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Study Tour of the Biblical Lands from 15 November to 18 December 2014.
Jordan, Israel, Palestinian Territories, Turkey and Greece.
Tour Leaders: Rev Anthony Dean cm & Dr Rosemary Canavan.

Information Session: Saturday 12 April at 2.00pm RSVP & further information:
Jenny Delahunt T: 9412 3314
E: jenny.delahunt@ctc.edu.au

Reflection on the Gospel-4th Sunday of Lent Year A, 30 March 2014 (John 9:1-41)

‘There are none so blind as those who will not see.’ Last week, we journeyed with a woman of Samaria from a superficial level of faith understanding to deeper insight into Jesus’ identity and mission and to stronger faith commitment. This week, we are invited on a faith journey with a man born blind and with the different groups of participants in the drama. All have the opportunity of coming to faith. Not all accept the invitation. Ironically, the blind come to see, both physically and spiritually, while those who are gifted with physical sight remain in spiritual darkness.

In healing the man born blind, Jesus performs the sixth of eight powerful actions or ‘signs’ in John’s gospel that reveal God’s power at work in Jesus and in the lives of those who seek life. The ‘signs’ invite the reader/hearer/viewer to accept Jesus and his revelation of God and God’s purposes.

Time features significantly in the story. Jesus heals the blind beggar on the sabbath. The Jerusalem authorities have already raised objections about Jesus’ sabbath healing activity (John 5). Once again they object that he is failing to observe the Sabbath. They label him a sinner. Ironically, in the final authoritative analysis, it is they who ‘remain in their sins’.

This story reminds us of the need to check out our assumptions. It also reminds us to accept the fact that we can be wrong about things we have always believed. It invites us to be open to see differently or from a new perspective. Jesus’ disciples, the parents of a man born blind, his neighbours, the religious authorities all operate out of unchecked assumptions. They mostly come to the wrong conclusions. Only those willing to admit that they have it wrong have any chance of coming to faith.

In the common estimation, the man was blind, so he or his parents must have sinned. Not so, according to Jesus. From the perspective of the authorities, Jesus heals on the Sabbath and is therefore a sinner. Not so, from Jesus’ point of view. The man was born blind, so needs others to speak for him. Not so, say his parents, he can speak for himself. He does speak for himself and quite eloquently, to the chagrin of the religious authorities. He presents them with the truth about Jesus but they refuse to accept the word of an outcast. Their reaction is violent: they drive him out. But Jesus goes in search of him and leads him to yet deeper levels of faith and understanding. You may like to read the story once more and put yourself in the place of the different characters. There is a little bit of each character in every one of us.

 

Tickets are now on sale for the April Concerts.

    This will comprise  excerpts from Bach’s St Matthew and St John Passions and Vivaldi’s ‘Gloria.’
The choir will be supported by two professional singers—Alexandra Flood as Soprano and Lotte Betts-Dean as Contralto. They will appear with a hand-picked chamber orchestra.
Patrons in Gisborne and surrounds will be delighted to know that we have at last found a venue in Gisborne suitable for our concerts. This is the Church of Christ new auditorium on Saunders Road and will be the venue for the first concert on Sunday 6th April starting at 3 p.m. This will be followed on Sunday 13th April with a performance at St Paul’s Anglican Church in Kyneton also commencing at 3 p.m.
In traditional style both concerts will be followed by afternoon tea.

Reflection on the Gospel-Third Sunday of Lent Year A, 23 March 2014 (John 4:5-42)

Those privileged to act as catechists in the RCIA program over the Lenten period will be introducing the candidates to some of our most treasured gospel stories. In 1963, Vatican II’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy called for the restoration of certain early Church practices. The two main features of Lent, baptism and penance, were to be given greater emphasis in the liturgy and in liturgical catechesis. More use was to be made of the baptismal elements proper to the Lenten liturgy. Some features that were part of an earlier tradition were to be restored. In response to this call, John’s stories of the Samaritan woman, the man born blind and the raising of Lazarus were moved from the weekday to the Sunday liturgy.

Thus, three weeks into Lent, the liturgy invites us to take a faith journey in the company of a courageous outsider, an unnamed woman from a despised religious group. She moves from bewilderment and misunderstanding to faith in Jesus and engagement in mission. The pursuit of water, a key baptismal symbol in the gospel tradition, provides the catalyst for a whole education in faith. A woman of Samaria comes to draw water from the well of Jacob, Israel’s great ancestor in faith. Jesus asks for a drink and elicits a bewildered response from the woman. Jews do not associate with Samaritans, the narrator explains. The woman’s response provides the opportunity for Jesus to move into an extended and constantly deepening exchange in which she proves herself as a knowledgeable theologian and worthy dialogue partner.

Commentators tend to focus on the woman’s marital status, usually in negative terms. Because she has had five husbands, many presume that she is a sinner although there is nothing in the text to support this position. Successive husbands may have died. Financial, religious or societal constraints may have functioned in her decision to remarry. The ‘husbands’ may symbolise the strange gods that claimed the allegiance of the Samaritans. There is no consensus among scholars.

At the outset, the woman views Jesus simply as a Jew who contravenes custom by asking her for water. She comes to accept him as the provider of living water. Jesus understands her life story and opens up the way for her to accept him as a prophet. She risks sharing her own convictions about the locus of worship and is gifted with new understanding and Jesus’ further self-disclosure. She leaves her water jar behind and brings others to faith in Jesus as Messiah and saviour of the world.

The Way of the Cross  will be held in St Anne’s Church every Friday night from 7.30pm to 8pm during Lent. The Way of the Cross is in the light of the Resurrection and follows Scripture. All are welcome.

A Lenten gathering will be held in the Parish Centre on Sunday 6 April after 10.30am Mass. An Easter movie will be shown from 12pm. We invite families to bring traditional food to share between 11.30am and noon. Those who bring food will be in the draw to win a Bunnings voucher worth $15.

The Friendship program at St Anne’s Primary school is for students who would benefit from spending one hour per week with a positive adult who relates well to kids. We need Mums, Dads, Grandparents and relatives or anyone over 18 years of age who has a current ‘Working with Children Check’. They would also need to have good listening skills, practice confidentiality and have some free time. If you are interested in participating in this program, please contact Marie D’Orazio on 9744 3055.

The Larrikin Priest will be visiting Sunbury at Memorial Hall on Tuesday 25 March at 7.30pm. Fr Bob will discuss ‘Social Cohesion and Community’. Cost $10 with all proceeds going to the Maguire
Foundation by the Rotary Club of Sunbury. Bookings can be made through www.rotaryclubsunbury.org.au

The Larrikin Priest will be visiting Sunbury at Memorial Hall on Tuesday 25 March at 7.30pm. Fr Bob will discuss ‘Social Cohesion and Community’. Cost $10 with all proceeds going to the Maguire
Foundation by the Rotary Club of Sunbury. Bookings can be made through www.rotaryclubsunbury.org.au

PETS ON THE GREEN

Pets on the Green will take place Sunday 16 March at 10.30am with the ministers of Sunbury’s Churches praying together and blessing our pets on the Village Green.

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We are delighted to invite you to see and purchase handmade religious articles made by the Sisters of St. Elisabeth Convent (Belarus). The exposition will take place on Wednesday 12 of March. Sisterhood of St. Elisabeth was founded in 1996. Our missionary began in a National mental hospital located not far from the Convent. Sisters take care of mentally challenged children and adults.
All these goods made with love and prayer bring blessings to their owners. We are happy and thanking God for the opportunity to introduce and offer them to you. With Love in Christ, Sisters of St. Elisabeth Convent.
Website with all information here.

“We are a society which has forgotten how to weep.”…. Pope Francis

Pope Francis spoke these words when he visited the island of Lampedusa on 8.7.2013. Lampedusa is in Europe and receives many refugees fleeing the continent of Africa. Many perish in the dangerous journey. Our own country is not making conditions any better for those who seek refuge in our land. Catholic Religious Australia are calling for a campaign of prayer, penance and action for people seeking asylum in Australia. For more information refer to the website http://www.catholicreligiousaustralia.org. One very powerful way we can help our brothers and sisters is by sending a letter to Scott Morrison MP in the House of Representatives. A letter is on the website for you to sign and send off. Imagine if we all sent it! There would have to be action taken, surely! Some copies are on the welcome desk.

Reflection on the Gospel-First Sunday of Lent Year A, 9 March 2014 (Matthew 4:1-11)

Lent comes around each year and presents us with its usual challenge to take stock of our lives, to see more clearly what is in our hearts, and to discover what might be calling us out of our comfort zones. It is a time for personal as well as group reflection, a time for entering into ‘the wilderness’ and grappling with the mysteries of life, as well as a time of preparation for Easter. Today’s liturgy invites us to reflect on Jesus’ ‘forty-day’ experience in the wilderness. Jesus is ‘filled with the Holy Spirit’ and, like so many human beings before and since, is ‘led by the Spirit’ into the wilderness of life to be ‘tested’ there. [‘Tested’ is a more accurate translation of the Greek than ‘tempted’].

Forty is a symbolic number in Israel’s story: the great flood lasts forty days and forty nights; Moses spends forty days and forty nights on the mountain of God; Israel wanders for forty years in the wilderness; King David reigns for forty years; the prophet Elijah travels forty days and forty nights in the wilderness on his way to the mountain of God.

The wilderness is ever so real and at the same time symbolic. In Israel’s story, it is the place of testing for God’s people: ‘Remember the long way that your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness… testing you to know what was in your heart’ (Deut 8:2). In Matthew’s account, the ‘devil’ is the ‘tester’ or ‘tempter’, the instrument of God’s testing. In each instance, the test is expressed in terms of Jesus’ relationship to God: ‘If you are the son of God….’ The Matthean Jesus passes the tests that the people of Israel have failed in the wilderness of Sinai. He refuses the way of special favour from God, the way of status or self-aggrandisement. He is prepared to suffer whatever it takes to bring healing and wholeness to a broken world. In other words, he chooses the way of God’s empire or the empire ‘of the heavens’ rather than the brutality of the Roman Empire. Jesus demonstrates that he is indeed ‘of God’.

Most people of faith would agree that being ‘of God’ right now has more than a little to do with the way we relate to Earth’s human and other-than human inhabitants, the value we ascribe to Earth’s precious resources, and the respect we show for life through our responsible use of those resources. In this context, Lent and wilderness take on a whole new meaning.

Lent starts this Wednesday 5 March. It is a day of Fasting and Abstinence from meat. On all other Fridays, except solemnities, the law of the common practice is fulfilled by performing any one of the following:

• Prayer, for example, Mass attendance, family prayer, a visit to a church or chapel, reading the Bible, making the Stations of the Cross, praying the Rosary, or in other ways

• Self Denial, for example, not eating meat, not eating sweets or dessert, giving up entertainment to spend time with the family, limiting food and drink so as to give to the poor of one’s own country or elsewhere; Project Compassion is a major means of expressing our self denial in Australia

•  Helping others, for example, special attention to someone who is poor, sick, elderly, lonely or over-burdened.

All who are over 18 and have not begun their 60th year are bound to fast. All who are over 14 are bound to abstain (Canon 1252)
The Season of Lent is a time of penance. During this season the faithful are exhorted to devote themselves in a special manner to prayer, to engage in works of piety and charity and to deny themselves. Each of the faithful is obliged to receive Holy Communion at least once per year. Lent is a most appropriate time to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation

• Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in St Anne’s church will be led by Legion of Mary on Friday 7 March from 7pm-8pm. All are welcome.

• Legion of Mary also pray the Rosary in St Anne’s Church every  Saturday morning from 9am.

• We thank Strathearn Glen Neighbourhood for hosting Morning Tea after 8.30am Mass this weekend.

• We also thank the Maintenance team for organizing the Working Bee yesterday.

• No Sing a long at Goonawarra Aged Care until Friday 4 April.

WELCOME: to the children and their families who will be celebrating First Communion in the Easter Season. This weekend the children will be looking for Prayer Companions who will pray for the children as they prepare to receive this sacred Sacrament.

International Women’s Day is a global celebration of the economic, political and social achievements of women in the past, the present and the future. The theme the Australian National Committee has chosen for International Women’s Day on 8 March is Ending Poverty for Women and Girls through Economic Empowerment. Seventy per cent of the global poor are women. Although women perform two-thirds of the world’s work, they earn less than 10% of the world’s wages. Women are far more likely than men to live in poverty because of discrimination and lack of access to education, employment and financial services. For more information and resources please visit: https://unwomen.org.au/iwd/theme-and-resources

CATHOLIC STEWARDSHIP FROM SUNDAYS READINGS

Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, which is continued in today’s Gospel reading from Matthew, is the Lord’s longest sermon recorded in all of Holy Scripture. It is included in two of the four Gospels — Matthew and Luke. Interestingly, Matthew states that Jesus spoke on the mountain (“He went up the mountain.” Matthew 5:1). Luke, on the other hand, maintains that Jesus gave the sermon after he came down from the mountain (“…coming down with them, he took his stand on a level stretch.” Luke 6:17). Thus, Luke’s version is often called the Sermon on the Plain.

Regardless, the important aspects of the sermon are that the Lord lays out for us what we must do to be His disciples. Jesus has high expectations of us, such hopes for us, as a matter of fact, that we cannot possibly fulfill them. The point is not that we can achieve perfection in the Lord’s eyes, but that we diligently work to do so. Following stewardship as a way of life is that kind of an effort.

Today’s Gospel includes one of the most quoted statements of the entire Sermon. “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides.” Sometimes we struggle with exactly where to start. Jesus’ point is that we start with God, place our trust in Him, and the rest will follow. “Tomorrow will take care of itself.”

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