Fiat 2024 brings communities together in prayer

The second annual Fiat—A Weekend of Prayer wound up on Sunday 2 June as more than 1,500 people gathered for Mass at Sacred Heart Church, Carlton, before joining in a Eucharistic procession along Drummond Street and through the Carlton Gardens.

It was the culmination of a weekend of prayer that began on Friday night at St Augustine’s Church in Bourke Street, Melbourne, and which brought together parishes from across the Archdiocese during the Year of Prayer to pray in a variety of ways but with a common purpose: to affirm and join in Mary’s wholehearted ‘yes’ to the Lord.

At 5pm on Friday—the feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary—Fiat was launched at St Augustine’s with two hours of prayer led by Discipleship interns from Proclaim: The Office of Mission Renewal. One of the musicians leading praise and worship was Kyle Correya, who recently returned from the 2024 International Youth Ministry Congress in Rome.

Encouraged by the warm welcome, some stopped or lingered a little longer, and a few accepted the invitation to come inside.

The next hour of prayer was led by the Emmanuel Community, and the final hour by the youth group from St Kevin’s Parish Hampton Park, as priests from across the Archdiocese offered Reconciliation throughout the night. Members of the Proclaim team welcomed people in the forecourt, inviting them to come inside, while a coffee cart provided free coffees to passers-by as people made their way home from work, or to the pub or football at Marvel Stadium. Encouraged by the warm welcome, some stopped or lingered a little longer, and a few accepted the invitation to come inside.

The community at St Michael’s Catholic Church North Melbourne also came together in prayer on Friday night, and to open their beautiful, newly refurbished space for perpetual adoration—the Guardian Angels Adoration Chapel—the newest in the Melbourne CBD.

Prayer events continued throughout the Archdiocese on Saturday, including at St Joseph’s Parish Meredith, which offered the Rosary, adoration and Benediction, followed by a Corpus Christi Mass. On Saturday afternoon at the St John the Baptist Church in Winchelsea, St Peter Apostle Parish Hoppers Crossing hosted a Holy Hour of Prayer on Saturday afternoon—including adoration, the Rosary, a reflection time and Benediction, followed by a healing Mass. And St Andrew’s Parish in Clayton South offered an evening that included the Rosary, praise and worship, and a talk, with music led by the parish’s Good Shepherd Prayer Group.

At St Thomas Parish Drysdale, located on the Bellarine Peninsula, on the very edge of the Archdiocese, all four parish churches participated in Fiat. At St Thomas Church Drysdale, parish priest Fr Ray Bugeja held adoration and benediction before and after the Saturday morning Mass, and at Lumen Christi Church in Leopold, the parish’s monthly Rosary team led an afternoon program of music and prayer focused on the Holy Rosary, supported by the Lumen Christi parish musicians and liturgy team. The communities at St Patrick’s Church Portarlington and St Philip and St James Church St Leonards also held Holy Hours of Prayer at 10am and at 5pm, prior to Vigil Mass.

The Eucharistic procession drew more than 1,500 people from across the Archdiocese.

The weekend culminated on Sunday afternoon in Carlton with celebrations for the solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus, beginning with Mass at Sacred Heart Church in Drummond Street—hosted by Corpus Christi College, the regional seminary for Victoria and Tasmania, and celebrated by Archbishop Peter A Comensoli—and followed by a Eucharistic procession drawing more than 1,500 people from across the Archdiocese.