News from Mackay
13 September, 2021
The Mens dinner was held on Monday 30th August, the guest speaker was Fr Ashwin Acharya. There was a good rollup of members including a couple new people.
Chairman Kevin welcomed everyone and we then followed with our Mary MacKillop prayer. Fr Ashwin said grace.
For the reflection Des Crowe spoke about ‘Divine Mercy.’ He handed out prayer cards to everyone, on ‘Message and Devotion’ and ‘The Divine Mercy Chaplet given by Our Lord to Saint Maria Faustine Kowalska’. Des explained about the contents and suggested we take the prayer cards home to read. It was an inspirational reflection.
Fr Ashwin our guest speaker asked the question: What are we and why are we here? How do we achieve life’s purpose, since it’s so difficult and vague? How can I draw nearer to Christ who is forever drawing nearer to me? And then what? What’s to become of all this nearness?
WHAT ARE WE? What is your definition of the human person, simply, whether at his best or with all his warts?
WHO AM I? WHY ARE WE HERE?
The questioning technique had everyone thinking and sharing their opinions and experiences, including the experiences Ashwin had with his own family. We explored the inner-workings of the human heart, looking at the “passions” and reading an excerpt from Saint Augustine’s Confesssions. Fr Ashwin proposed that, drawing nearer to Jesus, we can endure our inner passions redemptively in the same way that Christ endured his passion for the sake of the world. In this way, by being nearer to us in our human frailty, Jesus literally becomes the com-passion of the Father, healing and restoring our relationship with ourselves, each other and God.
The presentation finished with the hymn ‘Nearer, My God, To Thee’.
We were blessed to have Fr Ashwin as our guest speaker.
The next dinner will be on Monday 27th September. Guest speaker will be Ian Rowan, Chief Executive Officer CQ Rescue Helicopter. Visitors welcome.
