HOMILY by Richard Leonard SJ In the early 1970s there was an edition of Readers Digest that told how a jet crashed in the Andes. It was a good case study in moral reasoning. The issue was that some of the

survivors of that crash resorted to cannibalism to survive. The question the author posed was, ‘Is it ever ethical to eat another human being?’

Whatever the extreme and specific ethical arguments for cannibalism might be, the

thought of eating another person is repulsive to most of us. Yet many people outside Catholicism often think that we are Christian cannibals, feasting on Jesus’ flesh and blood.

The best traditions in the Church have always been very careful in the language they use about how Jesus is present in the Eucharist. We are not cannibals. We are not eating Jesus’

liver, brain and bones.

In the Catechism when it speaks of the Eucharistic real presence, it never refers to ‘Jesus’ but always to ‘Christ’. The distinction matters. The Eucharist is a Sacrament of Easter. It is

the glorified, risen Christ who is wholly and truly present under the form of bread and wine at the Eucharist.

Popular piety and legends that speak too explicitly about the physicality of the Eucharist have not helped us have sensible thinking. As a Catholic I believe that Christ, raised by God from the dead, is truly and personally present to me in the Eucharist. How – is a

question that misses the point of the gift.

Chapter six of John’s Gospel is a discourse on the Eucharist. It is also, and at the same

time, a discourse about Jesus’ passion and death and our mission to follow in his way. For Jesus, the new Moses, not only gives bread to the people, but also in his passion, death

and resurrection he gives us himself. This is why the Church has always linked the events

at Easter with the celebration of Eucharist.

Why have we been given this unique gift? The Eucharist is not meant to be a feast for a

privileged few. It’s not a private devotion. It’s not meant to be something that only assures us of our own particular salvation. It is meant to be something that empowers all

Christians to go out and transform the world with love and goodness for Christ's sake.

The Church has always linked what we do away from the Eucharist with what we celebrate at it. This doesn’t mean that all of us can rush out and feed the world’s poor. It does mean

that most of us can assist other groups or people who do precisely that. And it does means that when we think about who we will vote for as political leaders, we ask about their platform in relation to those in our country and world who are suffering the most. The

former General of the Jesuits, Fr Pedro Arrupe once said, ‘If there is hunger anywhere in the world, then our celebration of the Eucharist is somehow incomplete everywhere in the

world’.

Sometimes we can think of the Eucharist as a magical act. Jesus counters such a notion in today’s gospel when he tells us that he gives us himself ‘for the life of the world’. The

Eucharist does not turn us into cannibals; it’s meant to make us radicals, radically committed to all God’s people everywhere.

© Richard Leonard SJ.

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) 19th of August, 2018

St Vincent de Paul Meeting

will be held on

Monday, 10th September at 5pm

Social Bowls & Cards

will be held on

Monday, 20th August

from 9:30 – 12:00

Come along and enjoy this social

morning.

Last weekend we celebrated the

baptism of Percy Fletcher

Saunders.

Percy is pictured with his

parents

Pierce and Emma and his

Godparents Michael Jamieson &

Alex Carrigan.

May God continue to work

wonders throughout his life.

The next Finance Committee Meeting will be

held on Thursday 6th September at 5.15pm.

Thank you to our Finance Committee – Phil

O’Shea, John Toohey, Denise McCormack, Tony

Tonkin, Julie Tonkin, Michael Cowley, Mary

Collins & Annette Billsborough.

We are thinking of our Farmers and our whole

community who are suffering in this terrible

drought. Please say a prayer for them –

Prayer for Rain:

O God, in whom we live and move and have our being, grant us sufficient rain, so that, being supplied with what sustains us in this present life, we may seek more confidently what sustains us for eternity. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity

of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen

SAVE THE DATE

Starry Starry Night

Saturday 27th October 2018

More details to follow

St Vincent de Paul Meeting

will be held on

Monday, 10th September at

5pm

Thank-you for your contributions:

12/08/18

Envelopes: $322.00 Loose: $223.00

Direct Deposits: $125/wk (average over a month)

Parish Bank A/C Details

A/C Name: ADF St Mary’s Parish Goondiwindi

BSB: 064-786 A/C Number: 518826001

If paying by direct deposit, please use your

initials/surname as the reference.

VOLUNTEERS

Tuesday…….Kaloma…..11.00am

Wednesday (Rosary 5:10pm).…..5:30pm Friday……12:15pm

19th August 2018

SUNDAY MORNING: Goondiwindi 9.00am

25th/26th August 2018 SATURDAY EVENING: Goondiwindi 6.00pm

SUNDAY MORNING: 8.00am

1st/2nd September 2018 SATURDAY EVENING: Goondiwindi 6.00pm

SUNDAY MORNING: Daymar 8.00am ; Weengallon 10.00am

9th September 2018 SUNDAY MORNING: Goondiwindi 9.00am

WE PRAY FOR THOSE: Who have entered your kingdom: including Mervyn Fleming, Elly Heynen Knols (Teresa Heynen’s aunt),Brian O’Brien (FM’s Uncle), Nick Heironymus, Stella McGovern, Loretta Brennan, Tom Mitchell, Steve Aspinall, Delva Brown, Fay Hunt, Don McDonald, Allan Amey, Barry Kindt, Gwendolyn “Henny” Makim, Epigenia Cabus (Claire & Rose’s sister), Barbara Duffy, Vince O’Brien (Roma), Bishop John Gerry, Laurance Martyn, Frank Brosnan, Max Hohn, Kath Johnson, Muriel “Sis” Plain (Len Cleal’s sister), Robert Miller, Elaine Symes, June Corish, Ted Heironymus, Gloria Glasser, Therese Sullivan, Helen Farrell, Fr. Merv Ziesing, Joan Lawson, Thea McNaulty, Whose anniversary is at this time: including Kevin “Skeet” McMaster, Audrey Albeck., Sr Bess Turvey, , Mona O’Brien, Maria Magoffin, Chris Finlayson, Shirley Byrne, David Hiles, Ziggy Schmidt, Terence Collins, Alma Rigney, William “Des” Whittle, Joseph Fraser, Olive Thompson, Noel McGovern, Jill Field, Frank Holland, Trish Taylor, Madeline Cubby, Noela McDonald, Barbara Bardsley, Mary Cannon, Rita Johnson, Frank Smith, Margaret Cook, Pauline Pollock, Joan “Mary” Terry, Len Collins, Vincent Mullins, Darren Benecke, Beryl O’Keefe, John Webber, Robert “Bob” McCall, Sarah “Dot” Drew, Constance Butler, Norman Montgomery, Gay Brydon, Clarence Manton, Kathleen Kyte, Jason Webster, Kathleen Nolan, Gordon “Matey” Cairns, Dolly Cubis, Jamie Smith, Norman Harpur, Peter Lloyd, Kevin O’Brien, Edward Holcombe, Who are ill: including Aileen Bennett, Iris Simpson, Celie Brosnan, Mel Cairns, Mick Kelloway, Joy Collins, Hardy Sutton, Donna Lindores, John Abbot, Angus Rigney, Jan Jan Charles, Tom Turvey, Bill Dyer, Trish Dyer, Brian Freeney, Pat & Teresa Mullins, Deanna Dawson, Anne Hunt, Kevin Lawless, Ray Mackie, Peter Keehn, Joan Fleming, Gloria Bale, David Croft, Tim Bourke, Joe Cowmeadow, Shirley Schluter, Stasia Lawless, Paul Lloyd, Mavis Gordon, Jean Ramada, Jean Sizer, Francis Lloyd, Madonna Nicoletti, Stephanie & Chris Adamson, Bailey Brennan, Pauline Robinson, Win Skinner, Sonya Horrigan, Helen Paige, John Toohey, Marie Cook, Phillip Carney, Shirley Riley, and Joseph Hord; also those ill at home, in hospital and for those in Kaloma.

We pray for the clergy of the Toowoomba Diocese whose anniversary is during

this month.

Rev Fr Mark Cosgrove (07/08/47) Rev Fr John Ryan (09/08/01)

Rev Fr Patrick Kelly (10/08/86) Rev Fr Charles McDonald (24/08/70)

Rev Msgr Patrick Doyle (27/08/00) Rev Fr Bryan Nolan (28/08/68)

Rev Msgr Stanley Skehan (29/08/00)

Lord, hear our prayers and be merciful to your servants, the Bishops and Priests of this Diocese whom you have called from this life. Welcome them into the company of your Saints in the Kingdom of light and peace. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

WELCOMERS AT DOOR

ANNE WEBSTER & PAULINE CORCORAN (19/08)

CLAIRE CHARLES (26/08)

TRISH WELSH & PAM MORRIS (01/09)

WELCOMER AT MICROPHONE

VOLUNTEER NEEDED (19/08)

ST MARY’S SCHOOL (26/08)

PAT THOMPSON (01/09)

1ST READER/PSALM

CARMEL SCHAUMBURG (19/08)

GRAHAM MCGOVERN (26/08)

BRETT POLLARD (01/09)

2ND READING/ALLELUIA

ROBYN LINDORES (19/08)

ANDREW ERBACHER (26/08)

MARY COLLINS (01/09)

EUCHARIST MINISTERS

BRIAN COOK, YVONNE ISAAK &

CLAIRE CHARLES (19/08)

CARMEL GEESON, MARY COLLINS &

DAWN CLANCY (26/08)

MICK CLANCY, ROS PHILLIPS & MARY BURCHELL

(01/09)

DATA PROJECTOR

MARY COLLINS (19/08)

ROS PHILLIPS (26/08)

CARMEL SCHAUMBURG (01/09)

MONEY COUNTERS

DENISE MCCORMACK & JENNIFER LAWLESS (19/08)

TERESA HEYNEN & BELL FAMILY (26/08)

KERRY O’CONNOR & CLAIRE CHARLES (01/09)

GROUNDS ROSTER

GRAHAM MCGOVERN & TERRY RYAN (AUGUST)

ALAN WELSH & DAVE BAUER (SEPTEMBER)

Introduction

These readings invite us to surrender whatever holds us back from living as signs and witnesses to the love

of Jesus Christ. In word and in sacrament, Jesus comes to us and invites us to the banquet of faith. But if we accept the invitation, we must pay attention to how

we live, not as foolish persons but as wise people who make the most of this opportunity to be the bread of life in the world. We have been given the means, the

ticket, if you will, to live forever. Do we accept the invitation?

First Reading Proverbs 9:1-6

Share in this banquet and advance in understanding

Responsorial Psalm Psalm 34

Taste and see the goodness of the Lord

Second Reading

Ephesians 5:15-20

Time is a gift; live as instruments of the Lord

ALLELUIA! ALLELUIA! All who eat my flesh and drink my blood live in me and I in them, says the Lord.

ALLELUIA!

Gospel John 6:51-58

Eat this bread and believe that you will live forever

Prayers of the Faithful

For the gift of wisdom among world leaders, for honesty in discourse, for integrity in action, for collaboration that seeks the common good ...

we pray

For the ability to use wisely the gift of time, to seek understanding of the Lord’s will for us, to live in accordance with the Lord’s love ... we

pray

With gratitude for the gift of music that lifts the human spirit, for attentiveness to God’s Spirit in

the moments that move human hearts ... we pray

For all the sick of our parish family and those to whom we have promised our prayers, for those

who live with depression, dementia or addiction; and for those who love them ... we

pray

Let us pray together....

God of the eternal banquet, you have given us the means to be your instruments in the world,

feeding the needs of others with the life we find in you. Give us wisdom to see what

matters most, give us courage to abandon what is foolish and fill us with trust in your will for us.

Hear our prayers this day, as we pray in the name of Jesus, your Son. Amen

Parish Priest: St Mary’s School Fr Hermi Rafada Mr Brett Pollard Ph: 0435 006 513 or 4671 1091 Ph: 4671 1730 email: rafsteel2005@yahoo.com Parish Contact Details stmarysgdi@bigpond.com 69 Callandoon Street PO Box 45, Goondiwindi 4390

Parish Secretary:

Sarah Hedges

Mobile Ph: 0429 926 231

Office Ph: 4671 5087

Wednesday 9.30am – 3.30pm Parish Safeguarding Rep: Mrs Carmel Schaumberg Ph: 0419 786 738

PARISH INFORMATION

20TH

SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

19TH

AUGUST, 2018