One of the freedoms God has given us is the freedom to change our minds. The two sons in Jesus’ parable exercised that freedom when their father asked them to work in his vineyard one day. The first son refused, but then changed his mind and went. The second agreed to work but never showed up. In the same way, the sinners who responded to the preaching of St. John the Baptist obeyed God when those religious leaders who seemed to be holy refused to actually do so, and so the repentant sinners were the ones who entered the Kingdom of God.
We Christians know we should do the will of God the Father, but we tend to be fickle and not follow through on our intention to obey God’s will. We need God’s grace to be constant and to help us develop “the same attitude that is also in Christ Jesus,” as St. Paul wrote to the Philippians. As Christ gave up the glory of heaven to die on our behalf, so we have a challenge: “Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves.”
If we accept that challenge, and change our minds from serving ourselves first, it will inevitably change the way we use the time, the talent, and the treasure entrusted to us.
The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard is one that startles centuries after Jesus told it. Those who worked in the vineyard only part of the day, perhaps just one hour, get paid as much as those who labored the whole day long.
The parable, however, is not so much about the workers as it is about the owner of the vineyard. The owner paid all the workers everything they had agreed upon. But in his generosity, he paid many of them more than was required.
In the same way, God is more than just; he is merciful. In his mercy and generosity, he gives all who turn to him eternal life in heaven, both to those who serve him all their lives and those who respond to him a short time before death.
Our response to this merciful and generous God should be one of thankfulness and a commitment to offer him a portion of the time, talent, and treasure he has entrusted to us.
God takes a serious view of sin, but he is eager to forgive sinners. His attitude is well expressed in the Responsorial Psalm, “The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich is compassion.”
Our response to God’s mercy must be two-fold. First, in thankfulness for His kindness, we commit a portion of our time to prayer and worship, particularly by participating in the Eucharist, the Church’s central act of worship and thanksgiving.
Secondly, we hear over and over again that to receive God’s forgiveness for our sins, we must forgive those who hurt us. We pray it in the Lord’s Prayer, and we read the same lesson in the First Reading from Sirach and in the Gospel in Jesus’ Parable of the Unforgiving Servant. Let us then forgive others, so that we in turn may receive forgiveness from God.
Paul concludes his discussion of the relation of Jews and Gentiles in the Church in today’s reading from Romans. In his amazement at God’s action in sending Jesus as both Jewish Messiah and universal savior, he cannot express anything except praise for God’s “riches and wisdom and knowledge,” his inscrutable judgments and unsearchable ways. God is beyond human comprehension, not because he doesn’t care or is hostile (as some religions have held), but because he is so great and loving and generous that neither our imagination nor our reason can grasp it.
Because everything we have comes as a gift from God, even our existence, Paul reminds us that we can’t give something to God in a fashion that puts God in debt to us. “For from him and through him and for him are all things.” So although we are in debt to God, we ought not to view our return to God of a portion of our time, talent, and treasure as a duty to be grudgingly accepted. Instead we’re invited to make a loving response.
Among the many blessings for which we owe thanks to God is the Church, through which we receive sacramental grace and in which we live our Christian life. Jesus built the Church on St. Peter and entrusted to him “the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” In it we can safely journey through the storms of this life until our arrival at heaven.
One emphasis that appears in the Old Testament is the need for the Jewish people to keep themselves apart from the surrounding nations to preserve the purity of their faith from the paganism around them. But there is also the teaching that appears in today’s reading from Isaiah that the Lord God is the only true god, and he welcomes the foreigners who worship him, “for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”
God’s love for all humanity is also behind St. Paul’s teaching in Romans that God allowed the Jews to reject Jesus as the Messiah so the Church would proclaim to the Gentiles that he is the universal Savior of all peoples. And Jesus, while limiting his mission to the Jewish during his earthly ministry, responded with compassion to Gentiles who approached him in faith.
These Scripture readings make clear the God welcomes all who turn to him, without regard to nationality or class. As we seek to be good stewards, how closely do we follow that example? How well do we practice hospitality, one of the pillars of a stewardship parish? Do we welcome all who come to worship God, or do we erect barriers of class or color?
A working bee will be held on Saturday 6 August 2011 at 9.00am till 12.00 noon at St Anne’s to tackle the remainder of the Church grounds. Please bring mowers, trailers, whipper snippers and weeding tools. All welcome. For further enquiries call Jo Wiegerink on 9744 5788.
We humans think that mercy and justice are opposites, but that is not true of God. The Responsorial Psalm tells us that the Lord is both merciful and just. We see his mercy and generosity emphasized in the lessons for today.
The prophet Isaiah delivers God’s invitation to the hungry and thirsty, “Come, without paying and without cost.” We see this fulfilled in the Feeding of the Five Thousand, when Jesus “moved with pity” fed the crowd who had followed him. He still feeds us, and with even better food in the Eucharist, when we receive his Body and Blood. In addition, St. Paul assures us that nothing in all creation “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Such kindness from God calls for a generous response on our part, the response of a grateful heart. As stewards responsible to the Lord for the use of the time, talent, and treasure entrusted to us, we need to heed the Lord’s word so we can obey his will. When we do so, we find that when we give back to God, we receive even more spiritual riches.
The Coordinator is Carmel Wiegerink who can be contacted through the Parish Office on 9744 1060.
Our aim is to have Ministries of Communion serve in their neighbourhoods.
Welcome to Sr. Joze Noy RSJ who has come to our Parish and will be a Pastoral Associate part time. Sr Joze has been a school principal and a pastoral associate in various Victorian parishes since 1994.
Peter Readman- has been our voluntary maintenance coordinator for twenty years. In that time, he has carried out maintenance on our two churches, convent, parish office and presbytery. In addition, he has coordinated the engagement of carpenters, electricians, fencers, plumbers, painters, slate repairers and other tradesmen. He has helped us fulfil our statutory obligations for health and safety.
Peter has been available and prompt to assist at all hours. His wife Pat has been a gracious secretary taking phone calls whenever there has been a crisis. A visiting priest said recently ‘you have a big plant here’. Only Peter would know how many hours he has given to our community in service since 1991.
Peter has decided to finish this service and will continue to serve us in other ways.
As a result of our Stewardship Program we now have four men doing the maintenance Peter did: Ben, Colin, Jo and Vern. There was a hand-over meeting of several hours last Tuesday. When three of our buildings are over 100 years old, there is much maintenance to be done.
We would appreciate hearing from anyone available to read at any of our Easter Celebrations. Please contact Joanne Spiteri on 0448 566 270 or 97407151.
Tuesday night before Ash Wednesday, Stephen Littleton was a guest of our parish to launch the Stewardship Program. We started with a welcome from Fr Kevin who led us in the Stewardship Prayer. Stephen Littleton then took over and summarised Christian Stewardship. He said it is primarily a personal call to renew ourselves, a call to holiness, worship, and action. Having renewed ourselves over the years it may be easier to visualise as refreshing ourselves through our prayers, our efforts, and our sharing, in love, of ourselves with others. I see Stewardship as carrying on with that which Jesus asked of us when he said: “I have called you friends” and “I chose you, and I appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you.”
In this same spirit Stephen Littleton went over the recent history of our parish. What had been achieved in the way of bricks and mortar at our churches and our schools and what we needed to be concerned with in the future. Things such as the pastoral care of a much greater population, the foundation of one or more schools, increased ministry to the elderly and so many other functions required by a greater and greater community. All of which costs more money than we currently have. Our expenditure on maintainance, salaries, utilities, loan repayments etc is more than our envelope collection each week. Our average envelope amounts to $8.44. The message was that in order to meet our present costs and future expansion, we need to boost our income, but as followers of Jesus. We can’t get caught up in how little some give as that’s not our concern. Remember Jesus in Luke’s Gospel with his reaction to the widow who gave all she could, small as it was. Our reaction as the friends Jesus left behind to carry on as his stewards should first be to pray about it. Maybe we could ask what we should do, ask the Father for help. As Jesus said in the Gospel of last Sunday, “enter into your inner room……..and pray to your Father”. We will be answered in some way or other. It could be to take the message to others, to ask for the help of others, to contribute more ourselves, to pray more for the parish community, to put more effort in to the workload of the parish. We also evangelise by our example.
Stephen Littleton then threw the meeting open for questions and then Fr Kevin closed the meeting with a prayer.
Last Tuesday night Stephen Littleton was a guest of our parish to launch the Stewardship Program. We started with a welcome from Fr Kevin who led us in the Stewardship Prayer. Stephen Littleton then took over and summarised Christian Stewardship. He said it is primarily a personal call to renew ourselves, a call to holiness, worship, and action. Having renewed ourselves over the years it may be easier to visualise as refreshing ourselves through our prayers, our efforts, and our sharing, in love, of ourselves with others. I see Stewardship as carrying on with that which Jesus asked of us when he said: “I have called you friends” and “I chose you, and I appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you.”
In this same spirit Stephen Littleton went over the recent history of our parish. What had been achieved in the way of bricks and mortar at our churches and our schools and what we needed to be concerned with in the future. Things such as the pastoral care of a much greater population, the foundation of one or more schools, increased ministry to the elderly and so many other functions required by a greater and greater community. All of which costs more money than we currently have. Our expenditure on maintainance, salaries, utilities, loan repayments etc is more than our envelope collection each week. Our average envelope amounts to $8.44. The message was that in order to meet our present costs and future expansion, we need to boost our income, but as followers of Jesus. We can’t get caught up in how little some give as that’s not our concern. Remember Jesus in Luke’s Gospel with his reaction to the widow who gave all she could, small as it was. Our reaction as the friends Jesus left behind to carry on as his stewards should first be to pray about it. Maybe we could ask what we should do, ask the Father for help. As Jesus said in the Gospel of last Sunday, “enter into your inner room……..and pray to your Father”. We will be answered in some way or other. It could be to take the message to others, to ask for the help of others, to contribute more ourselves, to pray more for the parish community, to put more effort in to the workload of the parish. We also evangelise by our example.
Stephen Littleton then threw the meeting open for questions and then Fr Kevin closed the meeting with a prayer.
About 40 pastoral associates, principals, priests and teachers from Narre Warren, Berwick, Epping, Sunbury, Melton South, Laverton and Werribee parishes met at St Joseph’s Church (1884) and school (2010) in Mernda on Thursday to discuss our schools within the life of our parishes in the growth corridors of Melbourne.
Compared to some others, our parishioners are well served with schools, churches, shops and transport.
Our Neighbourhood structure is addressing some pastoral care issues.
……………………….Fr Kevin
Today we shall hear a brief introduction to our program during March.
Our speakers are: John Bracher, Michael McConville, Trish McCourt and Karen Rose.
Last Wednesday a group of eleven parishioners met to begin the program.
This will be held in Melbourne 15-17 April. A brief meeting will be held next Tuesday 15 February at 7.30pm at Thomas Carr Centre 278 Victoria Parade, Melbourne. Our parish needs some representatives to promote this conference. Enquiries Penny 9287 5579
Bishop Eugene Hurley, Chairman of the Australian Catholic Bishops Commission for Pastoral Life says on the website www.sharethedream.org.au
I am delighted to invite Catholic families throughout Australia to participate in this National Catholic Family Gathering.
Share the Dream echoes the call of the late Pope John Paul II to families – to become what you are – the communities of life and love which make the presence of our Lord real to those around us.
God himself affirmed the importance of the family. Born into a human family, Jesus lived the greater proportion of his life among us following the universal path from childhood into the daily routine of home and work as he “grew in wisdom and stature” (Lk 2:52). So we are reminded that it is through the family that the natural bonds of God’s own love hold firm that foundation upon which our society depends.
The Marriage and Family Council together with the Melbourne Life, Marriage and Family Office have brought together an inspiring line up of speakers and interactive workshops to help participants to reflect on family life, gain new skills, and be encouraged in living family life.
Please come and join this celebration of family life.
Fr Tony entered eternal life last Tuesday after a long illness. Tony was one of us forty-one students who began our formation as priests at Werribee in 1963. Tony was a former teacher. We were ordained together in 1970. Tony was extraordinarily gifted intellectually. He was a musician and a psychologist. He studied psychology at Melbourne University and his doctoral thesis was published in the prestigious ‘American Journal of Psychology’.
Then he ministered as a counsellor at Centacare Catholic Family Services and a consultant psychologist at the Marriage Tribunal for ten years. His first appointment as parish priest was at West Heidelberg where he was well loved and established the Exodus Community for people on the margins. Later, he was transferred and became pastor of two parishes—Surrey Hills and Wattle Park. His funeral Mass is on Tuesday at 11.00am at Wattle Park followed by burial at Springvale.
Our town Sunbury is celebrating its 175th year. The Christian Churches are planning a celebration in Lent for the 175th Year.
In our neighbourhoods, we shall launch groups to share the Word of God and reflect on life in Lent/Easter time.
Both our schools will have the full use of their new facilities and a number of new staff.
We shall bless and open the new school facilities at O.L.M.C. School, have a school reunion and celebrate our final centenary event on February 26 and 27.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish Sunbury 
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