AUGUSTINIAN BULLETIN BOARD – October 2005

 Give Way to God

You, a person in charge of your own household, are unfairly and foolishly blamed by someone who is ignorant of your reasons and your plans. And have you the nerve to find fault with the one in charge of the whole universe, the creator of heaven and earth, because the wind has blown and withered the vines, or a thundercloud has sprung up and poured down hail? Don't find fault. He knows both how to control and to arrange all his works. As for you, you certainly could not have constructed heaven and earth, and yet if you had the chance you would tell God, “Oh, if only I were in control, I wouldn't do what you do.” Isn't it the case, after all, that when something or other done by God annoys you, you are really wishing you were in control? Shame on you! See whose place it is to wish to take; you are going to die, he is immortal; you are a human, he's God. You would do better giving way to him than trying to take his place. Give way to God, because he is God. And if perhaps he does something that is against your will, perhaps it isn't against your best interest. 

St Augustine , Sermon 15A, 8

YEAR OF THE EUCHARIST - Augustine on the Eucharist

Our nearest Augustinian neighbours

An Augustinian at Jayapura, Indonesia

When we think of Augustinians overseas, our thoughts usually focus on the Order in the Philippines, Korea or Europe, yet our nearest Augustinian neighbours are in Papua , Indonesia (just across the international land border with Papua New Guinea). In fact, the Augustinian parish in Mareeba, North Queensland (Australia) is considerably nearer to the Augustinian Priory at Jayapura, Papua than it is to the Augustinian houses in Sydney .

The Augustinian Delegation of Papua has operated since 1953. It presently contains five Dutch-born Augustinians and thirty-three Indonesian-born Augustinians. Sixteen of the locally-born are studying theology at Jayapura, Indonesia, and another four at St Monica's College in Rome .

The Augustinian Delegation of Papua has a forty-image photo gallery on the Internet. The photographs depict Augustinian life and ministry in Papua, from the largest cities to remote jungle villages. The photographs have captions in both the English and Indonesian language.

Go to www.augnet.org/Papua/Page1/index.html

John Barry O.S.A., Citizen of the Year

Fr John Barry O.S.A.

Fr John Barry O.S.A., parish priest in South Yarra and Prahran (Melbourne) has been named as Citizen of the Year for service to the local community . This award was presented to him on 6 th October at the Stonnington Town Hall (formerly the Malvern Town Hall ). The award recognises the valuable justice and outreach ministry of Fr Barry and of the two parish communities under his leadership and inspiration.

John has been parish priest of South Yarra since late in 1989 (and subsequently of the adjacent Parish of Prahran as well). Throughout his priestly life he has been associated with a number of organisations for what some would call ‘broken people' and, in doing so, has generously accepted the many hours of service and personal involvement that this has required.

A “Gus” gig on Auntie

Fr Paul Maloney O.S.A.

In late September Fr. Paul Maloney O.S.A. of the Centre for Augustinian Spirituality, Greystanes (Sydney) completed the writing and recording of seven short meditations for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Australia's government-owned radio/TV network.

He was contracted to provide a series of talks inviting the listener to experience an "Augustinian approach to contemplation". Noel Debien, the ABC producer of these presentations, was keen to have the words and wisdom of Augustine included in what is to be a survey of world religions and their approach to prayer and contemplation.

Augustinian Formation Association

Caption: Sister Joan takes a photo on the AFA bus trip.

The Augustinian Formation Association (AFA) raises funds to support the training of Augustinian brothers and priests in the Australian Province . Other purposes of the group are to support the Augustinians in prayer, and to strengthen the bonds of friendship among supporters of the Order.

It was originally called the Augustinian Student Guild, and was established by a parent group at St Augustine 's College, Brookvale, Sydney , Australia around 1970. The association now has members throughout the Province. Its executive is currently based in Sydney , with Trudi McFadden as president and Fr Peter Jones O.S.A. as its chaplain.

The most recent AFA event was a bus trip to the Benedictine Sisters' Monastery at Jamberoo, south of Sydney , on Sunday, 2nd September. The next AFA event planned for Sydney is the annual AFA Christmas Dinner on Friday, 25th November. For more details, contact Fr Peter Jones O.S.A. at the Provincial office, ph. (02) 9905.3049.

Papal honour

Kevin Smith and Fr Peter Wieneke O.S.A..

The Apostolic Nuncio in Australia has announced that the Holy Father Pope Benedict XV1 has bestowed on Mr Kevin Goodhope Smith of St Cecilia's Parish, Balgowlah, Sydney, the papal honour “ Croce Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice ”. Kevin was presented with the certificate accompanying the award at the vigil Mass in St Cecilia's church on Saturday 24 th September. The Latin on the certificate reads:

Benedict XV1 Supreme Pontiff
happily awards with the supreme Cross of the Order for Church and Pontiff
the esteemed Kevin Goodhope Smith
given in recognition of the excellence of his work and studies
being worthy of such honour
and is hereby granted the privilege to wear
the symbol of this award
Given at the Vatican, May 6th, 2005.

Kevin was born an Israelite in 1921. His Jewish mother become a Catholic, and Kevin was then baptised. He spent many years in France where he participated in the ecumenical movement in a practical way. He was engaged in this ministry when ecumenism was still in its infancy from 1954-1960. In the 1960s he became an honorary secretary of the NSW Ad-hoc Committee for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. He was a member of the Ecumenical Commission of the Diocese of Broken Bay ( Sydney , Australia ) for three years.

St Cecilia's Parish, Balgowlah, Sydney is staffed by the Augustinians who minister and live in the adjacent St Kieran's Parish, Manly Vale.

St Augustine's College, Brookvale

In recent years SAOBA ( St Augustine 's Old Boys Association) have adopted the tradition of acknowledging staff members who have completed over twenty-five years of service on the staff of the College in Brookvale (Sydney), Australia . Recipients of the presentations to date include John O'Brien, Les Bobis, Barry Cardiff, Marie Gately and Paul McAlinden. At the annual SAOBA dinner this year, tribute was paid to Linda Heeringa.

Linda, who came to Australia from South Africa , was first employed over 30 years ago by Fr Ralph Cameron OSA. Her years at the College fall into two separate periods, from 1974 to 1977, and from 1983 to the present.

Linda is the only member of staff to have served under five principals at the College: Fr Ralph Cameron O.S.A., Fr Kevin Burman O.S.A., Fr David Austin O.S.A., Mr John O'Brien and now Mr Tim Cleary.

The tribute to Linda by the Old Boys recognised the great influence she has had on generations of students from the College as well as the esteem fellow members of staff have for her. In her reply, Linda paid tribute to the Augustinian spirit that has persisted in the community since she first encountered it in the Augustinians and the school community in 1974.

The recent acknowledgment provides the Augustinians in Australia, many of whom know Linda, with the occasion to thank her for her service at St Augustine's and wish her well as her continues to be teacher, colleague and friend to so many.

Villanova's musical contribution

The Villanova College Symphonic Band under the baton of Dr Peter Morris, Villanova's Director of Music.

The Order's Villanova College , Coorparoo (Brisbane) has since 19991 planned and hosted what is now called the Queensland Catholic Schools' and Colleges' Music Festival, in which over 5,500 students participated this year as part of choral, orchestral and instrumental groups. No doubt partly as a result of these annual festivals, the interest in and uptake of music as a school subject at Villanova has increased, and also a number of Villanova graduates have moved into careers in music and musical education.

Another fruit of Villanova's labours in this regard has been the consistently high standards attained in music by Villanova students. This is seen in the results obtained in the Music Festivals. Not only were the results of 2005 no exception, but they probably can be described as Villanova's best-over results in music competition.

Its students amassed twelve gold awards. This included every A Level Band and String section in the 2005 festival, i.e., the gold awards in Symphony Orchestra, Concert Band A, Jazz Band A, Senior String Orchestra, Intermediate String Orchestra, Primary String Orchestra. The College also carried away a number of silver and bronze awards as well. Only one ensemble entered the College missed receiving an award.

The importance and value of music education in the life of Villanova has been duly recognised in its Strategic Plan, and literally expressed concretely in the Augustine Centre, a multi-million-dollar state-of-the-art arts and drama complex opened on the front of the college property earlier this year.

Australian Augustinian National Youth Festival

At regular intervals since 1988, the Augustinians in Australia have offered to young adults in their ministries a youth festival extending over a few days. These gatherings have taken place in the three eastern mainland states. The eighth festival will take place from Sunday 15th January to Friday 20th January 2006.

The venue will be Koonjewarre Retreat Centre, at Springbrook in the Gold Coast hinterland of Queensland ( see photos ). A young adult planning group, with representatives for three states, has already begun preparations.

For enquiries, booking details and for further information as it becomes available, please contact Father Tony Banks O.S.A. at P.O. Box 679 , Brookvale NSW 2100, Australia , or phone (02) 9905 3049, or email tonybanks@augustinians.org.au

Australian Augustinian groups at WYD in Cologne

The Sydney Augustinian group in Milan .

For the recent World Youth Day in Cologne , Germany , three Augustinians priests from Australia participated with a total of twenty-two young adults from three Augustinian parish localities: St Clair (Diocese of Parramatta), Manly Vale/Balgowlah (Diocese of Broken Bay) and Mareeba/Dimbulah (Diocese of Cairns).

As highlights of their pilgrimage, the young adults nominated their time with the German Augustinian group before World Youth Day, the moment of the papal announcement that Sydney would host the next WYD in 2008, and the Augustinian pilgrimage in Italy afterwards.

Mime at Weiden, Germany.

When in Weiden during the week before WYD, the Sydney Augustinian group were asked to perform a mime on an Australian human rights issue in the city streets. Working with Amnesty International, they chose the issue of Australia 's stolen generation. One of the Australians commented, “It was really fun doing it because there's not every many opportunities to perform a mime in another country in the middle of their shopping area.”

In Italy , the combined group from Sydney (i.e., Manly Vale/Balgowlah and St Clair) afterwards went to places of Augustinian significance, including Milan , Pavia (where Augustine is buried) and the monastery of San Gimignano (see the following news item). Underneath the duomo (cathedral) in Milan , they visited the ancient baptistry where most likely Augustine received the waters of baptism (see group photo).

One of the group submitted the following WYD reflection: “ It was awesome, once in a lifetime, wonderful, inspiring. All these words first come to mind when I look back to world youth day. But behind all these words there were feelings of hard work, patience and the challenge of finding comfort outside your comfort zone.

I was lucky enough to experience WYD with a group of 18 beautiful people. In addition to the World Youth Day week also visited Augustinians around the world learning about the life of St Augustine . We travelled with two Augustinian priests, Fr Tony and Fr Jun and visited places like Milan , where St Augustine was baptised and Pavia where his bones lay to rest.

Looking back to the trip, one of the things I learned was the meaning behind the phrase "God created us in his image." for I didn't see God in the magnificent churches we saw, … (but) in simple acts through the people I travelled with. Simple acts like someone offering to help lighten someone else's load and carry their bags, the patience and understanding guidance shows by the leaders, and through a simple apology that was offered when unintended hurt was caused by actions….

Though I highly recommend travelling another thing I experienced from WYD is that God can be found in everyone around you and in everything you do. I would encourage everyone to try & experience World Youth Day when Australia hosts it in 2OO8. Hope to see you there :) ”

Australia and San Gimignano

Front door plate, San Gimignano.

The Australian Augustinian Province has given Aus$5,000 towards renovations of the Convento S. Agostino at San Gimignano in Italy . The donation was made in light of the service of the ministry there to the Order internationally, from which members of the Australian Province and associates from its parishes and colleges have benefited.

Convento S. Augustino is a medieval Augustinian monastery within a picturesque walled city in a wine-producing area of Tuscany in northern Italy . The church attached to the monastery was begun in the year 1280, and was later decorated with what is now the world's most famous series of frescoes on the life of Augustine. Go to http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jod/augustine/gozzoli.html

The beautiful cloister (internal courtyard, garden and covered walkways) of the monastery were the work of Fr Domenico Strambi O.S.A. during the second half of the fifteenth century. As well as being one of the most architecturally-valued Augustinian buildings in the world, this convento (monastery) is truly one of the great historic landmarks of the Augustinian Order.

American-born Father Brian Lowery O.S.A. has led the ministry there for the past ten years, offering retreats and opportunities for personal reflection to visitors from all over the world. He can be contacted by mail at Convento S. Agostino, Piazza S. Agostino 10, 53037 San Gimignano SI, Italy, by
telephone: 0577 90 70 12
fax: 0577 94 03 83.

Five pages of historical information on the town and monastery are available on the Internet at http://www.augnet.org Go to the section on the Order of Saint Augustine, then select “History”, then select “Places”, then select “Europe 04.” Augnet's photo galleries of more than forty large images of the monastery and town appear at http://www.augnet.org/SanGimignano/Page1

Consolation Sisters

(L to R) Sisters Marie and Joan.

Sister Joan (pronounced “Joanne”) has arrived in Brookvale from the Philippines to take over this month from Sister Gavina on the chaplaincy team of St Augustine 's College, Brookvale. After three years in this role, Sr Gavina has been transferred back to the Philippines . A Mass and luncheon were held at the convent in Brookvale on 17 th September, to mark the feast of Our Lady of Consolation, to farewell Sister Gavina and to welcome Sister Joan. Sister Joan was accompanied to Australia by Sister Marie, a provincial councillor who then spent two weeks with the Sisters in Brookvale before returning to Manila . Sister Gavina will return to the Philippines on 18 th October.

Thanks from Korea

The Augustinians of Korea , 6 th Sept 2005.

On 6 th September a message of appreciation and thanks to the Australian Augustinian Province and its benefactors was sent to Fr Patrick Fahey O.S.A. (Augustinian Provincial, Australia ) by Brother Barnabas Jeong-Dok Kim O.S.A., the regional superior of the Augustinians in Korea . The message marked the commemoration of the twentieth anniversary of the arrival of the first Augustinians in Korea (including two Australians, Frs Michael Sullivan O.S.A. and Brian Buckley O.S.A.)

The massage read: “On behalf of the Delegation of Korea, I would like to acknowledge your kind thoughts and greetings on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the arrival of the first Augustinians in Korea, a project in which the Australian Province was involved from its inception in the early 1980's and through the participation of three members of the Province, directly engaged from that time forward.”

“The continuing interest, encouragement and very significant ongoing support of your Council and members throughout those years has also played a pivotal role in ensuring the continuing growth of the venture that began when Paul Graham O.S.A. and Kevin Lowry O.S.A. from England , and Michael Sullivan O.S.A. and Brian Buckley O.S.A. from Australia stepped off the plane on September 1985.”

“The occasion was marked with a Mass and celebration in the Inchon Cathedral yesterday in conjunction with a commemoration of the seventh centenary of the death of St. Nicolas of Tolentine, the first saint of the Order and the patron of our Delegation of Korea. The celebration was attended by a gathering of around 300 people. One member of the Delegation, Brother Paolo Kim O.S.A. (presently studying in Rome) made his solemn profession during the Mass on the same day, becoming the sixth native Korean to do so.”

“We would be grateful if you would convey our sincere thanks to the members of the Province and hope that you will share our sense of pride in what has been achieved of the last two decades.”

New book on St Augustine .

Professor James O'Donnell, provost at Georgetown University ( Washington D.C. , U.S.A. ) and editor of the definitive edition of Augustine's Confessions, has this year brought out a new book entitled ‘ Augustine, a new biography .' The publishers are Harper-Collins and the ISBN is 0-06-053537-7. Hardcover list price US$29.95 (but online via the Internet at Amazon http://www.amazon.com is available for US$17.19) and paperback US$10.17

The book is somewhat controversial – much of this no doubt because of “the shock of the new.” Nobody doubts O'Donnell's mastery of his subject, but to varying degrees reviewers have looked askance at some of his comments. Some feel uncomfortable with the final composite image of Augustine that the book leaves in the reader's imagination. To a large degree, however, O'Donnell is trying to provoke his readers out of a too stereotyped and idealised image of Augustine.

O'Donnell states that the book sets out to cover what the Confessions omitted. He deals with the "many Augustines" who have been lost behind Augustine's own self-presentation. These include the aspiring social climber who transferred his ambitions from society to church; the bitter and dogged polemicist; and "Don Quixote of Hippo," whose "fantasy world of earliest Christianity has come eerily to be real." Augustine's contemporaries read him differently than we read him, and O'Donnell provides the theological, historical, and linguistic context in which those earlier readers functioned.

As both puzzling and enthralling reading, the book is a “must read” for anyone wishing to be conversant with contemporary scholarship on Augustine - O'Donnell's academic reputation deserves that much. One reviewer adds that Peter Brown's earlier biography of Augustine should be read first, a volume that O'Donnell himself generously acknowledges in a footnote of this book as being the best biography of Augustine.

Another reviewer asks if O'Donnell's familiarity with Augustine has bred contempt. And Patricia Monaghan from the American Library Association predicts, “… this [book] will become a classic on its subject.” Whether people love this book or hate it, Harper-Collins Publishers is here on to a winner!

FOR SOME CURRENT NEWS ABOUT THE ORDER OUTSIDE AUSTRALIA Click here

AUGUSTINIAN CENTRE FOR SPIRITUALITY PROGRAM 2005
2 Hewitt Avenue
Greystanes 2145
Enquiries 9896 6794
www.augustinians.org.au/communities/greystanes.html