How can I participate in Mass when I am unable to physically attend church?Visit the parishes’ YouTube channel today to watch the livestream of the Mass, and to view recent Masses and other special events.
Watch Mass!

SACRAMENTS DEADLINE TO REGISTER:  5PM ON FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4

Parents of Grade TWO and SIX students in the 2024-2025 school year are reminded that the deadline to register your children for the Sacraments of First Communion,  Reconciliation and Confirmation is 5pm on Friday, October 4th.

To Register for First Communion and Reconciliation please complete this Registration Form

First Communion and Reconciliation Full Details

To Register for Confirmation, please complete this Registration Form

Confirmation Full Details

Choosing a Confirmation Sponsor

Choosing a Confirmation Saint Name

“Who is the Greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven” – Fr. Bob’s Homily for Sunday, September 22, 2024

In my seminary back in England there was a professor of theology called Fr. Charles Acton. The only reason I bring him up is because he was the great-grandson of a certain Lord Acton, a Catholic historian, politician and writer. It was Lord Acton, who in a letter to an Anglican bishop in 1887, coined the famous saying: “Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely”.  It is a statement whose truth we see confirmed time and again throughout history, up to and including today. It is the reason why Jesus takes such a strong line with his disciples in our gospel today, when he discovers that they have been arguing about which one of them is the greatest. Ironically, their argument on the topic comes hard on the heels of Jesus’ own declaration that he will not be going into Jerusalem to garner praise and glory for himself, but to lay down his life in service of his fellow men. 

Having restated the essence of discipleship, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all”, Jesus startles his apostles even further, by taking a child and placing him in their midst. Understand that this is not setting up a photo-op, Jesus is not doing a politician’s turn and kissing babies. The child, which meant someone under 12 in those days, i.e. before bar mitzvah, the child had no power, no rights, no influence. Children were just seen pretty much as a nuisance, just another mouth to feed, and detailed to do the most menial of tasks in the household, until they were of an age when they could go out and earn some money for their family. Remember how the apostles tried to turn the children away from bothering Jesus when their parents wanted to bring them to him for a blessing?… Read more...

“Who Do You Say I Am?” – Fr. Bob’s Homily for Sunday, September 15, 2024

In order to understand the significance of this episode in our gospel, it is important to know a few facts. This place where Jesus takes his disciples, Caesarea Philippi is located at the northernmost point of Israel. From there, Jesus and his followers would have a wide panorama of the whole country spread out before them. It was a place known in antiquity for being a shrine to various gods, including the god Pan, pictured as half-goat, half-man. Human sacrifice was offered to the gods at this place in ancient times. In Jesus’ time, this location, Caesarea Philippi was renovated by King Philip, and dedicated to Caesar Augustus, who insisted on being treated as a god, and to be referred to by various titles such as Son of God, Redeemer, Savior, all titles that would eventually be attributed to Jesus Christ.

So, in this shrine with so many associations with divinity, Jesus asks the crucial question: “In this place associated with various gods and idols, where do you put me? Am I just one of many gods to be worshipped at this site, or do I have a unique and special status?”  Jesus has already asked his apostles “Who do others say that I am?”  The various answers offered to that question represent good guesses on the part of the crowds, but they fall short of the full truth about Jesus. Jesus is more than John the Baptist, or Elijah or one of the many prophets in Israel’s past. I wonder if we went out now to interview people in the streets and ask them “Who is Jesus to you?”, what answers do you think we would get. Probably answers like “He was a good man” or “He was a great teacher” or “He was someone who had a lot of good ideas at the time”.… Read more...

Fr. Bob’s Homily for Sunday, September 8, 2024

On the front of our bulletin this weekend, you will find a reference to something called “The Life in the Spirit Seminars”. I want to urge you to read it, especially the bit that says: “The (seminars) are designed to bring each participant to a new and deeper relationship with Jesus. Its powerful spiritual experience helps believers to live their lives with joy and hope in a world that is so often opposed to the Spirit”. Then go on to read the address given by Pope Francis, also on the front page of the bulletin. Because the pope specifically mentions the Seminars, which, he says “make it possible for people to encounter the living Jesus, in his word and his Spirit, and at the same time to experience his Church as a welcoming environment, a place of grace, reconciliation and rebirth”. The Seminars, he continues, “are often an engaging and transformative experience that becomes a turning point in people’s lives.”  Sound good? Sound like something you might like to have happen to you. Of course it is! That is why Pope Francis encourages us to make these Seminars more widely available.

Well, guess what, brothers and sisters, we are going to make the Life in the Spirit Seminars available in our parishes of St Philip’s and St Clare’s. This Fall, my community of Lift Jesus Higher are putting on the seminars in our parishes, and everyone is invited to take part, free of charge. The seminars will run each Thursday evening from October 3rd to November 14th. So, if you want an “engaging and transformative experience” through a life-changing encounter with God’s Holy Spirit, this is for you! Last weekend, a group of us from the parishes went to a retreat centre in Plantagenet and enjoyed a powerful experience of the Spirit.… Read more...