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for a link King for the Lament which seems Real thing lost to time Mercy College students fete someone who knows
How to BEE a good teacher
Students at Mercy College celebrate one of their teacher’s 30 years of service to their school. Turn to page 5 to see the unique way in which they showed their appreciation.
PHOTO: C BURSEY
Marriage is great Catholics, go and tell everyone By Robert Hiini MARRIAGE has become trivialised over recent decades and Catholics, to the extent they have been silent about its joys and importance, are partly to blame, according to a recent pastoral letter issued by Bishop Gerard Holohan of Bunbury. The letter said Catholics ought not to remain silent about the good news of marriage but should spread the message of Christ.
“We need to be as forthright with our ideas as are others who oppose them. We need to remind people today that, despite the challenges of our times, the Sacrament of Marriage offers reassurance that people can marry with great hope and confidence in their future married lives,” Bishop Holohan wrote. The letter explains the Sacrament of Marriage and the challenges faced in modern Australian society. Media had contributed to the idea that temporary marriage and
divorce were the norm and life commitment, a thing of the past, the letter said. While the basic idea of marriage sprang from human nature, a radical teaching arose around the time of King Solomon - that God joins man and woman together in one flesh (Genesis 2:24-25). “In the language of the Bible, the flesh is the external aspect of the human person. The body is the ‘language’ by which a person expresses him or herself verbally
and non-verbally,” Bishop Holohan wrote. “Being ‘one flesh’, therefore, meant more than physical union. It also meant becoming one intellectually, spiritually and emotionally. In short: it meant a man and a woman becoming one at every level that makes us human beings.” Catholics and the wider world needed to rediscover the grace that Christ gave couples in marriage. “Christ’s power will strengthen (married couples) in the face of
today’s challenges and pressures. “However, the Sacrament of Marriage is not magical. Rather, its promise depends upon married couples praying, worshipping and striving to live as Jesus taught.” Calls for gay ‘marriage’ were “an attempt to ignore that the origin of marriage is human nature itself, not some human authority”. Marriage is a unique relationship of life long commitment between a man and a woman that is open to life, the letter said.