Ordinariate Catholics - Perth

14/06/2026

Sermon for the 2nd Sunday after Trinity
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Exodus 19:2-6
Rom 5:6-11
Mt 9:36-10:8
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Today’s epistle reading describes the Christian faithful as God’s royal priesthood. The first reading from Exodus leads up to the occasion when Moses, the shepherd of God’s people, received the 10 Commandments and looks forward to the sealing of the Covenant between God and His people who are described as a kingdom of priests. This doesn’t mean that every male in Israel was an ordained priest, it is a way of describing the kingdom that God was to establish for His people. It would not be like other kingdoms in the then world; it would have a distinctive religious status. Israel would be God’s chosen people, a royal priesthood and a holy nation because God is their king.

Jesus’ mission was one of proclaiming the closeness of God’s kingdom and making it visible through healings, miracles, teaching and the driving out of evil. In doing this He reveals the state of God’s people of His day. They are like sheep without a shepherd who are fed up because they do not look up to be fed by God. They needed leaders who would guide them into a deeper loving relationship with God and so live their lives in accordance with the values of His kingdom. This is what being a citizen of God’s kingdom means and for Catholic Christians it includes living a self-giving life of priesthood.

The leaders necessary for this task can only be provided by God, so Jesus commands His disciples to pray that God will choose and send out labourers into His harvest. It was hearing these words in a homily as a young teenager that changed my journey of twists and turns that has led me here today.

Jesus turned His chosen disciples into Apostles, a word that means ‘one who is sent,’ and gives them authority to do, in His name, what He does. The Apostles were the leaders of God’s New Israel who would enter into a new covenant with God, one that is based on love and not law. This is why Jesus sends them to the Jews first. They were the ones to whom God first promised His kingdom. It was only after Pentecost that the Church’s mission to the Gentiles began. St Matthew does not record any specific results of the mission of the Twelve Apostles, we can only presume that they did what Jesus sent them to do.

To live in the Kingdom of God is to be in a right relationship with God, and St Paul describes this as being ‘at peace’ with God. He doesn’t mean being in a state of inner calmness, be that drug induced or not. He means that peace which passes all understanding, namely, to be at one with God. It is the peace of the ocean depths no matter what storm is lashing on the surface. It is the peace that comes as we grow into Christ-likeness.

The glorious thing about this is that Jesus does not wait for us to pull up our own socks. He redeemed us while we were not able to lead good lives and do good things in our own power. God’s love to us is a gift. It is offered to those who don’t deserve it and it makes unworthy and unholy people worthy and holy. This is what God’s love for us is like. We cannot save ourselves; we must accept and respond to the love that has, is, and will continue to save us.

Now as then, the Church needs solid, sound and faithful leaders among the clergy and laity who are willing to undertake ministries within the local and wider Church. As the Saints have shown us, the great leaders, teachers and pastors do not come only from the ranks of those who possess great knowledge. They are often wounded people who come from the ranks of Cross-shaped people who love God and are willing to share in Christ’s suffering as much as His glory. They come from the ranks of ordinary people who do ordinary things extraordinarily well, so demonstrating what the life of the Kingdom is like. Living this kind of life will draw those outside the Kingdom to recognise and respond to the love that God has for them.

In our current challenging times, we must not only live the faith, we must also share it. We must continue to pray for strong prayerful people both in the Church, the Ordinariate and our own community, but above all live our ordinary lives extraordinarily well.
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Msgr Harry Entwistle
June 14th, 2026
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08/06/2026

01/06/2026

Sermon for Trinity Sunday
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Exodus 34: 4-6, 8-9
2 Cor 13:11-13
John 3:16-18
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I have recently read a homily on the Holy Trinity given by the theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar and I will share with you some of the things he said.

All the major celebrations of the Church from Creation through to Pentecost come together on Trinity Sunday because all these celebrations assure us that God is 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 us. But how can God be 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 us if the ability to be 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 us is not part of His nature.

In the story of creation, God breathes on the waters and creates life. He is 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 His created beings Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and although they were banished from the Garden, God was still God but was still 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 them. Orthodox Islam does not accept God as a Trinity and so fails to have much regard for created persons. The Jews are different because they know God made several covenants with them.

In the troubles of the reign of King Ahaz, God promised that a child would be born who was to be called Immanuel, which means, God is 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 us. God’s Spirit was evident in Samson, the prophets and kings of Israel. He poured out His Spirit - His wisdom, on Solomon, the wisdom that fills humans without losing its divine nature or turning them into God himself. Later Jews believed that God also suffered 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 them in their exile in Babylon and was 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 them as they returned to Jerusalem, just as He had done when they left Egypt.

Von Balthasar deduces that, ‘if God is to be 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 sinful humanity, yet still stand over it as its merciful judge without ceasing to be God, then God must become human.’

God is God and we humans are not God, but through God’s Spirit we are not separated from Him. In fact, we are able to have a deep relationship with Him. We are not the same as Him, but we bear His image. He pours His grace over us which is our sharing in His divine nature. God can only allow us to share in His life if He is able to share Himself. In the Holy Trinity, the one we call Father gives Himself to the one we call Son. The Son receives from the Father and gives obedience to Him. Jesus said, “I and the Father are one” (Jn 10:30). This giving and returning opens up what it means to be 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 us. It is the ‘co’ in ‘communion’ – union between persons. That ‘withness’ is the Holy Spirit who is the spring of living water within us (Jn 4:10;14).

God is not confined to a sealed fortress in the heavens. Within the Trinity it was always the plan that we humans, while not God, can also give and receive, create and be created, be lost and be found. This is because God is 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 us. It is our choosing to sin that distances us from God, and we cannot return to him under our own power. God sent his only Son to be 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 us and suffer 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 and 𝘧𝘰𝘳 us, so that we can be 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 Him.

This is why St Paul tells us to take up Christ’s cross and suffer 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 Him; to die 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 Him; to be raised 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 Him; to weep 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 those who weep and rejoice 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 those who rejoice. This word, ‘𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩’ is to be our ministry and mission for our being 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 God and God being 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 us so that we may sing, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts.”

In the Gospel account of Jesus’ Baptism, we see the Father who sent His Son to reveal the truth of who He is, and to do so in unity with the power and wisdom of the One we call the Holy Spirit. God the Father is 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 us because of the life He gives us; He is 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 us in our growing into being Christ-like and He is 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 us in our actions, struggles and relationships through His Spirit of love and wisdom (Mt 10:20), so that God will be well pleased with us at the Judgement.

Today we welcome Mark who comes to be baptised in the name of the Trinity who has always been with him leading him to this point, and he now will promise to be with God who is both above, beyond and within us.
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Msgr Harry Entwistle
May 31st, 2026
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25/05/2026

Sermon for Pentecost (Whitsunday)
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Acts 2:1-11
1 Cor 12:3-7, 12-13
Jn 20:19-23
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Today we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church and the beginning of the Church’s missionary expansion. When Eastern Orthodox Christians celebrate Pentecost, they celebrate the Holy Trinity. The next day they celebrate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the disciples and the following Sunday when we celebrate the Trinity, they celebrate all the Saints of the Church. This may seem strange to us but in his book, ‘Images of Hope,’ Pope Benedict XVI said that the Eastern sequence celebrates the unity of the persons within the Trinity expressed by the Spirit.

Jesus is the icon of the Father – see Jesus and you see the Father; they are united as one. Through the gift of their love, the Spirit is given to the Apostles. They are members of the Church the mystical Body of Christ on earth who are caught up into the Holy Trinity and called to create the same unity within the Church that exists between Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

St John tells us that the risen Jesus breathes on the Apostles on Easter Day. They are given authority to forgive sins and determine the boundaries of the doctrinal, moral and ethical teaching of the Church. Jesus is the agent of the Father, baptised disciples are the agents of Jesus and empowered by the Spirit, the love that exists between Father and Son. St Luke’s account is more dramatic in that he describes the empowerment of the Spirit in images of wind and fire. The gathered community is gifted with the glory of God, i.e. the approval of God. They were caught up in God’s love and drawn into the unity of the Trinity, reversing the chaos of Babel, by being able to proclaim God’s message in several languages. The Church is Catholic, namely it is universal.

Among the group in the Upper Room was Our Lady who was overshadowed by the Holy Spirit when she submitted her will to that of God and conceived the Word of God, Jesus, in her womb. The one who became the mother of the Incarnate Son of God was empowered to become the mother of the mystical Body of Christ which is the Church. Without her, there would have been no Incarnate Son of God and no Church gathered together by Him.

As the Church grew, the Apostolic Universal Church gave birth to local Churches in differing cities. These local churches were not a federation of independent churches but were in unity with each other because they were united in the belief and teaching of the Apostles. This is why today, those in the Catholic Church in Germany and Belgium, and in other places including Australia, who are agitating to make local churches more independent of the Universal Church and so create their own version of the Catholic Faith, are in grave error and a serious danger to the Church because they are being un-Catholic. Pope Benedict XVI was very clear on this point.

The Church’s mission began at Pentecost when Peter preached to the crowds in Jerusalem. Jesus invited His disciples to take up the cross and follow Him. To do this, disciples need to understand and follow what Jesus said and did in the Garden of Gethsemane when He rejected His own desires, and like His mother before Him, chose to accept and do what God wills. We will certainly face temptations but we mustn’t let this be off-putting. Temptations are stumbling blocks but we should overcome them and turn them into steppingstones that lead us further into being open to receiving the love that only God can give. This constant turning from self to God is the repentance that Peter called the crowds to practise on the first Pentecost Sunday.

The more we turn to God through prayer and the Sacraments, the more open we become to receive the same Holy Spirit who empowers the Church and draws us into unity with the Holy Trinity. This is what St Peter called the crowds to do some 2000 years ago and what we are called to do today.

May the Holy Spirit fill us all with the joy of His love.
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Msgr Harry Entwistle
May 24th, 2026
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21/05/2026

Our farewell messages from around the Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross.

11/05/2026

Sermon for the 6th Sunday of Easter (Rogation Sunday)
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Acts 8:5-8, 14-17
1 Peter 3:15-18
Jn 14:15-21
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Today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles tells us that the Church’s mission was expanding into Gentile areas of the Middle East. Philip went to the Samaritans - a group hated by the Jews - because preaching about Jesus, healing and baptisms had taken place among them. Perhaps the Samaritan woman that Jesus encountered at Jacob’s Well was partly instrumental in this growth. There was no evidence that the Samaritan converts had received the Holy Spirit, so Peter and John went to them to bestow this gift on them through the laying on of hands. This event is the Scriptural basis for the Sacrament of Confirmation – the anointing and sealing of the candidate with the Holy Spirit.

Christian discipleship was, and still is, a risky way of life. The epistle of St Peter tells baptismal candidates that they will suffer because of the path they are taking. By saying “Yes” to God, disciples generate hostility from those who reject or are indifferent to God. This reality hardly helps to persuade people to embrace the Faith, but it is not possible to have faith in a crucified God and not expect to share in His suffering. Travelling with Jesus, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life is hardly a walk in the park to smell the roses.

During the Last Supper, Jesus told His disciples that if they loved Him, they would keep His commandments. The word ‘commandments’ has the ring of issuing orders during a crisis that should not be questioned. The Greek word for ‘commandments’ is more of ‘following instructions.’ Jesus is saying to His disciples that they should keep the standards of the Church by following His instructions, through loving Him and each other. Loving Jesus and loving each other are two sides of the same coin. To understand this, we need to explore the relationship between Jesus and the Father.

Jesus shows us that He loves the Father by doing what the Father instructs Him to do. “I came not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me” (Jn 6:38). Jesus expresses this through His acts of service to others in teaching, healing and raising them up. The Father loves Jesus by showing Him what He, the Father is doing, and by giving Jesus authority and approving His actions. “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Mt 3:17), and “This is my beloved Son, listen to Him” (Mk 9:7).

This is the secret of being a disciple, namely, that we love Jesus. We are loved not only by him, but by the Father who sent Him. This is a shift away from following written laws or moral codes in order to do what is right and true, because God has bestowed the Church community of disciples with the Spirit of Truth. The Spirit of God’s truth is the Paraclete, the dependable one who stands alongside the Church and her faithful. He is the wind of reality blowing the truth of God through us.

The world operates by its own rules because it does not recognise God’s truth. In the world, truth is an individual choice, but the Spirit of God’s truth is permanently resident in the people of God. He is with the Church as we face the world and work out our inner spiritual life with Him.

In his book, “Behold the Pierced One” (p127-8), Pope Benedict XVI says that “Our ministry is to hold up the flame of truth in the world and to affirm that God is, that God knows us, and that God is as Jesus Christ has revealed Him, and in Jesus Christ, He has given us the path to life. He calls us to let heaven shine into this world, to build heaven here. Jesus stretches out His hand to us in His Easter message, in the mystery of the sacraments, so that Easter may be 𝘯𝘰𝘸, so that the light of heaven may shine forth in this world and the doors (of our personal dungeon) may be opened. Let us take His hand!”

This is important because our parish is entering a new challenging chapter in our journey, and at next week’s luncheon I will say more about the period of transition we are facing in a talk titled Back to the Future.
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Msgr Harry Entwistle
May 10th, 2026
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05/05/2026

Across the Anglosphere, there's a big drive for better schools: schools where the teacher is in charge, not the kids; and where the focus is on classical learning rather than the latest educational fad.

Yet our capacity for self criticism and for renewal, that I always thought would guarantee that our civilisation would endure in a way that previous civilisations have not, has now metastasised into a corrosive self loathing.

Better people will be better citizens and better citizens will make a stronger country. Read my remarks at the launch of St John Henry Newman College at The Tony Abbott Newsletter: https://www.tonyabbott.au/p/my-address-to-john-henry-newman-college

05/05/2026

28/04/2026

Sermon for the 4th Sunday of Easter (Good Shepherd Sunday)
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Acts 2:14; 36-41
1 Peter 2:20-25
John 10:1-10
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Filled with the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Sunday, Peter preached the good news of Jesus’ Resurrection to the crowds in Jerusalem. He had never been to a workshop on evangelism, nor had he watched a YouTube video about ‘How to make Disciples’, yet some 3000 people responded to his challenge by asking what they should do to be saved. Peter’s answer was the same as John the Baptist and Jesus’, namely “Repent and be baptised,” that is, change the direction of your life from being self-focussed to being God focussed and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Peter urged them to rely on God, not on themselves, and be commuters between heaven and earth, taking their earthly life to God and asking Him to transform them through His love so they can grow His Kingdom on earth. So who or what makes this type of commuting possible?

The front door of our home has two faces. The inner face defines the boundary of our home where we can relax, be refreshed and secure. It is also the place we can escape and hide from the world because the outer face of the door is the boundary between our ‘space’ and the world. To move from our home into the world means we must pass through the door.

Jesus came from heaven to earth and returned to heaven. We are from the earth and are journeying to heaven. Jesus is our door between this earthy life and heavenly life. He described Himself as the door of the sheepfold through which we His disciples must open to find wholeness and God’s peace in our hearts. Once refreshed we must listen for Jesus’ call, recognise His voice, and go into the world as His witnesses and agents.

When crowds gathered around Jesus, the Jewish leaders accused Him of sheep stealing, while He accused them of being false shepherds who were so self-focussed they were leading God’s people away from the path of His truth. In the period following Jesus’ Resurrection, the dying and rising of Jesus was not only the apostle’s message, it also defined the messenger. The Apostles did not see themselves as selling salvation as a product or creating a corporation with a 5-year plan and the best management practice. The Church’s message of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus was visible in the lives of those who preached that message. They were the presence of the risen Christ in the world. The Church is the Body of Christ, not an International Corporate body.

Neither is the Church an end in itself. It has been gathered, like the Children of Israel, to be a living witness of God through the one who is the shepherd and guardian of the souls of the faithful. He is the door through which we will eventually enter the Heavenly Banquet.

In every age the Church has needed dedicated, faithful and fearless disciples and servant leaders. Our age is no different. Once again, governments no longer take a neutral stance in their dealings with Christianity, they are actively trying to limit or even destroy it. In countries like ours, they don’t openly persecute the Church, they try to neutralise and eventually kill it through legislation.

We need faithful, strong laity and clergy who will stand firm and suffer whatever it takes to proclaim God’s truth. The Anglican 1662 Prayer Book has these words to say to a newly consecrated bishop, which applies to all disciples, “Be to the flock of Christ a shepherd, not a wolf; feed them, devour them not. Hold up the weak, heal the sick, build up the broken, bring again the outcasts, seek the lost.”

God’s faithful people expect to look up to their lay and clergy leaders to be fed, not to look up and become fed up. Servant leadership is risky, costly and dangerous. Yet in the image of Christ the servant and wounded healer, lay and clergy leaders must bring wholeness to God’s people, more out of their woundedness than their strengths.

On this Good Shepherd Sunday when we think of Jesus who knows, and is known by His sheep, pray that our lay and ordained leaders in the Church, especially in our Ordinariate and within our own parish community, may be faithful and courageous shepherds.
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Msgr Harry Entwistle
April 26th, 2026
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22/04/2026