information about the profession of Kyu-Dong Jacobo Kim (taking the
religious name of Jona) and Chang-Ho Johan Kim will be published here next month.

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

Augustinian International Young Adult Encounter 2006

An Augustinian International Encounter for Young Adults took place at Pavia, Italy from 1st-6th August 2006. Seven persons, led by Fr Tony Banks O.S.A., attended from Australia (see photo above).

These Encounters have taken place every three years since 1985. Australia has always been represented at these encounters, even though all of them have taken place in Europe.

The Encounter in early August 2006 took 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.

At Pavia, the group from Australia came together with 400 particiants from as many as twenty countries. A description of the Encounter appears in two segments on the Augustinian international web site: http://www.osanet.org/en/default.htm under the heading, "Building the City of God."

To see over 100 images of this Augustinian Encounter in Pavia , go to http://www.augnet.org/default.asp?ipageid=6 and choose the gallery named Italy Pavia 2006.

To see 300 images of the previous Augustinian international young adult encounter in Spain in 2003, go to http://www.augnet.org/default.asp?ipageid=6 and choose the gallery named Spain: Gaudarrama.

Plans for the next Encounter, to occur in July 2008, will be announced soon.

Villanova College, Coorparoo, Brisbane

Villanova, the college (an upper primary and secondary school for male day pupils) of the Order of Saint Augustine in Brisbane, Australia, was once again this year the host of the Queensland Catholic Schools and Colleges Musical Festival (QCMF), which Villanova confidently began sixteen years ago.

Conducted over three days, 18th – 20th August 2006, the QCMF this year attracted 250 entries from seventy different Catholic schools. Seventy Villanova students volunteered to assist the festival, and this was appreciated by the QCMF Planning Committee.

Dr Peter Morris, the Director of Music at Villanova, and Sandra Magnus, the QCMF Facilitator, both publicly thanked the members of the Villanova staff, parent body and students who gave a hand during the very busy three days of the festival.

The Director of Catholic Education in Brisbane, David Hutton, wrote in congratulations to Villanova, “I am personally very appreciative of the contribution that Villanova makes to the broader Catholic school community via QCMF. I know it comes as a considerable cost to the College in many ways.”

He also commented the performances by musical participants from Villanova, especially the College’s symphonic band and symphony orchestra. The Villanova participants maintained their high standards of previous years.

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

The QCMF web site is: http://www.qcmf.com.au/

Villanova's music program can be seen at: http://www.vnc.qld.edu.au/Music/program.htm

Third National Augustinian Lay Congress

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

It will take place at South Yarra, Melbourne from Friday 20th April to Sunday 22nd April 2007. The keynote speaker will be Fr Art Purcaro O.S.A.. He is from the United States, has worked for many years on the missions in Peru, and is now stationed in Rome as an Assistant General of the Order.

The title is: Augustine, Ancient & New Vision for the Future. The Congress will seek to link the spirituality of Augustine to the spiritual questions of today. Persons may attend single days of the Congress ($50-$80 per day), or attend all sessions, the congress dinner and congress excursion for a total fee of $250.)

Monica and Mary, the Co-Leaders of Augustinian Friends, issue the invitation, "So how about coming to Melbourne in 2007 to experience Augustine in Autumn?!"

For further information and application forms regarding the Augustinian lay congress in Melbourne in April 2007, contact the Co-Leaders via the parish office of the Augustinian parish of South Yarra (P.O. Box 21, South Yarra, 3141. 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

Masters Degree Program in Augustine

A summer program leading to a Master of Arts degree in the study of St Augustine has begun at at Quezon City in Metro Manila. The venue is the Saint Augustine Centre of Studies (SACS- see photo below).

The new Masters program was officially launched at the SACS graduation ceremony on 27th March 2006, and the first units of the program were taught from 10th April to 20th May 2006.

The teachers of these units were Fr Arnel Dizon O.S.A. (An Introduction to St Augustine), Fr Pederito Aparece O.S.A. (Augustine and Neo-Platonism), and Dr Macario Ofilada Ph.D. (The Dialogues of Augustine). All units are taught in the English language.

There are choices of outcome available within the program. These give different options such as equipping the student to teach Augustine to others, or else preparing the student for further studies in Augustine at a doctoral level. There is a choice of course topics available in every course.

.For example the option that leads to a Master of Arts in Teaching Augustine studies Augustinian pedagogy, Neo-Platonism, Augustinian metaphysics and Augustine’s theory of knowledge. It then surveys Augustine’s sermons, letters, and major books.

The full program is expected to require three summers of classes by each student, and variously also some comprehensive examinations or the writing of a thesis. Students from overseas or other parts of the Philippine can apply for summer accommodation as SACS, depending on its availability.

The next courses will be offered in April-May 2007. Printed information on the course in general and in particular, plus enrolment details, are available in a brochure that may be obtained by writing to the St Thomas of Villanova Institute of Philosophy, Saint Augustine Center of Studies, Fisheries Street, Visayas Avenue, 1100 Quezon City, Philippines.

For information about the M.A. program, persons in Australia can also contact the Augustinian Provincial Office at Brookvale, Sydney by telephoning (02) 9905.3049 during office hours.

Augustinian Friends, Mareeba.

In Mareeba in tropical Queensland on Monday, 28th August nineteen local members of the Augustinian Friends group gathered with their parish priest, Fr Rob Greenup O.S.A., to celebrate the feast of St Augustine (see photo).

Before Mass at the Augustinian Priory, Jeanette Hartley read out the St Augustine’s greetings sent from Melbourne by the Co-Leaders of Augustinian Friends, Monica and Mary.

After Mass, the group moved to the Anthill Hotel, where a delicious meal and friendship was enjoyed by all.

Our nearest Augustinian neighbours.

Saint Peter's Church (pictured at right, below ) on the ouskirts of Sorong, West Papua, Indonesia was the venue for the ordination five weeks ago of an Augustinian who had been raised in that area. Fr Bernardus (also pictured below ) undertook his later studies while living at St Monica's International College in Rome.

He studied for a licentiate from the faculty of missiology at the Pontifical Urbana University, Rome. Bernardus now novice master at Biara Tagaste in the Papuan city of Sorong, the city where he was ordained to the priesthood. He is the first Papuan to be an Augustinian novice master, and has seven novices in his care.

Four photo galleries on part of the Augustinian ministry in Papua are available on nthe Internet. A general coverage is available at: http://www.augnet.org/p/Page1/index.html Three galleries on spicific districts are available be going to http://www.augnet.org/default.asp?ipageid=6 and choosing the galleries named Papua: Ayawasi, Papua: Senopi and Papua: Sorong.

Augnet

Augnet, a comprehensive web site on Saint Augustine and the Order of Saint Augustine, was re-designed and renovated in May 2006. It contains over 1,000 pages of text, which also contain over 1,200 illustrations.

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.

As well twenty-five photo galleries contain over 1,500 photographs depicting the Order of Saint Augustine in many parts of the world.

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

The October 2006 edition of "Current News" will be uploaded here on 1st October 2006.

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