Скачать с ютуб Mass in honour of St Anthony - Mount Gambier Catholic Church в хорошем качестве

Mass in honour of St Anthony - Mount Gambier Catholic Church

On 13th of June we celebrated the feast day of one of the Church’s favourite Saints, Anthony of Padua. It seems that wherever you go in the world, St Anthony is well-known and loved. He is also particularly important for the Catholic community here in the South-East because our school in Millicent is under his patronage. In Mount Gambier, we celebrated a Mass in honour of St Anthony. During the mass, a first-class relic was present, a piece of St Anthony’s skin. At first glance, relics might seem a little morbid and strange! Why this custom of keeping and honouring relics of saints? Well, perhaps first we need to remember we all love a souvenir, a tangible link to an important memory – a tea towel or a trinket from a holiday will bring back those memories in an instant. It’s also not strange for us to keep a snip of hair from a baby’s first haircut, or the first tooth he or she lost. Somehow, it’s not enough for us to store these memories in our minds, these treasures keep our memories real. It’s in this vein that we keep relics of saints. They are part of the precious and lived memory of the Church; not just because we have written accounts of the lives of these saints in a book but also this tangible link to their lives. Perhaps it’s too easy for us to put the stories of the saints in the ‘fictional’ category? As if the stories were more like fables: Once upon a time, St Anthony... Relics resist the temptation to mythologise the saints, because we are put in contact with the flesh-and-blood reality of their lives. St Anthony was a man, just a man, a man like us, made up of skin and bone! But what made St Anthony a saint? He allowed his heart to be completely filled with the Holy Spirit and his life to be guided by Jesus. This begs the question: is there anything stopping each and every one of us from doing the same? Surely not! Christ might not have miracles and adventures in store for us, as he did for St Anthony of Padua, but is there any reason why we should not be holy as he is? Was there anything extra special about his skin or his bone? Nope! His relic puts us in contact with his simple humanity and shows us the incredible potential in our own lives. Relics are described as coming in three ‘classes’. First class relics are from the physical remains of the saint, for example, we have a first-class relic of St Mary of the Cross Mackillop’s hair in Penola. A second-class relic can be an item which the saint owned or used during their lifetime, for example, I have a little snippet of St John Paul II’s white cassock. A third-class relic are items which have been touched to a first or second-class relic; you’ll find, for example, that many people will want to touch their rosary beads to the tomb of a saint as a way of taking something of their memory with them. In the scriptures we see God exercising his power through physical objects. In 2 Kings 13:20-21, a man who had died was brought back to life when his body touched the bones of the prophet Elisha. In Acts 19:11-12: handkerchiefs and aprons touched by the Apostle Paul were used to heal the sick and cast out evil spirits. And of course, famously, in Matt 9:20-22 the woman with the hemorrhage touches the fringe of Jesus’ cloak to be healed. Importantly, none of this is magic or superstition. Relics are not Catholic versions of good luck charms or crystals giving good vibes! They are a connection to the life of a saint and a way of obtaining the intercession of one of our saintly brothers or sisters. Everything about the life of a saint, including their relics, finally points to Christ. Fr Peter Zwaans.