Right to Life Australia is hosting a dinner on 28 April 2012 to fundraise to support their Pregnancy Counselling 24 hour service which is a telephone service to assist pregnant mothers in crisis.
The trained counsellors provide voluntary help Australia wide around the clock, every day of the year.
This service does not receive government funding.
Support Pregnancy Counselling Australia to continue to provide this vital service and have a great time at a fun event www.pregnancycounsellingaustralia.com.au Mary Collier, Right to Life Australia ph (03) 9385 0100.
FOSTER CARE
Every night in Victoria there are thousands of children who need a safe place to stay because they are unable to live at home. Also, the long-term benefits of providing a stable and loving home environment are crucial to development of the vulnerable children and young people MacKillop work with every day.
For further information please contact MacKillop Family Services on 8398 6800 or www.mackillop.org.au.
CATHOLICCARE OUTREACH PROGRAM
In the past our community has given generously to Catholiccare. Our community has access to the services provided by this wonderful organisation through the outreach program.
It is run through the Sunbury Community Health Service and the hours of operation are: Mon, Tues, Thurs 9-5; Wed 11.30am-7pm.
Services provided range from individual, couple and family counselling, stress management, grief and loss, pain management and parenting.
Please contact 9744 4455 to arrange an appointment if you need to use this service.
50th ANNIVERSARY OF VATICAN II
It is 50 years this October since the bishops of the world gathered at the Vatican for an ecumenical council. Pope Benedict has called for a Year of Grace from October to renew the Church as the Council Fathers taught. An excellent article on Vatican II is by Professor Richard Gaillardetz of Boston, USA, posted on http://www.cathnews.com on 11 March 2012. He writes of the dynamics of the Second Vatican Council how the bishops listened to one another respectfully, were humble learners and were open to the world.
…..Kevin McIntosh
PROJECT COMPASSION REFLECTION
Happy Easter from all at Caritas Australia!
Celebrate that your generosity to Project Compassion continues aid and development work reflective of the life of Jesus Christ, and shaped by the tradition of Catholic Social Teaching principles, in over 35 countries around the world.
You have offered new life to your brothers and sisters struggling with poverty and injustice. Thank you for supporting Caritas Australia’s Project Compassion 2012 appeal.
If we want peace, we must work for justice.
Click on the image below to go to the Caritas website.
YOUTH SUNDAY
Please keep our youth in your prayers as they grow to be active Christians in our Church and feel God’s presence and love in their daily lives.
1 April 2012 – Palm Sunday
PROJECT COMPASSION PASSION SUNDAY
PASSION (Palm) SUNDAY – Week 6 Australian Indigenous
1 April
Liturgy of the Palms: Mk 11:1-10 OR Jn 12:12-16
Liturgy of the Passion: Mk 14:1-15:47 OR Mk 15:1-39
As the Lenten season approaches its end, the Gospel readings relate the events leading to Jesus’ suffering and death – the culmination of the work he was born to do – and we look towards the great and glorious Resurrection of Christ.
During the past five weeks we have heard and reflected upon stories from Timor Leste, the Thai-Burma Border, Zimbabwe, the Philippines and Peru. These are stories of people living in poverty and injustice, lacking access to basic services and often denied the opportunity to exercise the rights that we all have as human persons.
In Australia, our Indigenous sisters and brothers also face many similar struggles. In a prosperous country where most of us claim adequate nutrition and health care as a fundamental right, Aboriginal Australians in remote communities have shortened life-spans because of high rates of diet-related illness – particularly diabetes.
The Project Compassion story this week comes from such a community, near Broome in Western Australia. With its local partners, Caritas Australia is supporting a community-owned program which promotes and educates for health care and healthy living.
Caritas Australia works for justice – for the kind of world that God desires.
Caritas works in partnership – building ‘right relationships’ between all of God’s people.
In justice and right relationships lies the path to peace.
If we want peace, we must work for justice.
The glorious celebration of new life is almost upon us. It brings hope for change and renewal for all of us.
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.
PARISH DONKEY
The Parish Donkey will be present at all Masses at St Anne’s this weekend to lead us in the Procession of Palms.
We thank Gary and Jack Reddan for their daily care of our donkey.
RITE OF ACCEPTANCE FOR CHILDREN BEING INITIATED INTO SACRAMENTAL LIFE
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.
EXTRA MASSES
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.
GOONAWARRA AGED CARE: This Tuesday 27th
LION’S HOSTEL: This Wednesday 28th
REQUEST FOR PALMS
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.
WELCOME FR DISPIN
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.
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PROJECT COMPASSION WEEK 5
FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT – Week 5 Peru
25 March
John 12: 20-33
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.
PROJECT COMPASSION WEEK 3
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.
YOUTH GROUP
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.
ANIMAL BLESSING SERVICE
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.”
PROJECT COMPASSION WEEK 3
THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT – Week 3 Zimbabwe
11 March
John 2: 13-25
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.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish Sunbury 
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