By Madeleine Sayer
​Introduction: When I realised that Donato must begin his isolation following his Covid test on the 22nd June I also knew that there would be many in our community who would miss the chance to speak with him and to give him their wishes for his Ordination to priesthood on August 8th.  My idea was an interview with Donato to give him the opportunity to tell us what is ahead for him and to say his farewells to our community.  I met with our well-loved Deacon at the Priory on Saturday 20th June. What follows are my notes from our conversation.

What is ahead for you as you leave Coorparoo and return to Timor Leste? Can you give us a picture of what will be happening?
“Firstly, thank you for these questions.  I have found it a time of reflection for me as I thought of my responses. I leave Coorparoo on 2nd July fly via Darwin and then onto Timor Leste.  I must then meet the Timor Government’s requirement and self-isolate for 14 days.”

Tell us a little of your Ordination preparations:
"Already I have spoken many times with my parents and family. Once the self-isolation time is completed, I hope to travel with Fr Carlito and Fr Bruce to my home in Suai and to see my parents and brothers and sisters.  A big worry for my parents is that Suai is a distance from Dili where I will be ordained. It is a 5 /6 hrs travel on a bus.  The cost of the travel is very expensive.”

Ordination and celebrations in Dili?  
I will be ordained in Dili by the Archbishop of Dili, Archbishop Virgilho (a very nice person). Fr Carlito has been organising for this and tells me I do not need to worry about it. Usually this is an occasion for a great gathering of people- thousands, followed by many joining in the celebrations.  Unfortunately, because of the Covid-19 virus restrictions I think my occasion - it will be very different.”
“We will travel to Suai for my First Mass. This too will be a very special time for my family.  I hope to stay for some time in Suai, sometimes staying with my family in my village and sometimes at the parish house.  My village is very close to the parish – as far as it is from the Priory to Coorparoo Junction – very close”​

After ordination you have been appointed to Zumalai – a place special to our parish as it is at Zumalai that so many projects have been supported by the Coorparoo school and parish communities. What will be your role as priest there?
"I will join the other Carmelites in Zumalai in their pastoral ministry. Fr. Aniceto, Fr. Pedro and Br. Antonio

Tell us something of your family.
"My parents live in Suai.  I have 3 brothers and 4 sisters.  My name Donato means: ‘Do’ is first and ‘natus’ means born.  I am the first born in my family. I have a sister who is a Carmelite sister - she is the second youngest.  I speak often on the phone with my parents and family.  My parents ask me if I am safe with the virus here.  I tell them I am fine – I am worried about them having the virus in Timor!”

We have loved having you in our community at Coorparoo.  We are so impressed with your increased skill in English, your great smile and joyfulness.  What will be your special memories and experiences that you will take as you leave Coorparoo?
“I have had many experiences here. People are generous, kind, I have good friends here. I will never forget in my life my time here.  When I return to Timor, I will share my experiences with my family and my Carmelite brothers. When my parents ask about Coorparoo.  I say – they are just like Timor Leste.  Good people.  They talk before and after Mass – just like Timor Leste. They are good people”

Thank you, Donato.  We have been blessed to have had you with our community for this time. Your main purpose was to study English in the year you have been at Coorparoo and we congratulate you on your successful graduation this week. We have known you as a special presence in our community.  You will take a lot of love with you. We wish you many blessings and great joy as you move into this next phase of your ministry. 
​
Our blessing is from the Celtic prayer:

May God hold you in the palm of his hand.

Maromak sei tane o iha nia liman laran.

,And their eyes were opened, and they recognised Him   Luke 24:31

Augusto Zampini-Davies, the Argentinian priest who Pope Francis has asked to play a leading role in the Vatican’s COVID-19 Commission, has been quoted as saying the following:

What is essential? This is the question. What is essential for the Church to resume, to regenerate and to allow the Holy Spirit to ignite the essential dimension of Christianity? If Christ is walking with us in this tragic moment, where does he want to lead us?

On Monday 8 June, Our Lady of Mount Carmel Advisory Council, our current parish leadership group, met for the first time since the closing of our church building. The main focus of our conversation was to visit the question on the minds of many, with the easing of the COVID-19 restrictions: Where to from here?

We quickly realised that the answer to this question was larger than the group of the seven gathered around the table. It is a question which invites all of us to participate in dialogue and discernment as we move into the future.

We have all been in the ‘same storm’ but certainly NOT in the ‘same boat’, during this time of isolation. In other words, all of us have had varied experiences during these past three to four months.

We could simply take the easy road and go back to ‘business as usual’, but what a loss to our community it would be, if the many rich and grace filled moments shared over these past months with family and friends and work colleagues, were not voiced; and the challenging times we have lived through, learning much about ourselves and others, did not become part of our shared memory as a faith community!

Therefore, we are all invited to participate in dialogue and discernment with each other on Sunday 19 July from 10am until 12noon in the Mt Carmel Hall (on the school property).

The question we will all engage with: Where to from here as the Mt Carmel parish community?            What might our community look like?

More information will follow in the coming weeks but claim the date in your diary and come along!

Jane Connolly, the chair of our Advisory Council has been asked to facilitate this time together, along with the other ‘lay’ members of the council. Unfortunately the Carmelites will not be present at this gathering for reasons I have pointed out already in previous newsletters.

However, I see this as an exciting initiative, laity led, inclusive of women, adopting a shared wisdom model of leadership. 

It highlights that with any movement forward, all voices matter, and all people matter, especially the most vulnerable within our community!

I am a child of the 50s and 60s when life was both less complex and ‘treats’ were simpler.
I can remember as a child being delighted when ‘good behaviour’ was rewarded with golden syrup dumplings!  Mum or Dad would place into a large saucepan of boiling water dough like balls that would emerge sometime later, larger than when they first went into the water, and sweet syrup would be poured over them accompanied by a dollop of ice-cream! YUM!

These past few months for our Carmelite community have been a bit like the making of this age-old sweet treat. There has been solitude, isolation, grief, anxiety, separation from loved ones, loss of identity, confusion, pain ,uncertainty etc. and much of what so many have experienced , the ‘boiling water’ as it were of the consequences for us of the pandemic.

But we have experienced so much more as a community:

• The deepening of our religious identity as Carmelites, coming together for Eucharist and having at the table of Eucharist the intentions of our parishioners.
• A deepening of our relationships with the parish community with 800 emails being sent each week and many phone calls attempting to maintain some connection with the most vulnerable among us.
• Seventy one parishioners have been invited to gather for Eucharist on a Sunday, and each weekend we have had a different focus e.g. to be in communion with our sisters and brothers in the developing world; those who have loved ones on the front line working in various medical services in countries hugely impacted by this pandemic. We have been aware of the most vulnerable within our local community, especially the sick and the elderly, and being in solidarity with those who have lost their jobs and financial security as family etc.
• We have been coming together for simple shared meals and trying in this way of hospitality to support young families struggling with health and financial challenges.
• We have received the generosity of those who have shared the food of their own table with us, and listened to their stories.

Through this journey of suffering has also come opportunities for many graces and blessings that may not otherwise have been so. Like the golden syrup of old, often an unexpected delight!

Creator God,
Grant me the grace to long for you and not my illusions of you,
to be surrendered to you and not to my images of you,
to know you as love’s questions rather than as binding answers,
to rest in the hope of what I do not understand about you,
and to be forever willing to give up what I know about you in order to seek you afresh.
Paula Duvall
 
Blessings and enjoy the journey!
Fr.Wayne