1 January – Mary, Mother of God – New Year’s Day
New Year’s Day customarily is a day to look forward. The old year has closed; a new year has dawned. We tend to put a line under the old and begin the new afresh.
Today, however, I wish to do something different. I want to look back with you over the year that has been, reflecting on all that has occurred for us in the Year of Jubilee, signs to us of the Spirit’s activity in our midst. It has been a very significant year, marked also by the death of Pope Francis on 21 April and the election of Pope Leo XIV on 8 May, a radical change of government in the United States in January, and an Australian Federal Election in May.
It would be easy to turn the leaf of the page and move on without genuinely appreciating all that the Lord has done for us. Yet, like Mary whose motherhood we honour this day, the invitation is to ponder and treasure all that we have experienced recognizing there how God’s dream for us becomes realized. Then, with her, we continue to bring forth the life of Christ in our lives. Therefore, we honour Mary as Mother when we ourselves hold the life of Christ in our own arms, wondering at the new life that is coming into being. Indeed our memory must be the foundation of those hopes that we bring into a new year.
Where do we begin? In January we welcomed Sienna Klarica as our new youth ministry officer. We farewelled Fr Joey in early February and welcomed Fr Hien. Deacon Kevin retired in June, and we welcomed Deacon Tan in September. Olivia Lee, our former Manager of Parish Operations, left us in early March, and we welcomed Kristha Mangahas in June as our new Parish Administration and Facilities Officer with Duyen Au a few weeks later as our new Parish Engagement Officer. At the very end of the year, we farewelled Brenda Timp as Principal of Mercy Catholic College and welcomed Melissa Murray as the new Principal.
In this year of Jubilee, over fifty pilgrimages have been made to our church as a designated Shrine of Hope, with the letters of HOPE boldly proclaimed at the front of our church, and the publication of a series of Lenten reflections made available on the same theme. Our own parish community undertook a pilgrimage to the other diocesan Jubilee Shrines in mid-June, having made a pilgrimage to the Philippines in February and to Rome, Assisi and Medjugorje in November. Central to the year has been the celebration with Bishop Anthony of the canonization of Carlo Acutis and Piergiorgio Frassati on 7 September, preceded by an evening bonfire novena on our forecourt, and the broadcast of an ABC podcast featuring our shrine. Bishop Anthony made public to us his hope for the status of our church as a minor basilica. A lasting memento of the year has been the commissioning of our long-awaited external Marian sculpture by Linda Klarfeld.
Through the year we came together three times as a Parish-in-Council in April, June and October, and brought our senior students from Mercy Catholic College and St Pius X College in Youth-in-Council in March and May. In November we introduced our annual parish pulse survey.
We began the initial stages of the project of restoration of our church with various feasibility projects completed, the opening of refurbished PEW store on 20 July, the installation of security camera system and subterranean drains and termite guard around the church in September.
And many have been the events we have enjoyed: our monthly Sunday community lunches on the forecourt; our many online parish Rosaries; our Lunar New Year celebration at the beginning of February; the presentation by Monica Doumitt in early March; the commencement of the Hub of Hope circle for youth; the visit of Bishop Rene Ramirez, Auxiliary of Melbourne, at the end of April; our Timor Trivia Event in early May; the Parousia Unlock the Bible series over May-June; our Feast of Freedom, 21 June and our sponsorship of a Venezuelan refugee family, whose house we blessed 10 August; our inaugural Film Festival over August – September, and our inaugural Festival of Beauty in mid-September; the Children’s Pray and Play Rosary on 7 October; our Footprints Mass in mid-October; the annual Red Wednesday Mass 19 November; our Catechists Gratitude Lunch on12 October; the annual St Vincent de Paul Regional Commissioning Mass 1 November; our Volunteers Thank you lunch on 23 November; and our Simbang Gabi Dawn Masses leading up to Christmas. And, of course, we cannot forget the memorable occasions of the Stations of the Cross on the Concourse on Good Friday, our participation at the Chatswood Fair and Street parade in early September, our Filipino Choir performing carols in Martin Place and our own Carols on the Concourse on 14 December. Soon after we came together in grief and prayer with our Jewish sisters and brothers with whom we had developed such strong friendships over the last couple of years, especially through the We Believe Series we shared together through the course of the year.
Woven through all this have been the many baptisms, Confirmations, First Eucharists, Weddings, Receptions into the Church, milestone birthdays, school opening Masses, musicals and graduations. Mercy Catholic College celebrated its 135th anniversary. We farewelled those who had made significant contributions to our parish family – Terry Meagher, Monica Cotter, Gerard Say and rejoiced in three vocations to religious life: Carlo Ho to Carmel, Launceston; Caitlin Geraghty to Nashville Dominican Sisters; and Bryce Gonlin for the seminary in 2026.
It has been an extraordinarily full year for which we can be truly grateful. Yet, I think at the heart of all this abundance of life has been the finalization of our Carlo Acutis Eucharistic Chapel which has now become such an embedded feature of the life of our church and parish. And for me, this is the singular enduring gift of this last year which we now take into the future. All through the day, and into the night, people come to pray before the Blessed Sacrament silently placing themselves before the Mystery of God’s sacrificial love. I have been deeply struck by the way people have instinctively known when to open and close the cabinet which displays the Eucharist, and always by their gentle adoration. The chapel has made our church a silent oasis in the midst of our world’s complexity and struggle.
This prayer of silent surrender before the Eucharist must be for us the key to the uncertainty of all that lies ahead. The year ahead is uncertain. Social and political forces are coalescing into increasing friction. And as I shared at Christmas, in the coming months many shrill voices will seek to command our context. Our responsibility will be one of genuine discernment in the midst of the cacophony. And we will only know the way through, and the way forward, through the stillness and invitation we are offered through our silence before the mystery of the Eucharist. Our key to the future lies in this: to be still, to listen, to discern, and to act with that love given to us in the mystery of the Eucharist.
It is Mary, our Mother – the one whom we celebrate as ever bringing forth new life – that keeps us faithful to this: she who, in the midst of all the uncertainty and fragility of her own context, pondered, treasured, and loved.
As we start this new year, with hearts so grateful for the life birthed in our community over the past year, may Mary, whose Motherhood given us at the foot of the Cross is the dedication of our church, lead us to this place of stillness from which alone the deepest possibilities of this future year will spring.
