ANZAC DAY MEMORIAL – AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND. - - 25TH APRIL Surfers Paradise Catholic Parish - Mass – Podcast. (2024).
Image: Australian War Memorial Archive – Canberra. Photograph H06769. Claud Castleton VC, (1893-1916).
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Background image: Shutterstock Photo – licensed - ID: 2257654357 - Anzac background. Remembrance day, Memorial in New Zealand, Australia, Canada and Great Britain. Red poppies. Memorial armistice Day, Anzac day banner. Remember for Anzac, Historic war memory. Photo Contributor: Volodymyr TVERDOKHLIB
LEST WE FORGET ANY OF OUR BRAVE.
Including -
Claud Castleton VC, (1893-1916) -
Died aged just 23 years.
Photograph H06769
Service number 1352Ranks Held Private, Sergeant
Service Australian Imperial Force
Units • 2nd Australian Machine Gun Battalion
5th Australian Machine Gun Company
Conflict/Operation First World War, 1914-1918
ANZAC DAY MEMORIAL – AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND. - - 25TH APRIL
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Please listen to my audio recordings of the readings, prayers, and reflections for Anzac Day, April 25th 2024, by clicking this link here: https://soundcloud.com/user-633212303/faith-hope-and-love-anzac-day-weekday-memorial-years-abc-episode-475/s-eB0MxPxlGEc
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Readings for ANZAC DAY
FIRST READING **2024** Wis 3:1-9: He accepted them as a holocaust.
or
Is 9:1-6 - Wide is the dominion of the Lord, in a peace that has no end.
PSALM: **2024** Ps 71:2–4, 7–8, 12–13, 17: Justice shall flourish in his time and fullness of peace forever.
Or
Ps 114:5–6, 115:10–11, 15–16 (p.851): R. I will walk in the presence of the Lord, in the land of the living.
SECOND READING
**2024** Eph 2:13-18: He is our peace; destroying the hostility in your body.
or
1 Cor 1:18-25 -: God's weakness is stronger than human strength.
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION: **2024** Alleluia, alleluia! Happy are those who have died in the Lord; let them rest from their labours for their good deeds go with them. Alleluia! (Rev 14:13)
or
Alleluia, alleluia! Peace, I leave with you, says the Lord; my own peace I give you. Alleluia! (Jn 14:27)
GOSPEL –
**2024** John 12:23-28. "If a grain of wheat falls on the ground and dies, it yields a rich harvest."
Or
John 14:23-29. The Holy Spirit will teach you everything and remind you of all I have said to you.
Image: Australian War Memorial Archive – Canberra. Photograph H06769. Claud Castleton VC, (1893-1916).
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Background image: Shutterstock Photo – licensed - ID: 2257654357 - Anzac background. Remembrance day, Memorial in New Zealand, Australia, Canada and Great Britain. Red poppies. Memorial armistice Day, Anzac day banner. Remember for Anzac, Historic war memory. Photo Contributor: Volodymyr TVERDOKHLIB
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At dawn on this day in 1915, during World War I, soldiers from the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps landed at Gallipoli; this national day of remembrance honours the courage and the self-sacrifice of those who served in that campaign and that war and, indeed, all wars, and conflicts and peace-keeping operations. We particularly recognise the sacrifice of the fallen. We commend them to God's eternal care... and we also pray fervently that the peace and justice that they sought to defend and preserve will dwell richly in our land and in our world and that God's peace and reverence will make a home in the hearts of every person in this world.
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Many who returned from serving in the wars often did not speak of their experiences. They were so deep and indescribable. Today, we respect their silence, and we also respect their times of sharing whatever they feel is vital for us to know and to take to heart, never to forget, lest we forget, lest past history be repeated or core principles that were fought so hard and for so long could be lost.
Today and every year at this time we willingly and gratefully pause to remember and pray and give thanks for those countless men and women who served in time of war and who sacrificed everything for the sake of their families, their friends, their colleagues, their mates and their country and they sacrificed everything for the freedom, the love, the friendship and peace that lay behind their service and sacrifice.
Over many decades now there's been a conscious collecting of many recollections of those who lived through these times, to preserve their voices and their messages for future generations long after they have gone to God.
Claud Castleton (1893-1916) enlisted on March 1915 in Sydney. He served on Gallipoli with the 18th Battalion and in March 1916 transferred to the 5th Machine Gun Company.
Castleton was killed at Pozières on 29 July 1916 during an action for which he was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.
During a night attack on enemy trenches, the infantry was driven back and then held down by intense enemy machine-gun fire. Many wounded men were left lying in no man's land, (and with his own assigned station disabled, Castleton - on two occasions went out in the face of enemy fire to bring in wounded men on his back. When he went out a third time, and while carrying a wounded soldier on his back, he himself was hit in the back and killed instantly. His body was later recovered and buried in the main British war cemetery at Pozières. Such bravery whilst repatriating wounded soldiers in the midst of battle.
We honour Claud and all who served valiantly in time of war…. Including all those whose acts of sacrifice and bravery are unknown or unsung. God sees all and repays all, (in Heaven), for their bravery and sacrifice.
From a Christian perspective we hear from our Lord's own lips, no one has greater love, says the Lord, than those who lay down their lives for their friends. And today we commemorate the ultimate sacrifice of all who served in times of war and those who risked life and limb for those they loved and also those especially who lost their lives for those they loved. We can't help but notice the echo of Christ's death on the cross, in the death of all who gave up their irreplaceable lives, defending and protecting their loved ones from real and frightening dangers.
We remember the sacrifices and losses of war in order to respectfully remember those who paid that ultimate sacrifice of their lives and others paid the price of their health and peace of mind in the face of terrible aggression on true assaults on human dignity and freedom. Remembrance steals our commitment to peace and justice by reminding us of the alternative which always comes at too high a price. The world deeply wants to learn from the past violence and destruction in order to avoid future repeats.
We know that familiar ode so well, we know it by heart, age shall not weary them. That is, those men and women who have already lost their lives, lest we forget the reason they died, the horrors they saw and suffered, the horrors that they urgently fought to prevent if the aggressor were to get the upper hand, the loss of the values that underpin our very society. Also we remember the effects on those who are still with us and still need us.
There are many, many sacrifices that were made by those who served in times of war and those who serve now too. As well as the sacrifice of some people's lives, there's also their loss of their youth, their health and their emotional well-being. Those who did come back, came back injured in body, mind or spirit from their experiences.
Anyone in any way affected by the horrors of war and its aftermath, we remember them too with profound respect and gratitude. How can we repay them? The human cost of war, of people risking and often losing life for the defence of others, can never be adequately calculated and it cannot be repaid. Our prayer today and for the future is for that peace which only Christ can give the world.
A peace and a love that quenches the all-too-real hatred and misunderstanding that exists in the world and a peace that banishes all that leads to enmity and violence. We long for this. These are the ones who served and prayed and struggled for it.
We continue this prayer year after year, especially on this day and all days. May peace be in the hearts and minds of every person throughout the world, not just on this day but every day. May the peace of God's Kingdom one day soon put an end to all war and violence.
In remembering and acknowledging the human cost of war and the price beyond telling of those who served, we not only remember them but we commit ourselves to a world where the values they fought are cherished, protected and remembered. We pray that God's reign of peace, justice, dignity and love will all come in its fullness and that the values of those who struggled and suffered for us will always and everywhere be respected, preserved and built up ever stronger.
Today we recall the extraordinary poem, of which a paragraph has become immortalised as The Ode.
This poem, written by Laurence Binyon in 1914, now over a hundred years old but still deeply relevant today, captures the importance of remembering and commemorating this day. Elsewhere in that same poem, not used in The Ode, he writes a passage that echoes our belief that those who have made sacrifices in the service of others remain not only in our hearts and memories but, although hidden from sight, they live on in the everlasting life of God's Kingdom where there is true peace, no more suffering, no war, no pain.
Our constant prayer is that God's Kingdom come, not only in heaven, but that that peace and justice of God's Kingdom will take hold and express itself ever more here on earth and that the freedoms and values that our past generations have sacrificed everything for will be assured for all and forever.
And so Laurence Binyon's poem continues where it says,
"Where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;
As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain."**….
(We will remember them) ..
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- Reflection by Fr Paul Kelly
- Australian War Memorial Website - https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/P11051710
https://www.abc.net.au/religion/what-must-we-remember-on-anzac-day-moral-reflection-without-mili/10094782
- ** Robert Laurence Binyon, (10 August 1869 – 10 March 1943). "For The Fallen", The Times, (London), 21 September 1914.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_history_of_Australia
Image: Australian War Memorial Archive – Canberra. Photograph H06769. Claud Castleton VC, (1893-1916)
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Background image: Shutterstock Photo – licensed - ID: 2257654357 - Anzac background. Remembrance day, Memorial in New Zealand, Australia, Canada and Great Britain. Red poppies. Memorial armistice Day, Anzac day banner. Remember for Anzac, Historic war memory. Photo Contributor: Volodymyr TVERDOKHLIB
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ANZAC DAY MEMORIAL – AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND. - 25TH APRIL..
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
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As we begin the Holy Eucharist, let us acknowledge our sinfulness, so as to worthily celebrate the sacred mysteries.
You raise the dead to life in the Spirit. Lord, have mercy//
You bring pardon and peace to the sinner. Christ, have mercy//
You bring light to those in darkness. Lord, have mercy//
May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life. Amen.
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Let us pray for peace in our world, and in our hearts and homes. Lord Hear Us.
Let us pray for all servicemen and women, who served our nation with bravery and honour. Lord Hear Us.
Let us pray for those men and women who died in the time of war, defending the freedom, the values and the people they love. Lord Hear Us.
Let us pray for all those who have been injured or in any way physically or emotionally affected by war. Lord Hear Us.
Let us pray for those who presently serve in armed forces, that they may be protected and strengthened. Lord Hear Us.
Let us pray that we will experience a deep sense of unity with God and with one another. Lord Hear Us.
Let us pray that the ANZAC spirit of self-sacrifice, bravery, and support may always live in the memories and hearts of all Australians. Lord Hear Us.
For people around the world - suffering the effects of war, violence and assaults on human dignity and rights. That they may be given peace and dignity and practical assistance in their suffering. And that God's peace will spur people to find every paths to peace and justice.
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Memorial Acclamation
1. We proclaim your Death, O Lord, and profess your Resurrection until you come again.
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Preface: Christian death II
Eucharistic Prayer II
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Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.
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- Archive of homilies and reflections: http://homilycatholic.blogspot.com.au
- To contact Fr. Paul, please email: paulwkelly68@gmail.com
- To listen to the weekly homily audio podcast, please click this link here.
https://soundcloud.com/user-633212303/tracks
Further information relating to the audio productions linked to this Blog:
"Faith, Hope and Love - Christian worship and reflection" - Led by Rev Paul Kelly
Prayers and chants — Roman Missal, 3rd edition, © 2010, The International Commission on English in the liturgy. (ICEL)
Scriptures – Jerusalem Bible (1966)
"The Psalms" ©1963, 2009, The Grail - Collins publishers.
Prayers of the Faithful - " Together we pray" by Robert Borg'. E.J. Dwyer, Publishers, (1993) . (Sydney Australia).
{Sung "Mass In Honour of St. Ralph Sherwin" - by Jeffrey M. Ostrowski. The ….Gloria, copyright 2011 ccwatershed.org. }
"Today I Arise" - For Patricia Kelly. Original words and music by Paul W. Kelly. Inspired by St Patrick's Prayer. Arranged and sung, with additional lyrics by Stefan Kelk. 2019.
[ Production - KER - 2024]
May God bless and keep you.
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