Category: Spirituality

Prayer, meditation etc

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A RENEWED MENTALITY WITH NEW MASS TEXTS

Pope Benedict has exhorted us to develop “a renewed mentality” as we use the new texts. To prepare us internally, Father Michael Fallon will give us formation at all Masses for five Sundays from 11 September. Fr Michael was ordained a priest for the Church of Brisbane in 1968. Later he obtained a Masters in Religious Education at Catholic University of America. Then he was involved in assisting teachers in RE at the Catholic Education Office Brisbane. Later, he was the Director of Continuing Education for the Clergy in Brisbane. Then he was a Parish Priest. He came here in 2005 for our parish renewal week. Fr Michael will be residing and ministering in our Parish for a couple of months.
At the Liturgy Planning meeting last week, we decided on the music for the new texts and we will begin this after the school holidays. From the first Sunday of Advent, the new texts are to be used in the English speaking world. We need several teams to operate the computer for the screens showing the new texts. Please contact the Parish Office so a roster can be drawn up.

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ABOUT THE OPEN LETTER TO THE HOLY FATHER

This letter has recently been doing the rounds of many Parishes, e.g. Manly Vale/Balgowla and Templestowe and Catholic websites, e.g. the website of the National Council of Priests of Australia. And many more besides.
David Schütz, on his blog Sentire Cum Ecclesia has some comments worth reading. David is the Executive Officer of the Ecumenical & Interfaith Commission of the Archdiocese of Melbourne and his comments can be found here.

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WEEK OF PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY 5-12 JUNE

During the coming week Christians everywhere are invited to pause and reflect on their relation to the mother Church of Jerusalem so as to look afresh at our own situations.  The earthly community of Jerusalem is a pre-figuration of the heavenly Jerusalem where all peoples will be gathered around the throne of the Lamb in eternal praise and adoration of God.  All parishioners are invited to join our sisters and  brothers from other Sunbury Christian Churches in celebrating the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity by attending a special ecumenical service to be held at St Anne’s Church on WED 8 JUNE commencing at 7.30pm.  A plate of supper to share after the service would be much appreciated.

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JOURNEY TOGETHER COMBINED MEETING

ON TUESDAY 7TH JUNE AT 7.30PM IN THE PARISH CENTRE THERE WILL BE A SESSION FOR ALL GROUPS PARTICIPATING IN THE PROGRAM AS WELL AS FOR ANY INTERESTED PARISHIONERS WHO MAY LIKE TO TRY IT OUT AND PERHAPS JOIN A GROUP NEARER THEIR HOME

“JOURNEY TOGETHER” is a series of five meetings. The gatherings in homes follow the method of ‘see, judge, act’ – looking at our world, judging life in the light of the Bible and resolving some action. In the recent exhortation ‘Verbum Domini’ (Latin for ‘Word of the Lord’) Pope Benedict and 250 bishops gathered in a synod express their hope for ‘a new season of greater love for the sacred Scripture on the part of every member of the People of God’ (par. 72).

Anyone wishing to join a group is invited to contact the Parish Office.

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NEW MELBOURNE CATHOLICS

235 adults were received into the Catholic Communion throughout the parishes of Melbourne this Easter.
A special Mass of Thanksgiving will be celebrated here on Sunday 5 June at 8.30am.

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JOURNEY TOGETHER

Journey Together is a series of five meetings.  The gatherings in homes follow the method of ‘see, judge, act’ – looking at our world, judging life in the light of the Bible and resolving some action.  In the recent exhortation ‘Verbum Domini’ (Latin for ‘Word of the Lord’) Pope Benedict and 250 bishops gathered in a synod express their hope for ‘a new season of  greater  love for the sacred Scripture on the part of every member of the People of God’ (par. 72).
Anyone wishing to join a group is invited to contact the Parish Office.

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THANKS

Thanks for all the prayers for me.  The surgery has been successful and I am recuperating at Yarraville convent.  The power of your prayers was very strong……Sr Maureen Cahir

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PRAYERS FOR THE FAMILY

Every First Friday at 7.00pm in O.L.M.C. Church….Rosary, Hymns and Divine Mercy Chaplet with quiet time for Adoration.

Every Saturday at 9.00am in O.L.M.C. Church….Rosary, Hymns and Divine Mercy Chaplet with quiet time for Adoration.
All welcome especially children.

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THE CONTEMPLATIVE PARISH

A 2-day program by Catholic Education Office to explore our Christian contemplative practices and foster opportunities for contemplative prayer in parish life.
Dates:  4 May and 27 October from 10.00am to 3.30pm at 362 Albert Street, East Melbourne.
Application forms in Parish Office.

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FATHER RON MERRICK

Fr Ron was ordained in Melbourne in July 1950.  After serving as an assistant priest in Healesville, Gordon, Clifton Hill and Brunswick West, he was appointed the founding pastor of Seaford in 1964, followed by appointments  as parish priest at  Avondale  Heights, Williamstown and Wattle Park (their last full-time resident priest) from which he retired in 2001.  He entered eternal life last  Sunday  and  may  he enjoy eternal peace after all his labours.

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EMMAUS CHARISMATIC PRAYER GROUP – CHANGE

The Prayer Group will not meet on Thursday April 14 but will be attending a ladies’ day at the CCR Centre, 101 Holden Street, Nth Fitzroy (enter from Dean Street)  from 10.00am to 3.00pm.  BYO lunch to share.  Those attending will meet at St Anne’s church at 9.00am.  All ladies welcome.  Further info/transport please contact Lambert & Elaine on 9744 4029.

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PROJECT COMPASSION

Bach in Vietnam
Bach in Vietnam

Bach lives with his wife and four children in Thua Thien-Hue, one of Vietnam’s poorest provinces. He lost his fingers in a mining accident. His daughter is deaf and paralysed, requiring constant care.
Sadly, like many people with disabilities, Bach’s family lived isolated from their community until recently, struggling to make ends meet.
Caritas Australia supports the Centre for Sustainable Rural Development to improve the health, livelihoods and social integration of 750 people living with a disability, encouraging them to form Disability Support Groups to gain practical social and employment skills.
“We people with a disability started coming together, which had never happened before,” Bach explained. “We shared our experience of caring for our daughter, started accessing information, creating household plans and feeling more confident.”
The program provides a healthcare and rehabilitation fund for each group to manage, agriculture training and small loans. “I received finance skills and a loan to buy a pig,” Bach explains.
Caritas Australia also funds the province’s Disability Vocational Training and Employment Centre, training staff to teach employment skills to people with disabilities. Bach hopes his daughter can join these activities one day.
“Participating in this group has increased my hope in life. I’m earning an income from growing cassava, rice and beans. I want to invest more in pig-raising,” Bach told us. “Now I help others to participate, be confident and look for relevant jobs.”

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Parish Stewardship Program

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.