27 JULY 2023
www.therecord.com.au
Edition #443
JESUS CHALLENGES OUR NORMAL WAY OF THINKING, ARCHBISHOP COSTELLOE TELLS ARCHDIOCESAN STAFF
Perth Archbishop Timothy Costelloe has last week joined with Perth Archdiocesan agency and organisation staff in praising God for sending so many good people, with such large hearts, to work across the Archdiocese.. PHOTO: RON TAN/ARCHIOCESE OF PERTH..
By Jamie O'Brien
Per th Archbishop T imothy Costelloe has last week joined with Perth Archdiocesan agency and organisation staff in praising God for sending so many good people, with such large hearts, to work across the Archdiocese. Speaking Wednesday 19 July at St Mary’s Cathedral, in the presence of some 150 staff from agencies, parishes and organisations alike, Archbishop Costelloe spoke about Jesus as the model for all Christian leadership and service. Archbishop Costelloe was joined for the Mass by con-celebrants Auxiliary Bishop Don Sproxton, Vicar General, the Very Rev Fr Peter Whitely VG, Episcopal Vicar for Clergy, the Very Rev Fr Minh
Thuy Nguyen, Episcopal Vicar for Education and Faith Formation, the Very Rev Fr Vincent Glynn and assisted by Catholic Education Director of Religious Education, Deacon Mark Powell. Also joining in the celebration was Cathedral Dean, Rev Dr Sean Fernandez, Co-ordinator, Parish Renewal, Fr Nino Vinciguerra, Tribunal Director, Fr Greg Carroll and South Perth Parish Priest Fr Brian O’Loughlin. Referring to Jesus as the one who so often turns everything upside down, Archbishop Costelloe said that one of the best and most accurate visual presentations of Christian leadership and authority is found in the image of Jesus on his hands and knees, performing the humble and even demeaning task of washing the feet of his disciples.
“…a perfect example of the way in which Jesus challenges our normal ways of thinking,” Archbishop Costelloe said. Speaking about the Gospel reading of (the day) Matthew 11, verse 25 to 27, Archbishop Costelloe continued by saying that it is important for us to understand that there is nothing sentimental about what Jesus is saying. “In this context, we might understand Jesus’ reference to the learned and the clever as a reference to those who through their hardness of heart and their sense of their own importance, are in fact, blind to the reality of God present and active in the world, and in the lives of those God loves, which is to say, everybody,” he said. Full Text available at
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