Salesian College is holding an Open Evening on Thursday 15 September from 5-7pm in the James Carroll Centre.
Friday 16 September 6-9pm. Entry via Stewarts Lane car park. Come for a great night of shopping and support our school community.
Entry: Gold coin donation per adult, children under 16 free.
Interested stallholders please contact school office on 9744 3055.
A very brief and much condensed report of the recent Parish Assembly can be found on our Parish Reports page.
Just click here.
There is a strengthening link between the three Catholic Schools which serve our parishioners: Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Salesian College and St Anne’s. Regular contact is made between the students and staff of the schools. Last week, the teachers of Years 6 and 7 of the respective schools met for the benefit of our children. With the advent of the National Curriculum, on-going contact between the staff will be necessary.
The Principal of Salesian College, Mark Brochaus, attended our Parish Education Board last Wednesday and future initiatives between our three schools was discussed, especially in the area of professional development of our teachers. He also announced that the VCAL program at Salesian will continue despite some media reports.
St Anne’s has concluded the regular four-year review which all Catholic schools undertake to improve the education we offer our children. The review process takes about eight months and the external reviewer who was present in the school last week to meet staff, students and parents has been very impressed.
Over three evenings students from our parish celebrated the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Congratulations to them, their parents, teachers and catechists for leading the children into a very prayerful and joyful celebration of God’s forgiveness. Our Thanks also to Fr Tom Cleary, Fr Bert Fulbrook and Fr Joe Binh and Fr Peter Monaghan for assisting over the three nights.
.….Fr Kevin
Saturday 27th August from 9-11am at The Clubrooms, Rupertswood. Looking for U11, U12, U14, U16 & Seniors. New players and girls welcome.
Registration forms available on club website http://rupertswood.cricketvictoria.com.au. Enquire 0459 098 664 or 0421 991 519.
A CyberSafety information evening this Wednesday at 7pm at St Anne’s school is open to all our parents. Please contact the school office for tickets. The session will focus on social networking.
The ceremony was held last Thursday as Maria Vamvakinou MP, Federal Member for Calwell, officially opened the new buildings to which the Federal Government gave a grant of $2.125 mil. as part of the Building the Education Revolution and the National School Pride Grant. In her speech, Maria recalled her most recent visit to a school was in Jordan at the U.N. Refugee Camp for Palestinians who have been in the camp since 1948 when they fled Palestine when the State of Israel was established. The school children there are third generation refugees and are so eager to learn to be teachers and doctors, etc. Maria was part of a parliamentary delegation to several countries in the Middle East.
The whole project took nearly two years and like a home renovation or extension, there was considerable dislocation for students and teachers for five terms. The new facilities are delightful—no wonder applications for enrolment are above capacity
.……Fr Kevin
The enrolement process continues during this month as parents with their child meet the principals and priest at the Parish Office.
Offers of places will be posted early June.
Presented by Sunbury Chaplaincy Committee.
Sunday 1 May at St Andrew’s Uniting Church.
A GREAT MOTHERS’ DAY GIFT IDEA.
Adults $25, children (under 18) $5. Bookings essential—tickets from Just Planet 37 O’Shanassy St. Sunbury (9740 3106) or ring Helen—9744 3031.
Flyer on noticeboard.
Plates of food needed for afternoon tea, i.e. sandwiches, savoury, cakes (small /large). Please write your name & phone number on list on noticeboard OR ring the Parish Office—9744 1060.
Applications for enrolment at our two schools should be forwarded to the school office before this Friday 8 April. The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics reveal a further increase in Catholic school enrolment in Victoria. From 2005 to 2010, enrolments increased 5.3%. Parents are choosing Catholic schools for their unique and distinctive learning environment and their strong academic results. In 2010, Catholic schools in Victoria continued to score well above state averages in national tests.
Applications for Year 7/2012 are still being accepted at Salesian College ‘Rupertswood’ Sunbury. Further info. assistance and Enrolment Application forms are available at the College Office—please call in or contact the Registrar on 9744 0000.
As we gather today to celebrate the gift of these children to our families and to our parish community. The Prep children, who are only in the second month of their schooling, have prepared the window display—‘Jesus gives us life’, and will receive a Jesus Stamp before the Final Blessing and Dismissal.
Lord, we thank you for your unconditional love which we celebrate in the Eucharist.
During this time of preparation, enable these children to discover more and more the gift of your love for them in the Eucharist.
Draw them and all of your family ever closer to you and to each other as we meet around your table.
We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen
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
On Thursday evening I attended two Education Boards (Parish and Salesian) over three hours where the presence of new principals and board chairpersons have changed the dynamics as they continue the good work of previous members and bring a fresh commitment wanting the best for our students. We parishioners are fortunate to have such dedicated leaders.
…………………………………………………….Fr Kevin
Open Day at our two schools is on this Tuesday 15 March with sessions at 9.30am and 2.00pm.
Information Sessions for parents will be held on Wed 23 March in the Parish Centre with sessions at 2.00pm and 7.30pm.
Children, we give thanks to God for the joy and the special gifts which you bring to your families, schools and our community, and we celebrate the blessing which your families bring to our Parish and to our wider community, and so, with Saint Paul, we pray for you and your families:
Out of his infinite glory, may God our Father give you the power, through his Spirit, for your hidden self to grow strong, so that Christ may live in your hearts through faith, and then, planted in love and built on love, you will, with all the saints, have strength to grasp the breadth and the length, the height and the depth, until knowing the love of Christ which is beyond all knowing, you are filled with the utter fullness of God.
Amen
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Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish Sunbury 
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