By Theresia Titus
Perth Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB has last week led a thanksgiving Mass with the Miracle Prayers ministry, an outreach of Disciples of Jesus Covenant community on 8 January.
Co-founder and Miracle Prayers ministry Chaplain, Fr Doug Harris, concelebrated the Mass, along with Frs Demetri Roh, Fr Christopher Ross OSM and Fr Leonardo Jr Guiang.
Drawing his homily from the feast of the Epiphany, Archbishop Costelloe emphasised that Jesus’ disciples and apostles “were utterly and completely dumbfounded because they had not seen what the Miracles of the loaves meant” as “their minds were closed”.
“I think there is an invitation for us to try to understand what is it that they didn’t understand, what it is that they got wrong, what did they think was happening and what they thought it meant,” Archbishop Costelloe said.
Archbishop Costelloe also explained that “at the heart of the mystery of the Epiphany, is really this idea that people seem to struggle very much to truly understand Jesus.”
“If I can put it this way: to actually get him right,” he said.
“And if that was true in the time of Jesus and was true for the disciples and the first 12 apostles, it’s probably true, also, for us. We’re all on the journey of faith but we don’t always understand who the Lord really is.”
Archbishop Costelloe also explained that just as the wise men did not expect to find the newborn King in the stable in Bethlehem, we are reminded “not to get too complacent in presuming that we have got Jesus all worked out, or we know all there is to know about Him”.
“We too can sometimes look for him in the wrong places or expect to find Him in certain places only to discover that He is actually not there at all and that we have to keep looking just as the wise men had to keep looking,” he said.
At the end of the homily, Archbishop Costelloe explained that there is a need “to approach the Lord with humility, to accept that there is always more for us to know about Him, always more for us to understand; always more for us to learn from the Church and from the scriptures and from our lives as a Christian community, about who Jesus really is”.
“Because only when we know more deeply who He really is that we’ll know more deeply what’s He is asking of us.
“We too are invited to recognize that as people of faith we are on this journey to discovery, this journey into the mystery of what it is to say that God loved us so much that He sent his only son who became one of us”.
Attended by more than 100 people, Miracle Prayers Ministry co-founder, Michelle Firth, said the Mass was celebrated as an act of thanksgiving for the blessing the ministry has received.
“The world is in great need of healing. God understands our pain, fears and fragility and He doesn’t hold back in coming to assist when the faithful cry out to Him in prayer,” Mrs Firth said.
“It’s important to acknowledge His infinite Goodness towards us and give thanks.
“By returning love for love, we become whole and obtain peace in our lives.”
Speaking to The Record, Mrs Firth mentioned that it was significant for the Ministry to have the support of Archbishop Costelloe.
“By him celebrating the Mass, we felt our prayers being united with the prayers of others in our Archdiocese. It was a great grace and we thank God for this,” she said.
Mrs Firth is also thankful for the healings given and prayers answered through the works done in the Ministry since its foundation on 9 October 2013.
“As well as our healing service on the second Wednesday of each month, we have a regular street outreach, an Intercessory Facebook page in which we receive prayer requests from all over the world, and members of our healing team often visit the sick in hospital and organise personal prayer appointments,” she said.
“Through these, we have witnessed and received reports of numerous healings, conversions and answered prayers.
“Thousands of lives have been blessed through Miracle Prayers, there’s a lot to give thanks to God for.”
Following the final blessing, those who attended the Mass were invited to come forward and receive an individual blessing from Archbishop Costelloe and other priests who concelebrated.