Brisbane Oratory News

An extract from our latest Quarterly Newsletter as Br Conor shares his experience of being a newly ordained deacon

On December 19 of last year, I was ordained a deacon and so these past few months have been filled with much learning and, most importantly, opportunities to serve.

It has been with great joy that I can now assist at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as a deacon.  Since my ordination, I have noticed a growing appreciation for the deacon’s role and the closeness with which he serves at the altar. It is truly a great gift to assist the priest at Holy Mass and my love and reverence for the Holy Eucharist have only increased with this august honour from God, Our Father.

It hasn’t been without difficulties though. After many years of study and duties proper to a Brother of the Oratory, I had become relatively comfortable in my daily routine.  I have subsequently had to revise all of this to make time to prepare homilies and talks.  The effort necessary to prepare a homily completely threw me at first.  But I am confident, almost, that I have now found the balance between the preparation and writing of a homily and my other responsibilities.  It is a daunting task preaching a homily and one that I take most seriously.  This is the opportunity to bring the Word of God, Sacred Scripture and the living tradition of the Church together to unpack the mysteries of our holy faith.

Lastly, I have been made the chaplain for our young men’s group, which falls under the patronage of the great and youthful example of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati.  It has been a great honour to be made chaplain and I pray that I will help guide our young men towards being true Christian gentleman and soldiers for Christ.

This year to capacity limits in indoor buildings, the Extraordinary Form Mass of the Presanctified on Good Friday, took place at St Elizabeth’s Primary School with close to 500 people in attendance.

We are please to announce the Holy Triduum will be celebrated as per normal. However, due to huge demand, the Extraordinary Form Good Friday service will be conducted at St Elizabeth’s Primary School at 3:00pm. Details about this will follow some time today. Those booked in will receive an update via email and further details will be posted here and on our website.

The State Government has announced it will no longer update us in the evening of Wednesday 31 March concerning the lockdown and restrictions. Instead they will give an update on the restrictions Thursday 1 April in the morning.

At this stage we are continuing with previous plans, however, alternative arrangements are being investigated pending the announcement on Thursday morning.

If alternative arrangements need to be made, those already booked in for those Masses will receive an email and we will make updates on Facebook and our website. We will keep you updated once we have time to asses the announcement tomorrow.

We are saddened by the news that the State Government has declared another lockdown in the Greater Brisbane Area at the beginning of Holy Week. The lockdown starts at 5:00pm today Monday 29 March and is currently set to end on Thursday 1 April at 5:00pm.

This means we are prevented from providing public Mass during the lockdown period. The 7:00pm Mass and talk tonight will not be able to go ahead, but an EF Low Mass will be available at 3:30pm today in Mary Immaculate Church. No bookings are required but you will be able to sign in at the door. Confession will be available during Mass.

We will stream Mass on our Facebook Page here. Please note a Facebook account is not required to watch the stream.

• Tuesday 7am EF, 9:00am OF
• Wednesday 7am OF, 9:00am EF.

At this stage the Premier has not provided certainty over the ending of the lockdown. We understand the Premier will provide a further update on restrictions on Wednesday, and the Archdiocese has asked us to be prepared that the government might make announcements regarding the seating capacity for Places of Worship impacting the Holy Triduum. We understand that this generates a certain uncertainty, but we wish to assure you we will be doing everything we possibly can in the hope that we can celebrate the Holy Triduum together. 

We will provide further updates as we are made aware of changes.

Please join us in praying to Our Lady Help of Christians and St Philip Neri that the lockdown will end before the Holy Triduum and that we will be able to celebrate it together.