Newsletter 4th Sunday of Easter (Year A) 26th April 2026

4th Sunday of Easter (Year A) 26th April 2025.pdf

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Today is Good Shepherd Sunday or Vocations Sunday.

Today I will speak about the priesthood. 

I will start by sharing some reflections of my own priesthood. 

I was ordained on June 30^th, 2000, on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart. 

A few months as a priest I was preparing a couple for marriage.   

The date of their wedding was set. 

There were serious concerns about the marriage. 

I had a lengthy discussion with the couple in an attempt to persuade them to postpone their marriage date but, no go. 

The couple were adamant that their marriage would go ahead on the date planned, besides the groom said all the arrangements had been made and paid for. 

Eight days before the marriage I said a Mass at a prayer group.   

The intention for the Mass was that God’s will be done in the lives of that couple. 

Nobody knew what that Mass intention was. 

An hour after the Mass the bride called the marriage off. 

The power of a Mass.

Only a priest can offer Mass. 

At every Mass, all creation receives all the merit or grace that Christ gained for us by dying on the Cross. 

Infinite Grace is given to all people, over all time and the Grace given on the Cross on Calvary and the Grace given at every Mass never diminishes.  Its power is always infinite. 

Also, at every Mass, the priest feeds people with food which is God Himself.

Another infinite gift given by God to priests is the Sacrament of Reconciliation. 

In this Sacrament God gives the priest the divine authority to forgive sins on God’s behalf. 

As Jesus said to His Apostles in John 20.23:

“If you forgive sins, they are forgiven.”

In reconciliation, very often, Our Lord tells me what advice to give to the penitent. 

Twenty-three years of Priesthood.  I hear at least a dozen confessions a day, every day.  I can’t begin to tell you how fulfilling it is to give so much happiness to so many.  All a person’s sins are forgiven, and the person starts their life over again, brand new.

Another infinite gift given by God to the priest is the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick.

The dying person is forgiven all sins, and therefore they are saved.

Through the priest all people are given salvation.  Wow, the wonder of the Priesthood!

In 1995 I was in the seminary.   

My parish priest was called to administer the Sacrament of the Sick to a woman who was dying.   

However, when the priest arrived the woman had already died.   

Assuming that the woman’s soul might still have been with her body,  

the priest administered the Sacrament of the Sick.  

As a result, immediately the woman came back to life. 

My call within the call of priesthood has been the promotion of the Eucharist, particularly PEA.   

Many of you here can testify to the power of Perpetual Adoration in a parish.  Fruits include holiness, vocations, more faithful marriages, and physical healings.

I have promoted Perpetual Adoration in parishes throughout Australia, NSW, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT. 

I have promoted Perpetual Adoration also in Indonesia, Philippines, India and England. 

An inspirational priest is Gerard Hinnebusch.   

Gerard Hinnebusch was born in 1917 and died in 2002. 

On his First Holy Communion Day Gerard decided to receive the Eucharist daily. 

On June 8^th 1944, he was ordained a Dominican priest,  

his name was changed to Fr Paul Mary Hinnebusch.  

Fr Paul profoundly understood that the identity of priests is to act in persona Christi “in the person of Christ”. 

In the year 2000, Fr Paul wrote: 

“I found myself asking that I become one victim with Jesus through the grace of mystical incarnation.   

I believe that this prayer was inspired by the Holy Spirit.  

I am becoming aware that I will be a fully worthy priest only in the measure that I am not only priest with Christ but also victim with him.   

It seems to me that my sacramental grace of Holy Orders will have reached its full development only when, through the grace of mystical incarnation, I am fully victim with Christ. 

He is incarnate in me and lives in me.   

This is because I have been consecrated to Him in baptism to be His own.   

My whole life is his, my whole person belongs to Him.   

I am a living Host.   

I am to be a victim in union with Jesus,  

the victim on Calvary and the victim in the Mass.” 

In one of the last things, he wrote he said: 

“I am experiencing myself as one body,  

one spirit with Christ as ONE LIVING ENTITY WITH CHRIST –  

Christ living in me and I living in Christ.” 

EXTRA: 

“Lord Jesus, to be victim in you and to let you be victim in me, I must empty myself above all by emptying myself of all self Will. 

I need to empty myself by not focusing my attention on my sufferings or moaning over my pains. 

Lord Jesus, let me focus my heart on you, on you crucified,  

on you scourged, on you crowned with thorns. 

Such is the purpose of the Eucharist for me:  

to make me a priest and a victim with Jesus.” 

Please pray for vocations. 

There are many who are called, but are either not able to hear the call, or who are resisting the call. 

Prayer will predispose them to hear God’s voice and respond. 

There may be men here hearing this message, who are called to the Priesthood, you don’t want to miss out.