Last Friday in St Peter’s Square, Rome, the Choir of Westminster Abbey sang while Archbishop Tim Costelloe of Perth, our former regional bishop, celebrated Mass with Pope Benedict and other new Archbishops.
LAUNCH OF VICTORIA PILGRIMAGE TO WYD AT RIO 2013
The launch is on Friday 27 July at St Mary’s Church, 33 Howard St, West Melbourne.
6.30pm Praise & worship;
7.30pm Mass;
8.30pm Carnivale.
One year to go to World Youth Day. RSVP 20 July aoy@cam.org.au or 9412 3300.
ST THERESE’S PARISH ESSENDON- 90 YEAR CELEBRATION
Former parishioners and friends are invited to the launch of a commemorative book on the 27 July. On the weekend of 28-29 July , a photographic Exhibition will be held.
LINK COMMUNITY TRANSPORT
Link Community Transport offers a pre-booked door to door transport service to help Sunbury residents get to appointments and activities. The service offers individual and group transport depending on user needs. The service is available to people 65 years +, adults or children with disabilities and carers. The service is free but a gold coin donation per trip would be greatly appreciated. Contact Link on 9355 8484 or www.linkcommunitytransport.org.au.
CATHOLIC STEWARDSHIP
CATHOLIC STEWARDSHIP FROM SUNDAYS READINGS
In today’s readings, we contemplate death. This is a subject most of us would rather not think about.
Yet, the readings for today remind us that even though it can seem scary with all of its unknowns and its permanence, death is a wonderful and beautiful event in the life of a Christian. It is the point of departure for our complete glorification, for that which we were made, perfect unity with God. And so we see that, while the nature of death is not of God, “God did not make death, nor does He rejoice in the destruction of the living. For He fashioned all things that they might have being …” (first reading); God transformed it. Through His own death and resurrection, He opened the doors to eternal glory, and He invites us to unite ourselves with Him.
Today’s readings teach us that God, in His infinite goodness, can (and does) take something bad and turn it into something amazingly wonderful. Such is the case not only with death, but with so many things we experience in our lives. How much more, then, can God make us – made in His image and likeness – into the creatures He intended us to be? We live in a world wrought with sin, but God’s plans for our lives are ones of greatness. We simply must surrender to Him as His creatures, as His servants, and He will transform our lives. When we offer ourselves to the Lord, we are sure to be astounded by the work He will do in and through us.
Copyright © 2012 www.TheCatholicSteward.com
U.N. ACKNOWLEDGES CHURCH’S WORLD ROLE
Last week, the President of the U.N. General Assembly met the Pope in Rome in talks focussed on the Church’s “contribution to peace and development and cooperation between religions and cultures.”
The previous day, the director general of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation, Mr Graziano da Silva expressed to the Pope great appreciation “for the commitment shown by the Church to combating hunger and poverty.”
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.
ROSARY
The Rosary is prayed every Saturday morning at 9am in St Anne’s Church.
All Welcome.
KNIGHTS OF THE SOUTHERN CROSS
The Dinner meeting will be held on Wednesday 4 July at Sunbury Football Club at 7pm sharp.
ST VINCENT DE PAUL
Next meeting will be on Monday 2 July at 7pm in St Anne’s Church.
SING A LONG
Sing-a Long at Goonawarra Aged Care from 2.30pm on Friday 6 July.
Come along and join in the fun.
EVENING ADORATION
Held at St Anne’s Church on Friday 6th July from 7-8pm.
All welcome
THE YEAR OF GRACE IN TODAYS READINGS
Reflection on the Gospel – 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B
Veronica Lawson RSM
Mark 5:21-43
In Mark’s gospel, we often find a story within a story. Some scholars refer to this technique as the making of a Markan sandwich, others as a framing device. In Mark 5:21-43, the frame consists of the two-part story of the desperately ill twelve year old daughter of Jairus, a synagogue official. Jairus falls at the feet of Jesus in an attitude of reverence and pleads with him to come and lay hands on her. Jesus is clearly known as a healer, one who can ‘save’ life. The passage closes with the young woman’s seeming death and restoration to life. In between, we have the story of an older woman, also seriously ill, possibly with a gynaecological problem: she has been haemorrhaging for twelve years.
The stories are linked in many ways, first by the repetition of the number twelve-a symbolic number in a Jewish context. Both the young Jewish woman and the older Jewish woman are in need of the saving power of God mediated through Jesus the healer. Later in the Markan story [7:24-30) a Gentile mother and daughter will beg for and receive that same saving power of God. Jairus’ daughter does not speak for herself. Like all young women of that culture, ill or not, she is dependent on the voice of her father. The older woman comes tentatively ‘from behind’. She speaks, but only to herself as she touches Jesus’ cloak and experiences healing in her body. She is finally shamed into telling all. Like Jairus, she falls at the feet of Jesus. Jairus refers to his little girl on the brink of adulthood as ‘my daughter’. Jesus addresses the older woman as ‘my daughter’.
Both women, the younger and the older, are daughters of Israel. Both are restored to health, one on account of her parents’ faith (the unnamed mother and the named father], the other because of her own faith. Jesus the healer has embraced and responded to the pain of a woman alone on the one hand and of a family (mother, father, and daughter) on the other.
Towards the end of the gospel (14:3-9), this Jesus who has brought healing to little children, to older women and younger women, to older men and younger men, to Jews and to Gentiles, will himself become the recipient of the healing ministry of an insightful woman who pours out healing ointment. He will recognise this action as a beautiful thing that she has done ‘in him’. For now, the stories recount ‘the beautiful thing’ he does in the lives of suffering humanity, irrespective of age or gender or status or ethnicity.
CATHOLIC STEWARDSHIP
CATHOLIC STEWARDSHIP FROM SUNDAYS READINGS
In today’s readings, we hear how the Lord takes what is small and makes it great – a branch from the cedar, which, when planted will “put forth branches and bear fruit. It will become a majestic cedar;” and a mustard seed, the smallest of the seeds, which becomes a huge plant. And so He builds up His kingdom. He calls all of us to be His disciples, and though, in the eyes of the world, we may be insignificant, His call is great. When we answer the call and give ourselves to Him completely – offering Him all that we are – He will use us for great things – to bring others to Him, to make disciples of all nations, to build the Kingdom of God.
It is out responsibility to listen to His call, to recognize the gifts He has given us, and, using them for His greater glory, to answer the call by surrendering ourselves to the Lord. Without Him we are nothing, completely insignificant, but with Him we are called to greatness.
Copyright © 2012 www.TheCatholicSteward.com
MORNING TEA
Next weekend morning tea will be hosted by Studley Park Neighbourhood.
All welcome.
Please bring a plate to share.
PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH
Due to lack of attendance, the prayers of the church will not proceed on Wednesday nights.
SING A LONG
Goonawarra Nursing Home on Friday 6th July 2.30 to 3.15pm.
Please come along and join in.
Enquiries: 9744 1060.
WELCOME
Welcome to families of children preparing for the Sacrament of Confirmation. Part of preparation for Confirmation is the Rite of Election. We pray for these children to be strengthened in their faith as they receive this important Sacrament.
Lord God,
you created the human race
and are the author of its renewal.
Bless all your adopted children and add these chosen ones
to the harvest of your new covenant. As true children of the promise,
may they rejoice in eternal life, won, not by the power of nature,
but through the mystery of your grace.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
GREY DAYS
“It’s June. The days are shorter and colder. The flowers of autumn have gone and some trees are bare. In the cold grey of winter we naturally tend to get down in the dumps. We are flesh and blood. We are affected by the weather and let us be honest and not blame ourselves or worse, others. Rather let’s have a warm Sustagen.” (extract from Bishop Bill Wright of Maitland– Newcastle, June 2012)
NEW MISSALS
Orders are currently being taken for people who would like to order New Missals. Please leave your details for Dolly Causer at the Piety Stall so orders can be placed.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish Sunbury 
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