Monday, 17 April 2023 23:21

Opening of the 2023 MSC Australian Province Chapter

Opening of the 2023 MSC Australian Province Chapter

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We arrived. We received our name tags and keys. We shared a drink. We shared a meal.

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At the opening ceremony, all delegates gathered in the Chapel. There was a roll call, asking if each was present, replying, ‘Yes, I am here.’ (Sadly covid at Douglas Park meant that some could not be present.)

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The liturgy was led by Alison McKenzie, Anne McAtomney and music by Gerard McCormick MSC.

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Chris McPhee lit the Chapter candle and took up the Chapter Theme, ‘Take heart, have courage, I am here’.

Some of his reflection.

Today, in this post Covid period of history, we must begin again… To re-ignite this heart of Jesus in ourselves – for us to become again the heart of God for our world, our communities, our ministry and mission…

 

More than ever, the world, the church, our community, needs more people of heart, more people of heart to spread the love of God instead of the law, to be a sign of hope and contradiction rather than authority and legalism…

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I have been amazed by the faith of our young students in our colleges. I have seen our young MSC men, both here and in Vietnam, with energy and enthusiasm for the mission of God. I have been moved by the work of Heart of Life Centre and the many who are now engaged in heart spirituality. The amazing work at the Chevalier Institute, leading our college staff into the heart of God. The life-giving work of the Mission Office, restoring hope to a very poor world. The loving care of our ageing men throughout the province. Life’s Healing Journey to the seminarians at Good Shepherd. The spiritual direction, offering ways of seeing life, at Douglas Park. The reaching out to the sick in hospitals, to prisons, and to retirement homes. The continued opening of Word and Sacrament, Sunday after Sunday. The awakening of the heart that happens when our Parish Formation team enters a community. The perseverance and working walking with our First Nations People. The overseas retreat work… And the list could go on and on.

 

We have been sent to be a heart, a light into a world, we have been sent into a Church, community, a mission that says the divorced and remarried, the homosexual, and women are inadequate images of Christ… In a world that discriminates against race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, refugees, different religious traditions, the aboriginal or any other bigoted beliefs about a group of people that separates and divides the world into those who are in those who are out… All of us, as missionaries of God’s Heart, we have been sent to restore, to welcome, to accept difference, as being the very image of God’s self…

Senior member, Paul Castley, read the Gospel of the theme, Peter walking on the water, afraid and Jesus reaching out for him.

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The Chapter Tree was prominent and various members brought up symbols, stole, cross, bread, Fr ChevLier and Fr Cuskelly writings, constitutions – and Michael Fallon and Michael Nithan read texts.

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Business procedure followed, approval (by acclamation) of the different committees, Steering, Liturgy, Logistics, Chairs, Statements, Secretariat… 

And not forgetting that John Bosman played the didgeridoo after the acknowledgement of the custodians of the land.

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Business sessions begin Tuesday morning.  (Thanks for the photos from Nang, Hoa and Trieu and the team - and see the streaming of the session on the Facebook page, MSC Vocations, Australia.)