A Musical Interlude, Cardinal Pell's visit & the Feast of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart .

Dear All,

Last Sunday afternoon, I headed off as planned to the Anglican Cathedral, down Smith Stret - only a 10 minute walk - to hear the combined Darwin Chorale and the Sydney Pilgrim Singers. You can see the Cathedral interior in the picture on the left - much more 'friendly' and small than St Mary's which I find fairly barren, with cement everywhere. The smaller 'Cathedral' (no bigger than a Parish church) has excellent acoustics. Helen, the new staff-member, has joined the Chorale and she told me about the performance there. The Principal and his daughter also came and gave Helen a lift home. It only took an hour or so from 5 pm and was very enjoyable - all reflective and religious music. Beautiful harmonies and rhythm
The singers started as a combined group and then sang separate items until the second half of the program, which was mostly combined. The program told us that 'The Sydney Pilgrim Singers began as an offshoot of a Catholic parish choir in Maitland NSW in 1989 and has continued with a Sydney base". It has 36 voices and began this 8th 'pilgrimage' the previous Wednesday. It is worth quoting the program again: "The most memorable experience in the traditional setting was in the Church of the Sacred Heart in Alice Springs last Saturday evening when a power failure caused the time to go back several centuries and the Singers participated in the Mass by candlelight and human voice alone, to great effect." The are led by a Dominican Sister, Helen Ryan. The Darwin Chorale is a younger group and had an extra depth and vibrancy because of this, but both were very good. The Chorale is also a permanent group and their level of professionalism was very high. Here are a few pics:

1). The Darwin Chorale Leader, Nora Lewis, who I remember clearly from back in the 80s, conducts the combined group; 2) Sr Helen Ryan conducts the Pilgrim Singers 3) One of the Darwin Chorale members conducts the group. Our Nungalinya staff member is the last head (reddish hair) behind the one on the right - enlarge to see! She looks like an innocent choir boy with her round mouth and choir-boy hair style!

This week has been full of the Cardinal Pell events I outlined in last week's blog. On Monday night the Cathedral was full for the Mass for everyone and a choir had worked hard - with singers from all over - to give a very good lead. There were priests galore and you'll see that in the pics also. Cardinal Pell's voice was inclined to croak at times and later he admitted he had a bit of a 'throat' but assured us it wasn't swine flu! It seemed to improve during the week. One interesting thing you won't see in the photos was an aboriginal man, very tall, thin, and dignified - and very 'tribal' in appearance - who appeared up the front, 'mid-Mass', bowed in the centre of the aisle at the front, signed himself with the sign of the cross, and inserted himself into the front seat, where he sat solemnly for the remainder of the Mass. During a song after Communion, Firmly I Believe and Truly, for which we stood (!!!?!!!) he did very reverent arm movements at appropriate times. He came to 6.30 am Mass one morning the week before - I think he had been sleeping on the top step outside during the night.

(1) Before Mass I came across a group of aboriginal men ready for their liturgical role. They told me they were from various places, Gove, Port Keats, Darwin, Alyangula etc - not from one community - and were very keen to pose. The Deacon leading them to the entrance of the Cathedral ready for their role offered to take a photo with me in it.

(2) Here you can see the collated choir with their youthful conductor, who had an excellent voice and seemed quite expert with her conducting moves. You can also see a bit of the side aisle in the Cathedral with the Marian shrine.

(3) Fr John Kelleher, msc, as the local Administrator gave an address of welcome to the Cardinal at the outsel of Mass. Lined up across the back you can see Bishop Eugene Hurely, the Darwin Bishop, Cardinal Pell, Bishop Ted Collins, the retired Bishop of Darwin Diocese, and Deacon John Bosco who is from Bathurst Island (he's very black).

(1) You can see the aboriginal dancers leading Cardinal Pell and his assistants back after they had been around the Cathedral blessing all the renewed Crosses which adorn it. Step One in its renewal!

(2) I sat with this group who came from St Martin de Porres Church where I go every Sunday They sat near the choir to lead the Aboriginal Our Father.

(3) Fr Morgan Blatt and Jan Simpkins (Weston) . The former was curate at Browns Plains when I was at Daisy Hill. Then he was lent to Hobart Diocese for a year and was posted to the Parish which contains Port Arthur during the year which contained the massacre. This changed his life forever. He returned to Brisbane and did various things associated with Youth - including getting very fit and climbing in the Everest foothills etc. Now he is a Defence Force (Army?) Chaplain up here and he must like it because he went and put his uniform on after Mass to join us all at supper. Jan knew him too, so we all had a chat. Jan, as a member of the Parish Council, was helping with the supper.

The next day, Cardinal Pell, together with Bishop Eugene and Fr Jim Knight, PP of Alice Springs who is the Vicar General, visited Nungalinya for an hour before they left for Port Keats (Wadeye) for the rest of the day. I tagged along and joined in the cuppa around the table in Lee's office. Cardinal Pell was very interesting in what contribution the Catholic church made financially to the work of Nungalinya. He was director of Caritas for 9 years, and they always gave it funds. We went on a little tour after that before I took an 'official' photo of the goup out the front before the big sign.

(1) This shows some of the CIF group (Creating Indigenous Futures) who were doing an Art course. One of the teachers is working with one.

(2) Evelyn, on the left, is the Coordinator of the CIF program, and she is talking to the Principal and Cardinal Pell.

(3) Here is the official Nungalinya College photo for the record: Rev. Dr Lee Levett-Olson, Principal, Rev. George Cardinal Pell, Bishop Eugene Hurley, and Fr Jim Knight, svd, who is also the Vicar General and is PP of Alice Springs.

(4) A fourth photo shows a little bit of Pat O'Brien who was taking official photos (although not this one) and Lorraine and the Cardinal looking at something I am pointing out - I think it was Rob, the Theology Coordinator (an Anglican Priest) who was coming down the passageway. I look as though I am scratching the Cardinal's back, but I am not!

I didn't take the camera to two other occasions, both of which were very relaxing and were a good chance to mix and mingle. On Wednesday evening, we were invited to the gather (+finger food) in the Courtyard of the Parish/Bishop's house with the Cardinal, the local Clergy and Heads of other churches in Darwin. The other heads of churches came with wives, mostly, so I suppose we 5 sisters made up the shortfall of women! Anyway, it was a good chance to chat with a lot of people and get to know the Anglican Bishop, the Uniting Church Moderator and others.

This morning, we had 6.30 am Mass for all the religious and clergy in Darwin and, my, what a lot of 'species' there are. I will treat you to the list on the back of the Mass Program (in super-small print!) *Divine Word Missionaries, *Christian Brothers, *Claretien Missionaries, *Diocesan Clergy, *Jesuits, *Marist Brothers, *Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, *Missionaries of God's Love, *Military Ordinariate of Australia, *Diocesan Deacons (the list so far covers the men); and (the women) *Canossian Daughters of Charity, *Dominican sisters (Holy Cross Congregation), *Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, *Good Samaritan Sisters, *Handmaids of Our Lord, *Little Sisters of Jesus, *Loreto Sisters, *Missionaries of Charity, *Missionary Dominican Sisters of the Rosary, *Sisters of Charity of St Anne, *Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, *Sisters of St Joseph of Cluny, *Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart. Not all would have been there, but there must have been 40 or more at breakfast in our courtyard. The courtyard is very pleasant and has the most marvellous grass which caused a lot of comment - not a weed, fine, thick and soft! It is like walking on cushions! No thanks to moi - I just admire it.

On the left you can see half of the courtyard

On the right you can see the grass!

On the personal front, my new glasses were ready early - on Wednesday in fact. They are fine and no one even notices I have new glasses, so they mustn't look much different even though I got a different style - steel frames with little nose rests (for want of a better word).

Today I received 'Competent' for two more Assessments. Eureka! Only 11 to go!!!!! However, that covers the whole of the 'Environment' section. Work at the College in trying to sort out new programs with all the criteria and set out and .... and .... and ... continues. I get so bored I could collapse with ennui some days.

Tomorrow is the Feast of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart and we have quite a full day with Mass with the Cardinal for Youth at 11.30 am (I believe it will be a Mass of OLSH anyway) followed by the lunch with the Associates followed by a Prayer Session in the Chapel. After that, we'll put things away and no doubt 'colapse' until it is time to go out to a special tea at Cullen Bay.

On Sunday, Pat and Hartley Smith from Rochedale are going to come to the St Martin de Porres Mass at 10 am then we'll go for lunch somewhere. It will be really lovely to see them - they have been doing the 'grey nomad' thing and are in a Caravan Park down Palmerston way, having spent a week or more in Kakadu. I am looking forward to catching up with them.

I was very mindful that today, May 29th, Mum would have been 102. We celebrated so many birthdays with her. She had no desire to live longer than she did - didn't care if she never got the telegram from the Queen etc.! May she rest in peace with Dad.

Must close

Love from Rita.