2. Special Character Term 3 Week 5

First Holy Communion Mass Sunday August 26 @ 9.30am

We pray for and congratulate our candidates for First Holy Communion this weekend:-

Luse Asi, Paige Geypen, Hamish Fowler, Elias Fraser, Eli Herbst, Christopher Jorgensen, Ideg Jones Hogan, David Kilgour, Sandrene Mordeno, Rolfe Patalbo, Ally May Rawson, Tama Roberts and Jayla Strong.
All families are as always, warmly invited to come and celebrate Mass together. 

Faith Facts this Week:-

This week the Church celebrates the feast days of three great “founders”.  On 31st of July St Ignatius is celebrated.  He was the founder of the Jesuit Order, who have been one of the most influential orders in the history of the Church.  Jesuits are involved in academic, spiritual and missionary ministries around the world.  Fr Robert Morris who was ordained by Bishop Paul on 2 June 2018 in Christchurch is a Jesuit, as was Pope Francis before he was made a bishop.  St Alphonsus Liguori founded the Redemptorist order and his feast day is celebrated on August 1st.  St. Alphonsus was an accomplished preacher and he has left to his followers, many volumes of writing that has won for him the title of “Doctor of the Church”.  The Redemptorists had a monastery based in Bower Ave, Christchurch for many years.  On August 3rd the Church marks the feast of St Dominic.  Dominic was a contemporary of St Francis, and the two started important religious orders at the beginning of the 13th century. The Dominican order, sometimes referred to as the “Order of Preachers”  includes sisters and friars (priests), and their work is primarily academic focussed, with many Dominicans working in tertiary education around the world.  Dominican sisters have staffed several primary and secondary schools in New Zealand including Teschemakers and St Joseph's School (Oamaru), St Dominic’s (Dunedin) and St Dominic’s (Henderson).

 Who was St Bernard? And what has it got to do with dogs?
Saint Bernard (1090-1153) was a clever and Holy man who guided many princes, popes and holy people and helped them in their faith. He founded an order of monks that grew to have many monasteries. These were known as Cistercian monasteries.

There was monastery high up in the Swiss mountains on the St Bernard’s Pass, it was called the monastery of St Bernard. It was a hospice for the sick and injured. At that monastery they had dogs that turned out to be very good at rescuing people in the snow and ice. They became the name St Bernard.  But guess what this monastery was named after a different St Bernard! St Bernard of Menthon (923 – 1008). He started this monastery for travellers.

Atua e Manaaki
Nicola Winders