“Why can’t all Sundays capture the essence of days like this?”

Our little community of St Canice’s comes out on a sunny Sunday morning in numbers, not only to celebrate the feast of St Ignatius but to support our sister parish in Railaco East Timor. After Mass, we mingle and chat with old friends over morning tea. Fran is just back from the wedding of her daughter Peta in Ireland and is ‘on duty’ with many other regular ladies to serve us all.  Is it the chicken sandwich bites of Ian, or the ham and Dijon mustard ones by Amal, or the home-made scones that take the prize? It doesn’t matter.  The morning is full of happiness.

A beautiful Mass sets the tone and puts a spring in the step of all who come to mark this special day.  This is a feast day without flowers. Trusty Gerhard set-out for Arcadia and the Blue Mountains with his buzz-saw earlier in the week looking for banana trees – this year he’s out to create an East Timor feel here in Elizabeth Bay. What better way than banana trees?

Then there’s our Music tradition under Maestra Claudine. Cantor Daniella leads us and a small choir in singing our praise and worship to God.  Our spirits shoot to the heavens as Toby, the young trumpeter, hijacks the main tune of ‘Tell out My Soul’ with his exciting, loud, triumphant ‘countermelody’.

Today is a day we appeal to everyone’s generosity to continue support for Railaco, to donate. As St Ignatius always stressed to his followers: This is not just about money. We’re inviting you to be part of our Railaco family connected in mutual friendship and mission.

Fr Dave is ‘On Fire’ – for Christ, for Ignatius, for Railaco! Just back from two weeks in East Timor, he reminds us of Ignatius’ guiding principle; that at the end of the day it’s all in God’s hands.” The church is not a project …  It’s God’s initiative, even our beloved East Timor commitment. We must underpin it with a spiritual dimension. Also, just back from a 2-week ‘immersion’ visit to East Timor is Year 11 student Raphael from St Ignatius College Riverview. Listening to an impressive young man like Raphael, we get to learn just that little bit more about what’s going on in Railaco and how our donations are being put to such good use.

Michael Musgrave

Raphael, a year 11 student from St Ignatius College Riverview spoke enthusiastically about his recent immersion visit to Railaco. Read here.