This will take place at all Masses today. This is the first step into the Sacramental life of Christ since their Baptism eight years ago or so. The children and their families are committing themselves to prepare to begin celebrating the Sacrament of Reconciliation and Eucharist.
Loving God, You have filled these children with the desire to be people of loving kindness and reconciliation and to be nourished in the Eucharist. May they ever deepen their awareness of your love for them, and may they grow ever closer to your Son, Jesus, in their families and in our community. We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Please notice Mass times for this week with 3 Masses and Anointing at the various nursing homes and the Lenten Penitential service.
We look forward to seeing you all there.
LENTEN MASS WITH ANOINTING OF THE SICK: will be celebrated this Friday 30th at 10am followed by morning tea in the church foyer. Invitations are available at the Welcome Desk in St Anne’s Church.
We are asking for donations of palm or olive branches for next Sunday. Please leave outside St Anne’s Church. The palms can be taken to OLMC Church on Sunday afternoon for the evening Mass.
Welcoming Gathering for Rev Fr Dispin John, our Assist Parish Priest.
Venue: St Anne’s Parish Centre. Date: Sunday 25th March 2012 after 10.30am Mass. Please bring a plate of food to be shared.
Followed by Film screening of “The Human Experience”.
Please come! It is a good opportunity to meet new faces.
In this week’s Gospel story, Jesus speaks of his approaching death. The gospel focuses sharply on his great sacrifice – not merely on the outcome. We are reminded that, before His glorious Resurrection, He had to suffer anguish and death. Jesus uses the powerful image of the grain of wheat, which produces nothing unless it is dropped into the ground, where it dies. He challenges us to “lose” our lives in order to preserve them, by “dying to self” – a confronting idea.
This week’s Project Compassion story comes from Peru. Communities living on the outskirts of Lima have struggled with poverty, poor sanitation and lack of access to basic services. All of this has led to illness and high levels of stress. Violence in the home is also a common outcome.
With its local partners, Caritas continues to work alongside these communities; together they are improving access to health care and better sanitation, establishing nutrition programs and supporting families in caring for their children. In working for justice, they are healing relationships and peace is being restored. People’s lives are being transformed.
During Lent we too can become a new and better version of ourselves. Perhaps we can make our own small sacrifices by becoming partners in this work not only to help those who are in need but so as to be transformed as we shift our focus from “self” to “other”.
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.
FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT – Week 4 Philippines
18 March
John 3: 14-21“God so loved the world that he gave his only Son…”
In this week’s Gospel reading, Jesus is described as the greatest gift of love that God gave to us. He is the “light come into the world”, and faith in him means everlasting life. The choice is ours – to live in that light or in the darkness.
This week’s Project Compassion story comes from the Philippines. Conflict, greed and exclusion have destroyed the peace and security of many indigenous communities, and have forced them into isolation and poverty.
Programs supported by Caritas Australia have opened up new opportunities for these indigenous people – supporting them as they protect their traditional lands, address the humanitarian crisis and engage with other groups in the community to contribute to the process of peace-building.
We are being called to lend our support to this work. When we respond with compassion, we enter into a partnership with Caritas Australia to help build the just and compassionate world that God desires. Perhaps the one who works for justice, in order to have peace, is doing as the gospel today is saying: “…whoever does what is true comes to the light in order that the light may show that what he, or she, did was in obedience to God”
If we want peace, we must work for justice.
Click on the image below to go to the Caritas website.
Every weekend until 23rd March 2012 the ‘Youth and Children’s Choir’ practice is held at St Anne’s from 6.30 to 7.30PM on Fridays.
Ages 7yrs and above are welcome to join.
Training provided by Professional Music Teacher.
The Lay Ecumenical Committee is organising an animal blessing service on the Village Green on the 18 March at 10.00am as part of the Sunbury Festival. Fr Bert will be taking part in the blessing service during this “Pets on the Green.”
In today’s Gospel we hear of Jesus’ forceful reaction to the abuse of the temple – his Father’s house – by the traders and moneychangers. Jesus’ dramatic cleansing of the temple is the sign of God’s action in the world. The wrong he observed moved Him to action.
This week’s Project Compassion story comes from Zimbabwe, where because of prolonged conflict and drought, thousands of people remain displaced and peace is fragile. With the additional burden of HIV-related illness, and the stigma that accompanies it, Colletta and her family, like many others, were reduced to extreme poverty.
In partnership with Caritas Australia, the local church is working to improve life for those who struggle under these conditions. Health care, sanitation, agricultural improvement and peace-building programs are having their effects. The community is being healed as poverty, illness and trauma are gradually being driven out.
Although we do not have the same knowledge of the human heart or the authority to act that Jesus had, we can, nevertheless, detect injustice and, in righteous indignation, as Jesus did, take forceful action against it.
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.
Son of God: The Daily Gospel
This free ebook consists of thoughts on the Gospel of every day of Year B-2 (this year 2012). It can be downloaded (free) to your computer or e-reader using this URL: www.catholic-thoughts.info/ebook/
A study tour led by staff of Catholic Theological College Melbourne
15 Nov to 18 Dec 2012.
Jordan, Israel, Turkey and Greece.
Information session on 15 March at 7pm, 278 Victoria Pde, East Melbourne
Ph 9412 3314.
The audio/visual facilities at OLMC Church are being improved with the installation soon of a computer and data projector costing $1650 to be paid from our Thanksgiving Offering.
The audio/visual facilities at OLMC Church are being improved with the installation soon of a computer and data projector costing $1650 to be paid from our Thanksgiving Offering.
SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT – Week 2 Thai-Burma Border
Mark 9: 2-10
Lent is a time of transformation. We look to prayer, fasting and almsgiving – the traditional practices of Lent – as ways by which we can experience it in our lives.
In today’s Gospel, when Peter, James and John are alone with Jesus, they experience something that renews and invigorates their commitment to follow His example. They see Jesus in conversation with Moses and Elijah and then he is transfigured before their eyes. “His face was shining like the sun and his clothes were dazzling white”. A voice from a cloud announces: “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him!”
For the disciples, this moment is a defining one. They see Jesus linked with Moses, who delivered the ancient Hebrews from slavery and oppression and with Elijah, the prophet of the people. They see clearly their mission to bring the Good News to the poor, and freedom to the oppressed. And the work is waiting for them. “Get up and do not be afraid,” Jesus tells them and he leads them back down the mountain to do that work.
The Project Compassion story this week comes from the Thai-Burma Border and is also about transformation. Khin and her family escaped the poverty, violence and instability in Burma by crossing into Thailand. Once there, they and many other refugees and migrants found that life was still difficult. They faced the daily struggle of making a living in a country where language and cultural differences made them feel alienated.
A program supported by Caritas Australia and its partners has established community-based learning centres – particularly for the children of migrant workers – in Ranong province, Thailand. In this way, communities have their right of access to education so they can adapt to life in Thailand with hope and dignity and plan for a more stable future.
If we want peace, we must work for justice. This program is working for justice. We can recognise the call to be partners in this work. We can support such opportunities for those who have experienced conflict and displacement. We can, like the disciples, “get up and be not afraid”. The work is waiting for us, too.
This season of Lent is a time for us to recommit to it.
Click on the image below to go to the Caritas website.
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.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish Sunbury 
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