Feast of the Ascension

In Acts of the Apostles, the eleven apostles are reminded of what they had experienced and been present with Jesus: the Cana wedding feast, calming storms, healing Peter’s mother-in-law, the feeding of the crowds with the loaves and fishes. They were commissioned, as we are, to continue the work they had done together. However, they continued to question Jesus. Still not comprehending the reality of the moment and hesitant, they were assured, ‘You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.’ They remained hesitant of what was happening. We are challenged today to overcome our fear of the unknown and to discover the God of life and love beyond the familiar patterns, known boundaries and limited horizons. It is not in yearning for or holding on the known and the familiar but in re-imagining the future and venturing into the unknown chaos we shall find new life.

On 28 April 2023 the Edmund Rice Centre for Justice & Community Education organized an information session for the Iranian refugees in NSW. The session was conducted in collaboration with Immigration Advice & Rights Centre (IARC) and the Australian-Iranian Community Organization (AICO). To make the session linguistically accessible, we organized it in Farsi. It was highly appreciated by the community.

Sixth Sunday of Easter

It is two weeks to Pentecost Sunday where we celebrate the presence of Jesus’ Spirit in the world. It is a Spirit completely opposed to the world’s prevailing spirit of competition, violence, misogyny, and alienation from creation. The readings recognize human family, cooperation, non-violence, and respect for the Earth as foundational in our lives and where we recognise the Spirit within ourselves and others which is often at odds with the “truth” of the world.  This truth is the presence of the sacred in every human being enables us to recognise Christ in ourselves and all we meet.