A Sing A Long will be held on Friday 1 March at Goonawarra Nursing Home from 2.30-3.15pm.
All welcome.
MORNING TEA
For something a bit different, the morning tea on the first Sunday of the month will be an afternoon tea/ supper at OLMC Church after 5.30pm Mass on Sunday 3 March.
Please join us and bring a plate to share.
ROSARY
The Rosary is recited at St Anne’s Church every Saturday morning from 9am and is led by the Legion of Mary.
RSJ ASSOCIATES
Next meeting Wednesday 27 February at 10am in St Anne’s Church Meeting Room.
All welcome.
MARRIAGE ENCOUNTER WEEKEND
Married couples, we encourage you to prioritise your relationship. It underpins your family life. Please join us for a Marriage Encounter weekend. Our weekend helps you to remember why you married and gives you skills to maintain your love for each other. Couples and a priest present the weekend. It is based around catholic values but you don’t need to be catholic to attend. There is no group sharing.
Our next weekends in 2013 are on: 19-21 April, 14-16 June and 9-11 August in Melbourne. For further information and bookings contact Marianne & Marcel Van den Bronk (03) 9733 0997 or Email vicbookings@wwme.org.au
WORKING BEE
CALLING ALL BUSY BEES
We are having a working bee at St Anne’s Church on Saturday 2 March from 9am to noon. Bring your tools and help keep our church beautiful. We look forward to seeing you there!
ADORATION
Adoration is prayed on the first Friday of every month in St Anne’s Church from 7pm to 8pm.
EMMAUS CHARISMATIC PRAYER GROUP
The Emmaus Charismatic Prayer Group meets at St. Anne’s Church at 10.15am on Thursdays. All welcome, including children. For further info/transport contact Lambert & Elaine van der Weerden on 9744 4029.
EVERGREENS
We are meeting at St Anne’s Church on Tuesday 26 February at 2pm to organise this years events.
Afternoon Tea will be included.
All welcome.
LENTEN SESSIONS
We will be running Lenten Sessions after 8.30am Mass in the Parish Centre for approximately 40 minutes. The sessions will be repeated the following Tuesday after 7.00pm Mass at OLMC Church. There are six sessions in this series and you are welcome to attend as many as you like.
The sessions start with an Opening Prayer followed by a focus question from the Apostolic Letter The Start of the New Millennium, by Blessed John Paul the Second . Next, the Sunday Gospel is read and we listen to a reflection on the Gospel. That is followed by a period of discussion and sharing and then a short period of silence in the Christian Meditation tradition. Finally we close in prayer, remove our name-tags, and step back into the world with a lighter step.
Total cost is $8 to cover the costs of materials purchased.
COMBINED CHURCHES SERVICE-WORLD DAY OF PRAYER
COMBINED CHURCHES SERVICE-WORLD DAY OF PRAYER will be held on Friday 1 March 2013 at 7.30pm in St Mary’s Anglican Church, 9 O’Shannassy St, Sunbury. All welcome and please bring a plate to share.
NEW CATHOLICS
Today, the first Sunday of Lent, our Candidates, their sponsors and families together with the RCIA Team, will join hundreds of others at the Rite of Election at St Patrick’s Cathedral at 2.30pm this afternoon. The Candidates and Catechumens are presented, on our behalf by their sponsors to the Archbishop and reaffirm their commitment to becoming members of the Catholic Community. It is a very moving ceremony which marks the beginning of an intensive period of preparation for those who will be received into the Church, by Baptism, Confirmation and reception of the Eucharist for the first time at the Easter Vigil. If anyone is interested in attending this inspirational ceremony, you will be most welcome.
THANK YOU
Thanks to the volunteers who worked so well to prepare the Thanksgiving Envelopes for our Parish. They are ready for you to collect at each Mass this weekend. Also, if you would like to make any changes to your pledge or method of contribution, please contact the Parish Office on 9744 1060. We thank you for supporting our beautiful parish.
FIRST COMMUNION 2013
Parents who consider their child is ready to begin receiving the Eucharist are asked to attend one of the registration meetings this Tuesday 19 February at 2pm or 7.30pm in the Parish Centre.
WOOD ITEMS FROM BETHLEHEM
Christian families in Bethlehem are supported by making and selling items of a religious nature made From olive wood. At Masses on 16/17 February there will be a sale of items priced from $5 to $150.00.
THANK YOU SO MUCH
Thank you from the Faria family to those who supported the movie “The Untouchables” last Sunday. About 60 people came to support Caleb and his family and at total of $1130 was raised. Special thanks to Louise Oswald for organising and promoting the event. Caleb suffers from Hunters Syndrome and is currently ineligible to receive a government funded enzyme treatment.
Please continue to pray for Caleb and his family and any donations can be made via www.calebfaria.com which are tax deductible.
SACRED HEART MISSION OPEN DAY AND FUNDRAISING RACE
Ever wondered what it takes to deliver 500 free meals per day to people in need? Or create a home for 150 people with histories of homelessness or disadvantage? Go behind the scenes at Sacred heart Mission in St Kilda and see for yourself! To celebrate their 30th Anniversary, Sacred Heart Mission is opening their doors on the 24 February. For more info go to www.sacredheartmission.org/PageSingle.aspx?ID=168.
LECTIO DIVINA-LENT 2013
We have a few copies of the Lectio Divina for Lent available on the Welcome Desk in the foyer at St Anne’s. Please take them as you need.
STEWARDSHIP……A WAY OF LIFE
CATHOLIC STEWARDSHIP FROM SUNDAYS READINGS
On this, First Sunday of Lent, we are called to continue our 40-day Lenten journey with most of it before us. For us it is 40 days of preparation for the Resurrection of the Lord, during which we are called to prepare through prayer, penance, repentance, almsgiving, and self-denial. Traditionally, we, as Catholics have tended to focus on the denial aspects of Lent — that is, we give things up; we make an effort to make sacrifices, particularly in the area of foods, to give ourselves a sense that Lent is a time when we need to show these signs to God that we are willing to avoid things we like as a tribute to the Lenten season — to the fact that Jesus made the supreme sacrifice for us.
However, in recent years, even though these kinds of self-denial are important, it is equally essential that we make active efforts to deepen our faith, to gain a greater understanding of what it means to truly believe.
From a stewardship outlook, every day is filled with temptation. There is the temptation to view our many gifts as ours, not God’s. While we are tempted to share what we see as feasible after we have met our own needs and wants, we should be focusing on sharing our first fruits.
Jesus was confident in His Father; He trusted Him and was thus able to resist the temptations presented Him by the devil. We need to develop that same kind of trust. The last sentence of the Gospel makes it clear that the devil is not done with the Lord, nor with us: “And when the devil had tried every temptation, he departed from him for a while.” It is “the while” against which we need to be prepared.
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PROJECT COMPASSION
The theme for Lent this year is “Open doors into the future” which is taken from a 2007 document written by Pope Benedict XVI. To quote part of this document, “ We work towards a brighter and more humane world so as to open doors into the future.” Jesus would agree with that! With Ash Wednesday starting this Wed 13 Feb, please take a box to start your Lent project to help those in need around the world.
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