Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish Sunbury
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Building a better world by building a better me
WYD 2013 will be held in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil from 22-28 July 2013.
WYD is an international gathering of young Catholics from around the world.
Over 4 million people are expected to attend this week-long carnival of music, prayer, workshops and Mass with the Pope.
Travel with Melbourne’s official pilgrimage group and experience South American life on the way to Rio!
Visit www.cam.org.au/youth for further information.
Archbishop Denis Hart recently wrote to all parishes in Melbourne to welcome the “Year of Grace”. He wrote,
“Beginning at Pentecost, the entire Catholic Church in Australia will enter into a Year of Grace, a time of deep contemplation and renewal, where through prayer, the scriptures, and liturgy, we will endeavor to commit ourselves to starting afresh from Christ. I invite your local Catholic community on this special journey towards a deeper relationship with Christ.”
Our Parish will take part in this journey throughout the year to start afresh from Christ and deepen our faith together.
Click here to go to the website http://www.yearofgrace.catholic.org.au where you can read more about it and subscribe to the email bulletin.
Choir practice will be on Wednesday’s every week during school terms between 6.30 to 7.30PM at St Anne’s Church.
Please make use of this opportunity to get trained by professional Music Teachers at no cost.
We are intending for this Choir to sing every 1st Sunday of the Month at the 10.30AM Mass.
All are welcome to attend.
Mercy Works is currently recruiting volunteers to support refugee students in their educational transitions in Secondary and Primary Schools in Melbourne’s northern and western regions.The volunteer commitment is half a day per week for four school terms. Experience working in an educational setting is required.Retired teachers are encouraged to apply.
A training program will be conducted in July 2012.
Please contact Sr. Mary Lewis for an application form and further information. Website: Mercy Connect Project Phone:9326 1895 or email: somml@bigpond.com.
Do you know an older person or a person with a disability who lives at home but has difficulty getting out and about to do their shopping or meeting up with friends? These are the people our Volunteer Drivers assist through the Sunbury Community Transport Service! As a Volunteer Driver you will be driving the newest fleet of cars and mini-buses in town and you will go home satisfied everyday knowing that you’ve lend someone a hand. You will meet some amazing people and enjoy the many social and recreational benefits of being part of great volunteer team at Link Community Transport.
Further info call Link Community Transport Ph: 03 9355 8484.
For thousands of years before Abraham and Moses the Aboriginal people uses Message Sticks to communicate and invite neighbouring groups to initiation ceremonies, right of entry to country and invitation to religious rituals. On this Reconciliation Sunday we are pleased to use our recently received Message Stick to remind us to listen to the teaching of Jesus and the stories of His Ancestors.
The Life, Marriage & Family Office warmly invite all expectant mothers and their families to a Mass for Expectant Mothers. The Mass will be celebrated by Archbishop Denis Hart at St Patrick’s Cathedral on Sunday 17 June at 11.00am.
To register, please contact the Life, Marriage & Family Office on 9287 5587 or lmf@cam.org.au.
You can also register online at www.cam.org.au/lifemarriagefamily.
Please note that registration closes on Friday 8 June.
Women who register will receive a small token of recognition.
We all do things to enhance our lives; Fitness programs and diets to improve our health ; Professional Development programs to improve our job skills. We offer you an opportunity for married couples to give a wonderful gift to your children by enhancing your marriage through a Marriage Encounter weekend. We invite you to invest in your most precious asset, your marriage.
Please join us in 2012. Take a look at our website on www.wwme.org.au.
Our weekends in 2012 are: 15-17 June (Anglesea), 10-12 August and 12-14 October (Melbourne).
For further information and bookings contact Marianne & Marcel Van den Bronk (03)9733 0997 or Email vicbookings@wwme.org.au
CATHOLICCARE’S HEAVENLY GALA BALL 24 MAY 2012
HELP US SUPPORT MELBOURNE FAMILIES TO SURVIVE SUBSTANCE ABUSE
Once a year CatholicCare holds a Gala Ball, proceeds from which go to support families affected by substance abuse. Only a small proportion of this vital service is funded by Government, the rest of the service is reliant on sponsorship from the Archdiocese, fundraising activities and a dedicated band of volunteers raising money each year. Our fundraising target for the evening is $150,000 this money goes towards supporting the counselling services and programs aimed at supporting and strengthening families. We are looking for auction items, sponsorship, donations or ticket sales, if you are in a position to assist in any of these areas or know of anyone that could please contact Kathy Matthews at CatholicCare on 8417 1200 or kathleen.matthews@ccam.org.au
9am Mass at OLMC Church then 10am Prayer Service at War Memorial on the Village Green. Both our schools will march and lay wreaths. Fr Kevin will lead a prayer.
AN ANZAC DAY PRAYER
Lord our God, boundless provider, source of peace that the world cannot give, kindly hear our constant prayer for those who bore witness to your own fidelity by giving their lives for those they loved. Resurrect them in our true homeland and perfect that peace for which they longed and died. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
WYD 2013 will be held in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil from 22-28 July 2013.
WYD is an international gathering of young Catholics from around the world.
Over 4 million people are expected to attend this week-long carnival of music, prayer, workshops and Mass with the Pope.
Travel with Melbourne’s official pilgrimage group and experience South American life on the way to Rio!
Visit http://www.cam.org.au/youth for further information.
Xt3, the catholic website, has an article that may be pertinant to us today in our Parish. Click on the link below and read the article and peruse the comments.
Are you Lonely in Your Parish? A New Study Offers Cautions – Xt3 Library.
“When people exchange information, they are already sharing themselves, their view of the world, their hopes, their ideals. It follows that there exists a Christian way of being present in the digital world: this takes the form of a communication which is honest and open, responsible and respectful of others… I would like then to invite Christians, confidently and with an informed and responsible creativity, to join the network of relationships which the digital era has made possible.”
– Pope Benedict XVI, Message for the 45th World Communications Day, 5 June 2011
Pope John Paul II asked of us: “You young people have in a special way the task of witnessing today to the faith; the commitment to bring the Gospel of Christ – the Way, the Truth and the Life – into the third Christian Millennium, to build a new civilization – a civilization of love, of justice and of peace.”
And so Xt3 represents Christ (Xt) in the 3rd Millennium.
Xt3 is a content driven social networking site. It has the functionalities of the most common social networks, but with a broad resource base of the latest media that relates to the Catholic faith! Xt3 is sponsored by Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney.
Xt3 supports and bring to life the Holy Father’s 2009 theme for the 43rd World Communications Day this: New Technologies, New Relationships. Promoting a Culture of Respect, Dialogue and Friendship.
CARITAS AUSTRALIA would like to thank you for supporting Project Compassion.
If you still have your Project Compassion box or set of envelopes at home, please bring them back next week or visit http://www.caritas.org.au to make your donation online.
Together we are working towards the creation of the just and compassionate world that God desires.
Archbishop Denis Hart is encouraging all parishioners to complete an online survey at www.aph.gov.au/marriage.
The Marriage Amendment Bill will redefine and undermine the true meaning of marriage.
The closing date for responses will be April 20 2012.
CATHOLIC STEWARDSHIP FROM SUNDAYS READINGS
This Sunday we celebrate the greatest event in all of history – Christ’s resurrection from the dead. It is the greatest mystery of all time and, therefore, today is the highest celebration of the liturgical year.
As Christian disciples, we not only rejoice in the reality of the resurrection, but, as St. Peter tells us in his speech in the first reading today, we are commissioned to proclaim the good news. We proclaim Christ to the world by the way we live our lives. Filled with sheer gratitude and joy for what Christ has done, we put Him first in our lives, committing to love and serve Him before all else. We recognize our time, talents, and treasure as gifts from Him, and we use them to give Him glory.
Then, those who bear witness to our lives see the beauty of Christ in us, and we invite them to live to love and serve Him as well.
This is what it means to be a disciple. We rejoice in the good news, and we proclaim it to all the world!
Copyright © 2011 www.TheCatholicSteward.com
Happy Easter from all at Caritas Australia!
Celebrate that your generosity to Project Compassion continues aid and development work reflective of the life of Jesus Christ, and shaped by the tradition of Catholic Social Teaching principles, in over 35 countries around the world.
You have offered new life to your brothers and sisters struggling with poverty and injustice. Thank you for supporting Caritas Australia’s Project Compassion 2012 appeal.
If we want peace, we must work for justice.
Click on the image below to go to the Caritas website.
This Service will take place at 10am in the Memorial Hall and St Mary’s Hall.
Our parish is one of the financial sponsors donating $600 towards the costs.
PASSION (Palm) SUNDAY – Week 6 Australian Indigenous
1 April
Liturgy of the Palms: Mk 11:1-10 OR Jn 12:12-16
Liturgy of the Passion: Mk 14:1-15:47 OR Mk 15:1-39
As the Lenten season approaches its end, the Gospel readings relate the events leading to Jesus’ suffering and death – the culmination of the work he was born to do – and we look towards the great and glorious Resurrection of Christ.
During the past five weeks we have heard and reflected upon stories from Timor Leste, the Thai-Burma Border, Zimbabwe, the Philippines and Peru. These are stories of people living in poverty and injustice, lacking access to basic services and often denied the opportunity to exercise the rights that we all have as human persons.
In Australia, our Indigenous sisters and brothers also face many similar struggles. In a prosperous country where most of us claim adequate nutrition and health care as a fundamental right, Aboriginal Australians in remote communities have shortened life-spans because of high rates of diet-related illness – particularly diabetes.
The Project Compassion story this week comes from such a community, near Broome in Western Australia. With its local partners, Caritas Australia is supporting a community-owned program which promotes and educates for health care and healthy living.
Caritas Australia works for justice – for the kind of world that God desires.
Caritas works in partnership – building ‘right relationships’ between all of God’s people.
In justice and right relationships lies the path to peace.
If we want peace, we must work for justice.
The glorious celebration of new life is almost upon us. It brings hope for change and renewal for all of us.
We can show our solidarity with communities living in poverty, our compassion to those struggling against discrimination and stigma and our preparedness to challenge injustice. As Pope Benedict XVI said: “Our hearts cannot be at peace as long as we see our brothers and sisters suffering”.
If we want peace, we must work for justice.
Click on the image below to go to the Caritas website.
CATHOLIC STEWARDSHIP FROM SUNDAYS READING
In today’s Gospel, we hear the Passion of Jesus Christ proclaimed. He suffered and died a cruel death for the sake of sinners – for the sake of all of us. And St. Paul tells us in today’s second reading that Jesus Christ “humbled Himself becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross,” St. Paul tells the Philippians in today’s second reading. “Because of this … at the name of Jesus every knee shall bend and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
So, by sacrificing Himself the way He did (for the sake of others), Jesus gave glory to the Father. What does that mean for us today?
As His disciples, we follow in Jesus’ footsteps. We follow His example. This does not mean that we are all called to die a cruel torturous death. But we are all called to live lives of sacrifice – offering ourselves – our time, our talents, and our treasure – to love and serve the Lord by loving and serving others. What’s more, we do not do so in such a way that we give of our excess. Quite the opposite, in fact. Jesus’ Passion and Death shows us that this gift of self ought to be sacrificial. It ought to come from the first fruits of ourselves. In fact, we ought to give our whole lives – everything we say and do should be done for the glory of God and the service of others.
It is not an easy calling, but it is a noble one. The goal of it all, to give glory to the Lord our God.
Copyright © 2011 www.TheCatholicSteward.com
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish Sunbury 
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