Final profession: 13th Aug
This coming Saturday in Saigon, three Vietnamese Passionists (Joseph Đoàn, Tuấn Paul and James Công) will make a life-long commitment (final profession) and John Baptist Phi will renew his commitment.

One week later, Joseph Quyền and Peter Thống who spent time at Holy Cross as postulants, will be ordained deacons.

This Sunday Joseph Tuấn had hoped to speak at 10.00am Mass, but he may need to do that virtually. Tuấn was a novice classmate of Erick’s and he is conducting an appeal for the needs of Passionist life in Vietnam. More about that on Sunday.

Nazareth house
The sisters at Nazareth house, Camberwell have cared for a number of our men in their elderly years. Leo RIP, Dunstan RIP, Bro Charle RIPs, Chris Mithen, and from this week, Gerald Quinn, who has relocated from Hobart. This is a very big move for Gerald after spending 33 years in Hobart. The decision process is similar to what many families face, and letting go of long term relationships is sad and difficult.

The Holy Cross community held an anointing during Thursday morning Mass, with this photo showing Chris anointing Gerald before his departure for Nazareth House.

Tarbenacle wall

The Tarbenacle wall has now been fully installed as you can see above. There is only a lamp to be soon installed. A huge thanks to Andrew Concannon and Fernando for such a fine and quick job. All was done voluntarily. Many people commented that you would not tell that there was a gap in the first place. Now that is has been painted by the A Team, it looks as if it has always been that way. We wait to see what our previous community members, Frs Kevin Hennessy, John Curtis and others think when they visit us next.

World Day for Grandparents and Elderly.
This Sunday we can give thanks for the wonderful contribution grandparents are making to families. Thirty years ago, many grandparents seemed to be on the side-line, but nowadays with child-minding duties and other ways of being actively involved with families, they are making a great contribution. You would have heard Bill say to his children who adored their grandmother, “Yes, but that is not the same woman I grew up with”.

The definition of elderly is not commonly agreed to, or more accurately, not commonly admitted to. Medical practice tends to regard 65 and over as elderly. Bishops are asked to offer their resignation (and so are priests in many dioceses) at age 75. Whatever is admitted to, many of us at Holy Cross are in the bracket, and there is still abundant vitality, enthusiasm, generosity and good will. We give thanks for that gift to the church and community at large.

Province history Part 2b

In 1892, the entire Province of St Joseph consisted of one hundred priests and forty brothers, and amazingly there were twenty-four of them present, for the opening of extensions in Goulburn that year! The original property had been called Ravenswood and had been built by the former mayor and Methodist minister, Francis Tait. The property including 55 acres was sold to the Passionists after Francis’ sudden death at age 49. Ravenswood was renamed ‘Presentation Retreat, Mary’s Mount’ and officially opened and blessed in 1890.

Establishment of a Province….11th July, 1922
It was a brave and generous decision of the Passionists in England and Ireland, to send men all the way to Australia in 1887 to begin Passionist life here. These were not the days of air travel, instant communication the internet. The only way to reach Australia was by ship, and such a journey could take anywhere between two (steam) to four (sail) months.
The telegraph (sending electric signals across wires) had been invented by then and there was a cable laid between Australia and England. Later, telegraph offices were established and among their duties was the task of announcing the time at 1pm each day! A telegraph message typically took seven hours to reach its destination and there was a limit on the number of words that could be sent, mostly determined by

Holy Spirit Province history…Part 1

Monday 11th July 2022 marks 100 years since the Passionist Province of Holy Spirit (SPIR) was established. However, the first presence of Passionists occurred 179 years ago when three Italian Passionists Raimondo (Raymond) Vacarri aged 41, Luigi Pesciaroli aged 34, Mauritizio (Maurie) Lencioni 28, and Swiss born Joseph Snell, aged 40, came to Australia in March 1843. Only Snell could speak English (and four other languages). They arrived in Sydney which at that time had a population of 40,000 people and three months later they travelled on to Brisbane which had a population of 800! Their mission was to work among aboriginals on Stradbroke Island twenty-five kilometres off the coast from Brisbane.

July 10th – Beginning to celebrating 100 years of Holy Spirit Province
As Erick advised last week, we will be celebrating 100 years since the Passionists formally established Australia as a Province. The edict from Rome confirming this was dated July 11th, 1922 and the official notice was given to our host Province at that time on December 16th that same year. These two dates will establish a period of remembering and celebrating. More details and historical information will be provided, but in short, the foundation began with the arrival of four Irishmen and one Englishmen from St Joseph’s Province, England, on November 21st, 1887. Other men followed, and in time local vocations emerged, so that by 1922, it was judged that Australia was ready to become our own Province.

Meeting of Provincial Council meeting

This week the Provincial Council has a planned meeting. So many such meetings could not be face-to-face over the past two years because of COVID. As we all know that each time they meet, they do so to pray and make decisions that can keep our Province going forward in line with its mission. Their decisions make an impact on each of us in the Passionist family. We pray that the Spirit may guide them. We give thanks for our council members, Tom McDonough, Denis Travers, Brendan Connell, Brian Traynor and Chris Monaghan

Greetings and welcome to this edition of the newsletter. We thank Tim for his effort and love he put into the newsletters for the past weeks. He has done an exceptional job on top of various other good works he does, not to mention his own busy life and professional ministry to the grieving. We look forward to welcome Brian back next week as we wish Tim a well-deserved and safe trip away.

Passionist News

Commemorating the Holy Spirit Province Centenary

From the provincial office: Leading to Last Sunday at the Province Feast Day and the following the logo below was sent with special thanks: …. “The theme for our Centenary is "the Journey Continues". Very special thanks to Sr.Karen Englebretsen CP, for designing our meaningful anniversary logo.”