Friday Mass, Memorial of the Queenship of Mary

The principal celebrant for this Mass was Archbishop Paul Gallagher the Apostolic Nuncio for Australia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Gallagher_(bishop)

http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bgalla.html

http://www.cam.org.au/News-and-Events/News-and-Events/News/Article/16457/Meet-the-Apostolic-Nuncio-Archbishop-Paul-Gallagher#.VCNy78scTIU

http://protocol.dfat.gov.au/Mission/view.rails?id=86

The readings were taken from Friday Week 20 Ordinary Time Year II

The first reading was from Ezekiel 37:1-4, a passage where God takes Ezekiel to a valley of dry bones and commands him to prophesy over the bones. The bones change and become an immense army. God then tells Ezekiel that this is what He wants to do for His people who think all their hopes have dried up.

The responsorial psalm was not the one in the lectionary. It was Psalm 62(63) a.k.a. first psalm for Sunday Week 1 Morning Prayer with the response 'My soul is thirsting for You, O Lord my God'.

The Gospel reading was from Matthew 22: 34-40 where Jesus is being questioned by a representative of the Pharisees about which is the greatest commandment of the law, and Jesus answers him by saying that we should love God with our whole being and we should love our neighbour as ourselves.

This reading from Ezekiel is one of the options for the Vigil of Pentecost and one that prayer groups in recent decades have often prayed would be fulfilled in their lifetimes. To have that reading proclaimed to us gathered for the Conference on Our Lady's feast day of her Queenship in the presence of the Papal Nuncio and representatives of the Church throughout Australasia was thrilling beyond measure. To hear that promise anew spoken by God into such an assembly was a promise of a mighty action of God's Holy Spirit if we put into practice the new directions He is giving us through this conference. In many ways, it was also deeply consoling and encouraging after we had taken a good long look at all the bad news in the National Church Life Survey results for Catholic parishes.

Archbishop Gallagher : "The reading from Ezekiel we have heard today is more than sufficient for us. Sadly these great quantities of dry bones are a contemporary experience in all the killing fields and places of genocide in our world. They are a testimony to the cruelty of man and to the reality of evil. We would much prefer that they did not exist.

What shocking words these are 'these bones are the whole house of Israel'. These words resonate with me as a pastor and as a human being. We would not be here if everything was beautiful in the garden of the Church.

We struggle on many fronts. It is hard to be confident that flourishing will come, especially when we stare at the white haired imposter that looks back at us from the bathroom mirror every morning. Yet we all know elders of great vigour who put us all to shame.

The Church is injured by many self-inflicted blows. We must be grateful for this awareness that gives us such a cold shower of sobriety.

Be guardians of hope, that is what Pope Francis is telling us, by keeping aflame faith, love and zeal.  God takes the initiative. He has loved us first. Let us go out to the crossroads and invite and welcome everyone. Let us take the first step, and become involved in God's great work.

Like those bones in the valley, we need life, that life which comes from the Holy Spirit.

In the Gospel passage we see the Pharisees try to disconcert Jesus. The Pharisee who asks the question about the greatest commandment is implicitly asking Jesus to throw him a lifeline. In many ways it is a similar question to the young man who asked Jesus 'What must I do to inherit eternal life?' The reply Jesus gives to the Pharisee is a challenge to us as individuals and as Church. Jesus will not give up until He has all of us, heart, body, soul and mind.

Following Jesus is not a soft option. I am in this for life.

I cling to the words of St Irenaeus, 'The glory of God is man fully alive'.

Let us beg the intercession of Mary, Queen and Mother, and Jesus, for the graces to become truly alive in Him to the glory of God the Father."

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The next blog-post will be about the workshop on the leadership of Pope Francis.

Some of the workshops have been made available as podcasts via www.xt3.com

To access them visit http://www.xt3.com/library/view.php?id=17454

Some of the talks and workshops are now available from http://www.proclaimconference.com.au/resources.

Several video clips, transcripts, handouts and slide presentations are downloadable.  

Now more than ever, Australians need to be praying that God raises up extraordinarily good new bishops. Since Lent is just around the corner, your Lenten penance could be valuably offered up for this intention.

Those of us who have been praying for bishops to take on the several vacant Australian dioceses would have been aware something was up. During January, most people are on holidays and not much happens. But here we are in the fourth week of February without any episcopal appointments being announced.

Now we know why.

With the announcement of Pope Francis calling Cardinal Pell to Rome to work full time on the difficult Vatican banking and finance problems, much of the episcopal planning already done must have been thrown into disarray.  

As we all well know the appointment of a bad bishop can wreck generations of spiritual havoc, the appointment of a mediocre bishop can allow all kinds of bad situations to flourish, and the appointment of a good bishop will lead to untold spiritual good. The stakes are very high, so pray we must.

Not only must the Apostolic Nuncio find a possible candidate, who is theologically sound, can preach, can inspire, can pray, has sufficient intelligence and education, can lead, and who consistently has positive encounters with the members of his flock, extensive background checks need to be done. Only then does the candidate get asked to accept such a heavy responsibility for the sake of God's people. Many good candidates refuse. Thus we must pray, and pray daily. Only with prayer will God's most holy and beneficial will be done in these crucial matters.

Let us pray then that the Holy Spirit will lead those seeking the new successors of the apostles, and that in His Mercy He will reveal which of those on the short lists are unsuitable due to ambition, personality disorders and serious character defects and which have His divine approval.

Our Lady Help of Christians, patroness of Australia and Queen of the Apostles, pray for us.

St Mary of the Cross MacKillop, pray for us.

Ven. Caroline Chisholm, pray for us.

For a good daily prayer in intercession for a new bishop, print out the single page A4 PDF below.... 

Just before Pope Benedict XVI retired, he gave permission for the bishop of Broken Bay diocese, Bishop David Walker, to retire as soon as a new bishop for the diocese is appointed. Bishop Walker turns 75 in November, the usual age at which bishops retire. However the process to select a new bishop can easily take longer than six months.

In Australia there are already several vacant Sees, notably Canberra-Goulburn, and our new Apostolic Nuncio only takes up his new posting in our country this month. Trying to discern new bishops at the same time as you are getting used to a whole different culture isn't an easy task. Please pray for him.

The process goes something like this : At regular intervals each bishop is asked to give the Apostolic Nuncio a short list of the names of those priests in his diocese who he thinks are bishop material. The Nuncio then has to check them out, work out whether they have sufficient learning, sufficient holiness and sufficient fidelity to preaching the Gospel and Catholic dogma, and whether they have enough administrative ability and enough interpersonal skills to do a decent job. Even if this new Samuel finds a new David, there is no guarantee that the desired candidate will say 'Yes'. If not, the process continues.

So prayers are definitely needed all round. And needed now.
 
Our prayers will make our Nuncio's discernment task easier and will help God's chosen one to say 'yes' and to persevere in that 'yes'. With a good bishop the priests of a diocese grow in holiness and courage to preach the whole truth, and vocations are plentiful. With a less-than-good bishop errors go unchecked, priestly morale drops, vocations dry up and the foundations for future scandals are laid.

Broken Bay diocese is in particular need of a new bishop of the good variety. For quite some time we have been jokingly known as the Broken Faith diocese, and not without reason. 

Of your charity, please join us in praying for not only a good bishop, but for a great bishop ; let us trust that the generous Mercy of God will grant to Broken Bay diocese the best bishop our nation has ever had thus far in its history - if enough of us pray and pray daily and with perseverance. 

Below is a PDF containing an A4 page, with 4 copies of a Prayer for a New Bishop. Please download it, print it, distribute it and encourage others to pray it. A copy with a place to add the name of your own diocese will also be placed on the Resources - Prayer page.
 

Our Lady, Help of Christians, Patroness of Australia, pray for us.
Our Lady, Star of the Sea, Patroness of Broken Bay diocese, pray for us.
Venerable Caroline Chisholm, Patroness of the diocesan offices, pray for us.