“HOW is the city of Brisbane being built?” is the quest-ion apostolic nuncio Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto put to the crowd at the blessing and opening of the Santa Teresa Spirituality Centre last Sunday.
Archbishop Lazzarotto blessed and opened the centre for the archdiocese at Ormiston on Brisbane’s bayside.
He preached on the Gospel of the liturgy celebrated near the Santa Teresa Chapel looking out over Moreton Bay to North Stradbroke Island.
The reading – Matthew 7:21-29 – referred to the true disciple – the one who listens to Jesus’ words and acts on them – being like the sensible man who built his house on rock so that it could withstand floods and gales.
“The Word of Jesus we heard proclaimed reminded me of the famously asked question of the first bishop of this archdiocese: ‘Where is the city of Brisbane?’,” Archbishop Lazzarotto said.
“Jesus asks us to reflect a little more deeply on that question.”
Archbishop Lazzarotto said we were challenged not to ask “Where is the city of Brisbane today?” but “How is the city of Brisbane being built?
“That is the question. This is an ever relevant question …”
Archbishop Lazzarotto said Jesus told us there was one only one safe way to build a city, and it applied not only to material buildings.
“Here we’re trying to build up in our lives and for our sisters and brothers (a place) where we can be with God, and find God, enter into stronger communion with Him and with our brothers and sisters … That is the kind of city we should build and care for.
Having been to the archdiocese previously for the blessing and opening of the Holy Spirit Provincial Seminary, Archbishop Lazzarotto said that project and the Santa Teresa Spirituality Centre were signs that the archdiocese was trying to build its city on sound foundations.
He said they were signs of faith and of looking to the future instead of celebrating past glories.
The apostolic nuncio said they were signs of building sound foundations to “help people of faith and men and women of the city to have a purpose in their lives, to be helped in their search for God, to be supported for their journey to God”.
“Your Grace (Archbishop Bathersby) and dear friends, we can only hope and pray that this centre will serve beautifully for that purpose,” he said.
Other guests at the blessing and opening included Sr Kathleen Ryan, representing the Cenacle Sisters in New Zealand, who had previously operated The Cenacle Retreat Centre on the site; Joan Hendriks, Rose Borey and Belinda Burns, from the Quandamooka people of Stradbroke Island; Rhonda Ryder and Bryson Sherrin, from Santa Teresa, near Alice Springs, and representatives of the St Paul de Chartres Sisters, who are providing the sacred furniture for the centre’s chapel.
Archbishop Bathersby, in his address at the opening, said that “for some time now we realised that because of the closure of archdiocesan spirituality centres in more recent years for different reasons, the archdiocese desperately needed a spirituality centre if it was to shape the formation and faith of its people”.
The Santa Teresa Spirituality Centre is an answer to that need. “May Santa Teresa, a saint for our time, inspire the archdiocese by her faith and simplicity and make this spirituality centre a powerhouse of God’s grace into the future,” Archbishop Bathersby said.
