We are invited to the Sunbury Community free concert and luncheon, Sunbury Community Hall, Wednesday 15 August 2012 from 11.30 to 2.30pm.
Starring the Huffers & Puffers Band.
Bookings Frances Arians on 9744 1999.
NATIONAL VOCATION AWARENESS WEEK: 5-12 AUGUST
Next week we begin National Vocations Awareness Week. We focus on each person’s vocation, especially our primary vocation– the call to holiness. The call to holiness is to become all that God has created us to be, to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, and soul and to share our gifts and talents for the common good of all society. We pray that our young people will hear the call to dedicate their lives to God and make a commitment to serve God’s people. If we have already committed to a particular vocation, such as single or marriage, or priesthood or consecrated life we also pray for God’s grace to rededicate ourselves and continue to live out this call in our life.
STEWARDSHIP……A WAY OF LIFE
CATHOLIC STEWARDSHIP FROM SUNDAYS READINGS
“Live in love,” St. Paul tells us.
It is as simple as that. There is no need for us to get caught up in the ways of the world – consumed with our possessions or achievements, focused on keeping up with the Joneses or being the best of the best. No. As St. Paul reminds us in today’s second reading, in order to be happy and fulfilled in our lives, in order to do what we were created to do, to glorify the Lord and live worthy of the lives He has given us, we must simply live in love.
Notice how much more peaceful and manageable that calling is to the calling of the world which encourages us to attain more material possessions, to become a better businessman than the next one, to have the biggest most well furnished house on the block, and on and on. The world encourages us to find comfort and greatness in the here and now. It is exhausting just to think about. And, what’s more, it will never fulfill us, because we were not made for the here and now. We were made for God.
God calls us to simply love – love Him above all else and love our neighbors as ourselves. And, the wonderful Lord that He is, He does not merely call us to do that, He gives us an example to follow.
So, St. Paul urges us, “Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and handed Himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God” (second reading).
Living in love, in true, unconditional, Christian love, means giving oneself for the sake of another, just as Christ did. He offered His life out of true love for us, because He wanted us to have life everlasting, and He knew that in His offering Himself as expiation for our sins, that would be possible.
Likewise, each one of us is called to love God and love our neighbor. In doing so, we look out for our neighbor. We offer him ourselves in loving service, for no other reason than because we care for him. There are plenty of ministries within our parish that offer us the opportunity to do just that.
As Christ’s disciples, we should get involved. We should show true genuine Christian charity, and not in order to be praised or to check a to-do off our list, but solely out of love for one another. That’s what it means to be a Christian steward, to follow Christ, and to serve one another in love.
And to think, we don’t have to do it alone. In His ever-present spirit of love for us, the Lord not only gives us an example to follow, He gives us His grace and His strength, especially through the sacraments, aiding us in carrying out our mission as Christian stewards.
The more we participate in the sacraments, the more equipped we’ll be to live discipleship.
“Get up and eat, else your journey will be too long for you” (first reading).
Christ gives us Himself in the sacraments – His grace, His life – and He invites us to participate in them, promising us that when we do, He will strengthen us.
“I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate manna in the desert, but they died… I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world” (gospel).
So, as we live our lives, striving to follow Christ as His disciples, we are called to love, first God and then one another, and we ought to run to the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, to encounter Christ and to gain the strength to “live in a manner worthy of the call we have received”(Eph. 4:1).
Copyright © 2012 www.TheCatholicSteward.com
THE YEAR OF GRACE IN TODAYS READINGS
As part of our Year of Grace, you are invited to join the festivities of Gracefest. Beginning with the feast of the Assumption on Wednesday 15 August, Opening Mass 6.20pm St Patrick’s Cathedral. Gracefest will continue until the 19 August. Special performance by The Voice contestant, Fataik Veamatahau. The full details are in a booklet at the back of the church.
FATHER PAUL KANE
Fr Paul was ordained in 1952 and served the Church with humble devotion. Fr Paul died on the morning of the anniversary of his 60th year of ordination into priesthood. He was the parish priest of Fawkner North for 36 years.
FUNDRAISER
An invitation is extended to attend a movie afternoon that has been arranged to raise funds for the next African Children’s Choir in Uganda.
Sunday August 12 at 4pm “The Sapphires” starring Jessica Mauboy and Deborah Mailman will be played at Readings Cinema Sunbury. Tickets are $25 each and include admission and refreshment at the end of the movie.
All profits will go directly to Kwaya Aust. Inc.
Contact Sonjo on 9740 1705 for tickets.
If you would like to know more about Kwaya Aust Inc, go to www.kwaya.org.
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 priests 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 weekends in 2012 are: 10-12 August and 12-14 October in Melbourne.
Further info contact Mr & Mrs Van den Bronk on 03 9733 6979 or email vicbookings@wwme.org.au.
NEIGHBOURHOODS IN ENGLAND
“We have now realised that we need a cell system based on where people live. This “local church” needs a leader who is trained to coordinate the needs of that particular neighbourhood. Going hand-in-hand with larger pastoral areas, there must be smaller units with people who are able to draw others into fellowship.
If the family is the domestic Church, your street is the neighbourhood Church. We rarely take account of the fellowship that neighbours can exercise in their baptismal priesthood which is often carried out in many wonderful ways. If the ‘Big Society’ the (the Universal Church) is important, it only draws its apostolic witness from my Catholic friend down the street. That witness is frequently in the smallest acts of kindness.”
…….Fr Tom Grufferty Parish Priest Harvant.
CELEBRATION OF ST MARY MACKILLOP
The celebration will take place next Sunday with special readings and prayers.
In the Year of Grace Prayer, we pray for her help who “found new ways of living the gospel.”
MASS AND SACRAMENT OF ANOINTING
Please make a note of the following dates for those interested in attending Mass with Anointing at our Aged Care Facilities.
Tuesday 7 August 3pm Goonawarra Aged Care
Wednesday 8 August 11am Lions Hostel
Friday 17 August 1am Riddell Gardens
Everyone welcome.
CHOIR PRACTICE
Practice will take place every week during school term from 6.30pm at St Anne’s Church.
We have trained professionals giving free music lessons.
All welcome.
ST VINCENT DE PAUL RETAIL OUTLET
St Vinnies has now re-opened. For any assistance, please call the St Vincent de Paul help line on 1300 305 330.
Are you having a clean out? We are in urgent need of your good donations, such as furniture, clothing, bric-a-brac & books. If you run a business and have stock or equipment you do not want then please consider donating to Vinnies. Donations can be delivered to our Sunbury Centre, at 156 O’Shannassy St, during opening hours 9-5 Monday to Friday or 9-1 on Saturday. For a donation pick up, phone 1800 621 329.
Do you have some spare time? We are looking for volunteers to assist us in our retail centre. We are very flexible with any hours you can spare. There are lots of different jobs to suit all applicants. If you can help, please call the manager on 9744 1447. Thank you for your support.
STEWARDSHIP……A WAY OF LIFE
CATHOLIC STEWARDSHIP FROM SUNDAYS READINGS
The Lord is abundantly generous! He gives of Himself out of love for each one of us, and His gifts are unconditional.
Today’s readings draw our attention to the gift par excellence — the Eucharist. In this central mystery of our faith, Christ gives us Himself, completely — Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. It is so much more than we deserve, so much more than we can wrap our human minds around. It is Jesus Himself. And He invites us to partake of it — to consume Him — so that we might have life in Him.
“I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst” (Jn. 6:35).
Every time we step forward to receive the Eucharist, we literally take the Savior into our own bodies. And in so doing, we are given a grace to live our lives to the full, to show forth God’s glory.
How will we respond to God’s gifts of self, to His unconditional outpouring of love?
Will we offer Him ourselves in return — unconditionally? That is what it means to be Christ’s disciples. We recognize His gifts, we see that they are given solely out of love — he expects nothing back — and we respond in sheer gratitude and awe struck wonder, offering Him our whole lives in return!
Copyright © 2012 www.TheCatholicSteward.com
THE YEAR OF GRACE IN TODAYS READINGS
Reflection on the Gospel – 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B
Veronica Lawson RSM
John 6:1-15
The gospel readings for the next five weeks are taken from John 6, a section of the gospel that focuses on food and related themes: on hungry people; on the need for food/bread; on food/bread as metaphors for life. Bread has been the staple food for millennia in bible lands. To be without bread is to lack the very basics of existence, and that is how it is for so many in our world. People in Syria, Afghanistan, Gaza, West Papua, Timor Leste, and so many African countries know what it means to be without the means of subsistence in a world of plenty. The present cycle of readings is timely. It confronts us with questions about our own lifestyle, our exploitation of earth’s precious resources, and our capacity to make a positive change in the lives of those whose access to the fruits of our earth is much more limited than ours.
In John’s account of the feeding of the 5000, the crowds keep following Jesus because they see the signs he works among the sick. The Johannine Jesus consistently tries to lead the people beyond a form of discipleship that is simply based on seeing ‘the signs’ that he works. The inadequacy of the crowd’s response on this occasion becomes clear towards the end of the reading.
The geographical setting of ‘the mountain’ evokes the giving of the Law to Moses on Mt Sinai. For the crowds, Jesus is the prophet like Moses who provides sustenance for the hungry in the wilderness of life. The temporal setting is Passover, ‘the feast of the Jews’, which recalls the passing over of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt to the freedom of the desert and ultimately of the land where they could worship their God. This story is about the liberation that Jesus brings.
Jesus demonstrates to the crowds and to his disciples that the answer to the suffering of the people, their liberation, is to be found in their care for each other. If they will only take the time to sit down together, discover the riches in their midst, give thanks, and distribute what they have, they may find there is more than is needed to satisfy their own hunger. They must gather up the fragments, the ‘more-than-enough’ so that nothing will be lost: they are not the only ones who hunger.
They partially understand who he is and what he is trying to teach them, but their ultimate response is misdirected, even violent: they want to take him by force and make him king. He leaves them and returns to the mountain alone, the place of encounter with God. We so often seek spectacular solutions to our problems. It may be that we too need to sit down together on the grass, or wherever, and discover the wealth we have at our disposal to satisfy the hungers in our world.
MEETING OF SOCIAL JUSTICE GROUP
Saturday 4th August at 10 AM in Meeting Room at St Anne’s Church. New members or interested persons most welcome.
THANKSGIVING ENVELOPES
We are looking for volunteers to help collate the thanksgiving envelopes that will be going to families over the next few weeks. If you can help, please meet at the Parish Centre on Thursday 2 August from 10am.
TRIVIA NIGHT & AUCTION
Trivia night and Auction in support of Sunbury Chaplaincy.
It will be held on Saturday 4 August at 7pm in Sunbury Downs College, Mitchells Lane, Sunbury.
BYO basket supper and drinks.
Cost $15 per person.
Call Helen on 0407 506 507 for bookings and further info.
MARY MACKILLOP
To celebrate the Feast Day of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop on Wednesday 8 August, the Sisters of St Joseph invite you to visit the Mary MacKillop Heritage Centre on Saturday 4 August from 10am to 4pm. The museum, chapel and gift shop will be open and refreshments available.
THE FORGIVENESS PROJECT
“Human beings have a huge capacity to hurt others but also to heal.”
FEAST DAY OF ST. JOHN VIANNEY ON 4 AUGUST
St John Vianney is the patron saint of Parish Priests. Let us thank God for all priests we know, those who have served us and our own Fr Kevin and Fr Bert.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish Sunbury 
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