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Fourth Sunday of Lent - Homily

3/29/2014

There is a story of a king walking to a cathedral and meeting a beggar at the entrance to the church. The king felt sorry for the man and offered him what his friend had just brought him from his overseas trip. It was a golden nugget. However the beggar threw it away. Then the king asked him: “Why have you done this?” The beggar answered angrily: “I need money not a rock.” As the king was entering the cathedral he thought: “Our expectations make us blind as much as the deteriorating eyes.”
          As we listen to the ninth chapter of St John’s Gospel today we can very easily focus just on the blindness of the man there. However this passage isn’t just about the blindness but it is about a very sharp sight of God. St John says: “As Jesus went along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth.” However it was more than just an observation of what was happening. As you walk or drive you observe various things. You see other cars or pedestrians, you see people doing roadwork, when the traffic is slow you can even see people eating, reading a paper or shaving. You observe these things but today’s Gospel isn’t about this kind of observation.
        To grasp the richness and the depth of the Word of God for this Sunday let me read to you a sentence from the third chapter of Exodus. It is about the moment when Moses saw the burning bush and from the bush the voice of God was heard. This is what God said: “I have seen the miserable state of my people in Egypt. Yes I am well aware of their suffering.”
My Sisters and Brothers in Christ!
        God doesn’t just observe but he listens to the cry of the heart. He looks at the heart as we heard it in our first reading. This cry coming from the heart usually is different to what the mouth utters. If we asked the blind man a few days before he was cured what he was dreaming about most likely he would say: “I want to see.” He believed that the ability to see things around him was to make him happy. It was his expectation. However as we know there are lots of people around us who have never had to go to an eye doctor, who can easily spot a five-cent-coin on the other side of the road but they are far from happiness.
          If after 2000 years this story is still proclaimed in our churches it is because it reveals the greatest expectations of our hearts: to see God. When after being cured, the man asked Jesus who the Son of God was the Lord replied: “You are looking at him right now.” Than the man said: “I believe” and worshipped him.
The man who used to be blind didn’t reject the real tressure he was offered – Jesus Christ the Son of God. He welcomed Jesus as his Saviour who not just let him see but who had offered him the way of life which was to allow him seeing God forever in His Kingdom.
My Dear fellow believers! I pray so that the gifts you have; the ones you are proud of and the ones you even don’t notice, may allow you to recognise God and find ultimate fulfilment in worshipping Him.

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Community Weekends at St Mary's Seminary

3/27/2014

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This year in our Seminary the scholastics spend their weekends in Oblate Parishes in Victoria. I hope that this opportunity to be among the people of God can put them on fire. I has always worked with me. I have always been strengthen in my faith and love for Jesus by sharing life with parishioners. As our scholastics are approaching their final years of formation to become catholic priests I pray that the time they spend in parishes can contribute to their passion for souls, which was evident in the life of our Founder – St Eugene de Mazenod.

However the last weekend of the month will be our community weekend. It means that the whole St Mary’s seminary community will stay home to share our beautiful ordinary life of prayer and brotherhood. After some reflection and prayer we have decided to welcome for those weekends single catholic men who are searching for their vocation. We don’t want to make it any different to our daily routine of prayer and community because we believe that the life style that we have inherited from St Eugene is powerful. You will have a chance to live an oblate life for a couple of days in order to hear the voice of the Lord. This way of prayer and community always helps us, Oblates, to hear the Lord’s voice and I am sure it can assist you too.

It will start Friday night and will finish Monday morning. The first such weekend will be from Friday March 28 – Monday March 31. The next Community weekend will be from Friday April 25 – Monday April 28. The April Community Weekend

Seminary main chapel

Seminary oratory

The Lord is always waiting and willing to speak to the heart that searches for Him.

If you would like to join us for our Community Weekend please let us know. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask us. You can use the contact form

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Third Sunday of Lent - Homily

3/22/2014

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In this homily I would like to invite you to discover of tressures of today’s long gospel Gospel. At first, let’s try to find as much information of the Samaritan woman as we can.
           She had five husbands and she was living with a man who wasn’t her husband when she met Jesus. It means she had at least six men in her life. We don’t know how her marriages ended. Her husbands might have died or she might have been divorced. Any way, her perseverance through six marriages shows that she was looking for love in her life, but she had failed. She was left with nothing. To be honest there was one thing she was left with. Let's look at how she came up to the well. St John says she approached the well at six o’clock. Six o’clock means midday. Why did he mention that she came to draw water at midday? She was ashamed to meet anybody. In the cool of the morning and the evening the place must have been very busy as all the people of the town came to get some water for themselves and to water their animals. Going to the well at midday she could be sure she would meet no one because all the residents stayed home to avoid the heat. To cut the long story short we have a woman desperately looking for love and ashamed of her personal story. What was wrong with her that she couldn’t find love?
          The life of the woman was like drawing water from a well. We know that if we want to draw some water from a well we need a bucket or so. Having no bucket we cannot reach the water. The woman applied the principle to her search for love, that if she was to be loved by someone else, she had to do or be something to attract him. She believed: “I may find love if I am beautiful, intelligent, etc.” In one word: attractive. It was her bucket to get other’s people love. However it didn’t work. Though there were many men in her life, she was separated from other people, always trying her best to keep herself attractive, all this made her life tough.
          Please notice that she applies this same rule when she starts talking to Jesus. He asks her: “Give me a drink.” The water here means love, so Jesus asks her: “Give me your love. Love me.” Her answer is: “You have no bucket” we could say that her answer was: “You don’t have anything to attract me and to make me love you. Even who you are makes things worse. You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan. We don’t have anything in common.”
          However, Jesus doesn’t give up and declares the willingness to bless her with the living water, with his love. Although she doesn’t understand well what’s going on now, she discovers one thing. There is a man who demands nothing in return to love her. “Give me some of that water, - she says - so that I may never get thirsty and never have to come and to draw again.” We can see how Jesus is slowly opening her heart to accept a new life style. She sees an example of unconditional love. But there is still one thing to discover. Jesus is leading her to discover his identity as God.
          “Where do you know the story of my life from? - She asks - How can you know my life through and through? I know that Messiah – that is Christ – is coming and when he comes he will tell us everything.”
          “I who am speaking to you – says Jesus – I am he.”
From that moment, everything was changed in her life. St John says: “the woman put down her water jar.” It means she left behind her old life style, her old thinking. The water jar which was a symbol of her seeking of love wasn’t needed any longer. She met her love and she knew she didn’t need to attract him to be loved.
          Do you still remember how she approached the well? She came stealthily at midday so as not to be seen by anybody. What is she doing now? She is shouting as she is going through the town. Her shame has disappeared. She isn’t ashamed any longer. She is free as new life was offered to her.
          Sisters and Brothers! The woman approached the well with her broken life. When she met Jesus she started to look at her life differently. The church gives us this Gospel on our way to Easter so that we could experience the unconditional love of Jesus at the well of Baptismal Font which will be blessed at Easter Vigil. For some people this Vigil will be the night of their Baptism when the waters of Baptism wash not only their bodies but also pour the living water which is the love of Jesus into their hearts. For us who have been baptised it will be the night of refreshing, renewing and rediscovering of this love we have been loved by the Lord who didn’t hesitated to die for us. I pray for you my friends in Christ so that coming from Easter Masses you may be filled with the same feelings which were in the heart of the Samaritan woman when she was running back to her town after meeting with Jesus at well.

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Second Sunday of Lent - Homily

3/16/2014

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          Have you heard this saying: “You can’t replant an old tree.”? Maybe we can’t but God can. I wish our first reading had the whole verse 4 of the Chapter 12 of Genesis. Unfortunately it finishes in the middle of the verse 4. But let me read now the whole verse: “So Abram went as the Lord told him; and Lot with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.” Not bad for 75 year-old man to go into unknown.
          My Sisters and Brothers! We will never understand Abram, - by the way it is the same man whom we know as Abraham, but what we read today happened before God changed his name to Abraham; so we will never understand Abram if we only focus on his age because today’s reading is about God coming down to a man. Although Abram says nothing in the passage but this passage it is an example of prayer. Even if you ask a little child what prayer is about the answer you get usually is: “It is a conversation with God.” It means that God speaks to us and we respond. However when I investigate further and ask what it means to converse with God I usually get some awkward silence for the answer. When we look at our first reading about the conversation between God and Abram we don’t get any words spoken by Abram but there is no awkward silence either. What was Abram contribution to that conversation? “Abram went as the Lord told him.” Abram didn’t simply talk to God but he did what God told him to do. His journey from the homeland to the land God promised him was Abram’s response to God, that journey he undertook was his prayer.
          In Lent we hear often that prayer is an integral part of this Holy Season and I would like to encourage you to read this short passage from the beginning of Chapter 12 of Genesis often to learn how to pray, but read the whole of the verse 4. This short passage which took the aged man into a new land will take you to a new land too, the land where prayer is more than just words but it is doing what God’s word tells you to do.
          Let me share with you some prayer experience from my life. Some time ago I was told about the Novena of Our Lady of Pompeii. Basically it is praying 4 Rosaries every day for 54 days. I have done a few such Novenas so far in various intentions. The most powerful outcome of such Novena is that your life is transformed completely. If you decide to say one Hail Mary every day for 54 days that doesn’t demand much, you can fit it easily into your schedule but if you want to pray 4 Rosaries every day for 54 days you need to plan each day carefully. Then your prayer isn’t just an activity in your day but your days start circulating around prayer, then Christ becomes the center of your life, you start prioritizing differently. At the moment I am doing such a Novena I have just passed 40 days and you know what I am 3 weeks behind of “Home and away” story line. I don’t watch much of telly but this show is my little daily relaxation. Well, at the moment I cannot afford to watch it, I don’t have time for that.
            Do you want to know what I pray for this time: for one vocation to the Oblates. I am not praying for many, even if I wanted to have many, but I am praying for one. I am hoping that this prayer is like the efforts of a gardener who keeps watering his precious plant. One vocation to the priesthood is so precious that it is worth time and effort. I think that sometimes we think that if we say 3 Hail Marys it should be enough to get us a few hundred priests, brothers and nuns but who is going to take care of the developing vocation? We need to accompany the person in this vocation growth. However such an accompaniment has a side effect it changes the one who prays too. One of such side effects is that you become less demanding in your prayer but more humble and trusting.

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Your Lenten Resolution

3/14/2014

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Welcome to St Mary's Seminary

For those who haven’t made up their mind yet what kind of Lenten resolution they should do I would like to propose to do something extra instead of giving up on something. You could pray daily for vocations to the Oblate Congregation. I hope that a few pictures of St Mary’s Seminary in Melbourne can become an encouragement for you undertake this prayer. It is not so much to fill up the seminary with scholastics in order to give me more work but it is about looking into the future of the various communities across Australia and overseas served by the Oblates so that they may have missionaries continuing the passion and vision of St Eugene de Mazenod.

Prayer for vocations to the Oblate Congregation.

Merciful Father,

You Called St Eugene de Mazenod to send forth missionaries

to proclaim and live the Gospel among the poor.

Increase our love, we pray, for those who are most abandoned.

Extend your loving Call to many men in our community

and grant them the desire

to give of themselves, their lives, and their talents

to the service of Jesus Christ and the Church.

May more men of our area go forth

as Brothers and Priests of the

Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate

to serve those who are in need.

This we ask through Christ our Lord. AMEN.

Mary Immaculate                                         Pray for us

Saint Eugene de Mazenod                           Pray for us

Blessed Joseph Gerard                                  Pray for us

Blessed Jósef Cebula                                      Pray for us

Blessed Oblate Martyrs of Spain                  Pray for us

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First Sunday of Lent - Homily

3/8/2014

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       As I read the Gospel of St Matthew for this Sunday about Jesus being led by the Spirit out into the wilderness I cannot stop thinking about that blessed time I spent in the Judean Wilderness. For a short visit it may look romantic but a longer stay will challenge the visitor. The Judean Desert will bring to the surface the unresolved issues, weaknesses and problems of the person who will decide to spend there a longer time. It will become like a mirror revelling the truth about him or her. Not many of us can go to the Holy Land to experience the desert there in order to have this spiritual experience but God in his mercy provides us with times, places, situations and people which become our desert, exposing our unresolved issues, weakness and problems.
         Of course in Jesus case there weren’t any problems in him to be brought up to the surface. The Satan simply tried some of his tactics which works well in most human situations hoping that one of those three temptations could work for the Lord. He failed as we know, but in his eagerness to tempt Christ he disclosed his ways of tempting humans. Let us keep in mind those temptations which are like a bait that Satan put on his hook to get us, temptations of focusing on material things rather than on spiritual, temptations to have power, to be in charge in order to control and manipulate others rather than to serve God and care for others, temptations to test God rather than to trust his providence and wisdom. Satan knows that these three work in most cases, now we remember that they are his bait nothing more. These things, these temptations, these baits don’t give us anything but they give us into the power of our enemy - Devil.
            As we listen to St Matthew we may think that it is the area of the desert in the Holy Land is captured by devil, so it would be better to bypass it. However we need to remember what the Evangelist wrote at the beginning of the Passage: “Jesus was led by the Spirit out into the wilderness.” And the Holy Spirit didn’t abandon the Lord there even if we hear so much about Devil’s activity there. When we experience our desert, our wilderness in various times, situations, people etc. it is usually when we are at our lowest, our weakest, but it doesn’t mean the absence of the Holy Spirit. It is rather a treatment which continues the act of creation from the Genesis as we had it in our first reading: “God breathed into man’s nostrils a breath of life, and thus man became a living being.” God works on us, even when because of our sins we look more like mud than humans. He continues to create of us images resembling the qualities we see in his only Son, Jesus Christ.
             A couple of days ago I read and interview with our Holy Father Francis who shared how important to him is the prophetic vision of Blessed John Paul II who promoted Divine Mercy. As I reflect on it I believe that it is a feature God want to imprint in us – MERCY. We expect God’s mercy but do we practice mercy toward others. If we find God’s mercy so attractive and important do we, disciples of Christ, desire to be people of mercy for others?
            Before I finish this homily let me recall the life of a leader from the Old Testament – King David. When Prophet Samuel was looking for the new King, as God ordered him, he went to the family of Jesse. As we read the story we discover that Jesse had all his sons at home but the youngest one – David. David was looking after his father’s sheep. Now the important question is: “Where did David stay with his Dad’s sheep? In the wilderness, in the desert. Some people could say that Jesse didn’t like his youngest as he kept him in the middle of nowhere. But God knew the reason. The desert was to change David; it was to crush his heart so much that he would write in the Psalm: “A pure heart create for me, O God, put a steadfast spirit in me.” It wasn’t his Dad Jesse who sent him into wilderness but it was done under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God who led David into wilderness like he led Jesus. The only difference was that Jesus went into wilderness to strengthen us. David went there to become a man of mercy.
           When we think about the desert we imagine a big flat area with plenty of sand. The desert mentioned by St Matthew on this First Sunday of Lent is a different type. It is a very hilly area covered with small rocks rather than soft sand. As I looked at those small rocks covering the area I reflected on the event from the Gospel when an adulteress woman was brought up to Jesus. As we know Jesus said to the people who were eager to stone her: “If any of you is without sin let him throw the first stone.” The wilderness is full of stones that one could collect to stone, to condemn, to hurt others upon seeing their sins but the true desert experience, when one experiences his lowest at the most dramatic level, changes the person so much that upon returning from the desert the person leaves those stones, those excuses to see others sins in order to condemn people. The gift of the desert is a merciful heart placed in the person, the heart that helps others to experience something of mercy of Our God. That’s how God prepared the greatest leader in the Bible.
            When I was leaving the Judean Wilderness I was so captivated by this message that as a relict I took with me a few rocks so that they may remind me that if I am up to condemning another human being upon seeing his or her sins I will put this rock into their hands and ask them to hit me very hard to remind me that MERCY is the essence in my dealing with others.

God says: “I want mercy not sacrifice.”

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Ash Wednesday - Homily

3/5/2014

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There is a story of a man who was involved in a car crash. As he got out of his car some people told him to sit down and wait for an ambulance however the man said: “There is nothing wrong with me.” “But you’ve got bruises on you, you are bleeding.” “That’s just a few scratches. – He answered – There is nothing wrong with me.” “No sir, you need to wait for an ambulance.” The man answered angrily: “Call whoever you wish, but I am walking home. It is just a few blocks away. There is nothing wrong with me.” He got home safely and a few hours later he died from internal bleeding.
          There is nothing wrong with me is a dangerous statement to make. From the Christianity point of view it is the worst thing a person could say. It is incompatible with Christianity and unacceptable to God. We have all been involved in something similar to the car crush from the story. The Catholic Church calls it original sin. We may play down its impact and keep saying that: There is nothing wrong with me but in fact there is internal bleeding killing us from within. That’s why the Lenten calling of the Church echoes the words from the Second Letter to the Corinthians: “It is as though God were appealing through us, and the appeal that we make in Christ’s name is: be reconciled to God. And again: As God’s fellow workers, we beg you once again not to neglect the grace of God that you have received.” If you have been playing down your sins STOP IT RIGHT NOW. Listen to the begging of your Church and let Christ attend to you through the reconciliation ministry of his priests. It is YOUR favourable time, it is YOUR day of salvation.
          The words of God spoken by the Prophet Joel from our first reading: “Come back to me with all your heart, fasting, weeping, mourning” are God’s way to say to us: There is something wrong with you. Who will fast, weep, mourn if not the person whose heart is broken because by his sins he broke the heart of his loving Father in heaven? The weeping from the Bible is not a show as Jesus in the Gospel stresses it but it is a healthy reaction of a Christian who may struggle with his sins but his conscience enables him to see the hurt he has done to the one who loves him.
          Let me finish with another story. A little boy was arguing with his mum and said some harsh words that made his mum cry. When he saw the tears running down, he run to his bedroom, locked himself in and for hours he was crying and asking himself: “What’s wrong with me? Why do I act like this? Why do I hurt the people I love?”
          My Dear fellow Christians! On this first day of Lent 2014 I pray for each one of us so that we may be brought to tears over our sins. When Jesus was walking to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday he cried for the people who hurt his Sacred Heart with their disbelief. A few days later on the cross he was bleeding to death, that’s how badly my and your sins hurt him. If thinking of the Precious Blood of Christ being poured out for us is not going to make us cry and say: “What’s wrong with me? Why do I act like this? Why do I hurt my God who loves me?” it means that THERE IS SOMETHING AWFULLY WRONG WITH US.

The Church of Dominus Flevit in Jerusalem which means The Lord wept. Here, according to the tradition, Jesus shed tears over the hardened hears of the people of the Holy City.

View over Jerusalem from the altar of Dominus Flevit Church

The crucifix erected on the Hill of Golgotha in Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified. May it crush our hearts as we begin the Holy Lent. Amen.

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Of a great missionary and of a one who begins

3/1/2014

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Fr Marcello Zago OMI

It was a great joy for our Seminary community to welcome Henry who today has begun his pre-novitiate training. This is a period of initial formation to the Oblate way of life. For number of months Henry will be given an experience of community life to grow in his vocation in order to enter the Novitiate which is the canonical year of preparation for taking first religious vows.
It was a faith moment for us to welcome him among us. He believes that Jesus calls him to be an Oblate and responding to this call Henry has requested to be trained for our missionary life. During our midday prayer which he prayed with us for the first time we asked the Lord to bless him as he is undertaking this discernment. In his desire to be an Oblate of Mary Immaculate we could see the same desire that brought us to this Congregation some years ago.
As I reflect on Henry’s story I can see some faith message. First he wants to be an Oblate brother. At the moment we don’t have any Oblate brothers in Australia but our Superior General from Rome a few weeks ago sent al Oblates across the world a letter in which he challenged us to promote and to appreciate more the unique vocation to the Oblate Brotherhood. I find it a sign from heaven that at this time Henry came forward to be trained as a brother not a priest. St Eugene de Mazenod always stressed that our Oblate Congregation wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t have religious brothers among us. Well, to me it looks like the Dear Lord is working on us Oblates here in Australia in a powerful way.
Secondly, Henry’s entry into the Oblate happened on the day when we remember the death our 11th Superior General Archbishop Marcello Zago OMI. Fr Marcello who was born in Italy worked for a long time as a missionary in Laos and Cambodia. He was highly praised by Pope John Paul II for his strong, authentic faith, profound spirituality, and fervent missionary zeal. From 1986 to 1998 he led the Congregation as the Superior General. His passion for Christ and spreading the Gospel was recognized by the Holy Father who appointed him Archbishop for the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, which is a Vatican office responsible for missionary work of the Catholic Church. The appointment was announced when he was still the Superior General of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. Some people said that the Pope wanted him at the Vatican without any delay. However his work was to be more powerful than anyone would except when he was ordained Archbishop in 1998. Following year he became seriously ill and died in 2001 at the age of 68. He worked as Archbishop only for 3 years but how much he did for the Church through his suffering. We pray that the example of this great Oblate who was so passionate about Christ can be like a guiding star for Henry.