The grade 5/6 children at OLMC Primary school who received their new laptops this week. We hope that this new tool will enhance and enrich their learning experience. They are very fortunate to have this resource available and we wish them well.
SIX NEW STUDENTS FOR THE PRIESTHOOD IN MELBOURNE:
Six new seminarians have entered Corpus Christi College, Carlton last Sunday. Michael Buck (St Patrick’s, Mentone), Kevin Chi-Ong (Sacred Heart, St Albans), Darien Stricklen (St Ignatius’, Richmond), Michael Wood (St Mary’s, Ascot Vale), Samuel Stanford (St Augustine’s, Coffs Harbour), Keiser Lance Cabral (Quezon City, Philippines). Please keep these seminarians in your prayers. Enquiries for entry in 2013 should be directed to Fr Binh Le, Director of Vocations on 9926 5733.
NEW ARCHBISHOP OF PERTH, NEW EPISCOPAL VICAR
Appointed by the Pope is Bishop Timothy Costelloe, our Northern Regional Bishop from 17 March. We thank him for his visits over the past five years especially to parents as they prepared for the Confirmation of their children and for consecrating our altar in 2009.
Father Martin Ashe has been appointed Episcopal Vicar of our Region. Father Martin will do some of the 82 Confirmations in this Region, attend fortnightly Curia meetings and a point of reference for the next year or so until a new auxiliary bishop is appointed. Fr Martin will continue as Parish Priest of Mernda-Whittlesea-Kinglake. Let us keep him in our prayers as he generously has accepted this new ministry.
ST ANNE’S WALKING CLUB
All are invited to join in every Thursday morning at 9am outside the Administration Office of St Anne’s Primary School.
Get fit and have fun at the same time.
All welcome.
PROJECT COMPASSION STARTS
In this week’s reading, “the Spirit” sends Jesus into the wilderness for forty days to fast and pray. He is tempted by the devil to focus on his own needs, to seek proof of His Father’s love and protection, and to pursue wealth and power. Jesus resists these temptations and is strengthened for the mission for which he is preparing– a mission of justice and peace.
Lent is our “wilderness experience”. We can allow the Spirit to lead us to where we can reflect, pray and renew our strength.
This week’s Project Compassion story shares the experiences of Flabiana and her family, who were forced, like many others, to leave their home and seek refuge in the mountains after ongoing conflict and violence in Timor Leste. They were left with nothing and, when they returned, were faced with the task of rebuilding.
Through a program supported by Caritas Australia they are now learning new skills, transforming their lives and building a future which they hope will be prosperous and peaceful because, in the words of Blessed Pope John Paul II, “Peace is essential for development.”
Our mission is for justice and peace too. This connects us to the people of Timor Leste. We can choose to support them as they rebuild their lives. We can choose to be their partners in the process of renewal. We can choose to work for justice– the path to peace.
Click on the image below to go to the Caritas website.
STEWARDSHIP……A WAY OF LIFE
CATHOLIC STEWARDSHIP FROM SUNDAYS READING
Lent is upon us. This season of intense fasting and prayer offers us an opportunity to focus on our sinful nature and the wonder of Christ’s saving power in a particularly poignant way. As Jesus tells us in the gospel reading today, we are to “repent and believe in the gospel.”
But doing so involves much more than a simple passive belief. In fact, for Christian disciples, this belief in the gospel necessitates a life actively lived for the sake of the gospel, a life lived in immigration of Jesus who gave himself up for death for the sake of others.
This does not mean that we will all be called to die a martyr’s death. But our lives ought to be lived out for others. As stewards, we ought to give ourselves in loving service for others — at home, in our parishes, at work, at school and elsewhere. The life of a Christian disciple, as Christ so radically shows us, is a life of self-giving in love.
It sounds like a lot of work, and rightly so. Just look at the cross. It is far from easy. But, then, focus on the resurrection. Christ suffered the most unthinkable agony, but in his resurrection he experienced the most tremendous victory. That is what we live for. We give of ourselves like Christ did, knowing that we look forward to the glory of eternal life. The reward of a self-giving Christian steward far surpasses the effort it takes to live this way; it far surpasses any hardships we experience along the way.
So, we live for others and we call others to do the same, proclaiming the good news that Christ has come to save. All we need to do is repent and believe. Then, on Easter morning, we celebrate together the joy of the resurrection and we look forward to the day when we run out to meet the Lord together with all the angels and saints.
What a glorious gospel we proclaim!
Copyright © 2011 www.TheCatholicSteward.com
BISHOP TIM COSTELLOE APPOINTED ARCHBISHOP OF PERTH
Pope Benedict has appointed Melbourne auxiliary bishop Tim Costelloe the new Archbishop of Perth, reports The Age.
The Melbourne-born member of the Salesian order, who has been a bishop fewer than five years, replaces Archbishop Barry Hickey as one of Australia’s seven archbishops.
Archbishop-elect Costelloe, 58, who was ordained in Melbourne in 1986, is also an adjunct professor at the Australian Catholic University and serves on two Australian Catholic Bishops Conference committees – education, and doctrine and morals. He spent four years in Perth in the 1990s.
In a statement, Archbishop Philip Wilson called the appointment good news not only for the people of Perth, but for the Church in Australia. “Bishop Timothy Costelloe is a gifted, highly intelligent pastor who has shown consistent leadership in Melbourne where he has been an Auxiliary Bishop over the past five years”, he said.
“He is a very insightful person who has an excellent pastoral manner and a keen intellect”, he said.
In response to his appointment, Archbishop-elect Costelloe said he admires the
“commitment and strong sense of solidarity among the clergy of the Archdiocese” in Perth.
“I hope that I will be able to foster this spirit of mutual respect and cooperation in my new role as archbishop. I came, too, to value the vibrancy of the faith of the Catholic people of the Archdiocese. We are a very multi-cultural society and, consequently, a very multi-cultural Church. This is a source of strength and hope for us all.”
PROJECT COMPASSION SUNDAY
Your donations to Caritas Australia’s Project Compassion give expression to the Gospel which is imperative to pursue justice and help those suffering from poverty and disadvantage. Please take home a Project Compassion box and a set of Lenten envelopes and give generously to the appeal this Lent. Your donations allow Caritas Australia, the Catholic Agency for International Aid and Development, to alleviate poverty and bring hope and justice to disadvantaged communities throughout the world.
MORNING TEA
Morning tea will be co-hosted today by the Youth Group and the Parish and School Leaders. All are welcome to share a cuppa.
YOUTH GROUP PIZZA AND TRIVIA NIGHT
ROSARY
The Rosary is prayed every Saturday morning at 9am in St Anne’s Church. All Welcome.
PARISH COMMISSIONING OF PARISH AND SCHOOL LEADERS
This Sunday at 10.30am Mass, teachers, staff, catechists and pastoral associates, together with student leaders will be commissioned in the important mission of bearing witness to the Gospel as they continue their work in 2012. Today’s ceremony focuses on 50th Anniversary of Vatican II.
CHILDRENS LITURGY OF THE WORD
Workshop available on Friday 2 March from 10.15 to 12.30 at Thomas Carr Centre, 278 Victoria Pde, East Melbourne. Please call 9267 0228 for bookings.
HELP WANTED
We are in need of the skills of someone who knows how to repair our beautiful but damaged Nativity scene. Our maintenance team are in the process of fixing our beautiful statues, but needs help from someone who knows how to mould fibreglass or plaster. Nurses repairing broken limbs may be able to assist. If you have the necessary skills, please contact Jo Wiegerink on 9744 5788. If these beautiful statues cannot be repaired, we will need to look at replacing them which will be quite costly.
“MARY MACKILLOP WALKS FOR YOUNG ADULTS” – SAT 25TH FEBRUARY
MacKillop Young Adult Community (MacYAC) invites young adults to come & visit significant sites in the life of our first Australian saint here in Melbourne. Meet at St. Francis Church, Cnr. Elizabeth & Lonsdale Streets, Melbourne at 2pm on Saturday, 25th February- visit the birthsite, Mary MacKillop Heritage Centre and the site of the First Providence.
Come and be inspired by the person of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop – Australia’s First Saint in her home town.
If you can’t make it this month, the walks are held on the fourth Saturday of each month.
For bookings phone: 9926 9300 or macyac@sosj.org.au
MacKillop Young Adult Community (MacYAC) – a ministry of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart of the Victorian Province.
JOSEPHITE ASSOCIATES
The enrolment of three new Associates will take place at the 10.30am Mass on Sunday 26 February. All Associates are invited to welcome the new members. Lunch will follow at the Sunbury Bowling Club from 12 onwards. Please contact Jenny Coutts on 9744 3472 to advise numbers for table bookings. Family members and parishioners are welcome to join us.
VOCATION VIEW
In today’s Gospel, people have difficulty believing that Jesus can forgive sins. Is God asking you to forgive the sins of His people as His ordained priest? Are you called to bring Good News to the poor? Say “yes” to God’s call.
STEWARDSHIP……A WAY OF LIFE
CATHOLIC STEWARDSHIP FROM SUNDAYS READING
God is merciful. He came to Earth in order to suffer and die and then rise from the dead so that we, the sinners whom He loves, could have eternal life. He came because He loves us so much that He desired to take the punishment of our sins upon Himself.
In today’s gospel, Jesus shows his mercy to a suffering paralytic. He forgives him of his sins – healing him spiritually and then healing his physical ailments. The spiritual healing was, by far, the most important, even though it was only after the physical healing that the people recognized Jesus’ power.
Christ offers us his merciful healing and His life of grace in the sacraments. In a particular way, Jesus forgives us of our sins in the sacrament of reconciliation. He is there for us. He pours his mercy upon us, but, like the paralytic, we have to humbly come to Him. We have to be open to receiving that spiritual healing and that new life of grace.
When we do open ourselves to God’s grace and regularly receive the sacraments, He changes our lives. He makes us stronger disciples and equips us to live a life of faith here and now. He draws us ever nearer to Him and helps others to do the same so that, one day, we will all rejoice with Him in the eternal glory of the heavenly kingdom.
Copyright © 2011 www.TheCatholicSteward.com
THE YEAR OF GRACE IN TODAYS READINGS
Reflection on the Gospel-1st Sunday of Lent Year C
Veronica M. Lawson RSM
(Luke 4:1-11)
Lent is a time for personal as well as group reflection, a time for entering into the ‘wilderness’ or ‘deserted place’ and grappling with the mysteries of life. While deserts are often depicted as uninhabited or desolate regions, anyone who has spent time in such places knows that the desert supports a rich diversity of other-than-human life. Human retreat to the wilderness can be an opportunity to encounter God in the unfamiliar and self in relation to the other-than human. It can reveal to us our capacities for right relationship with God, with each other, and with the Earth. Right relationship resides in ‘power-with’ rather than ‘power-over’.
In Israel’s story, the wilderness is the place of testing for God’s people: ‘Remember the long way that your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness… testing you to know what was in your heart’ (Deut 8:2). Jesus is ‘filled with the Holy Spirit’ and, like so many human beings before and since, is ‘led by the Spirit’ into the wilderness to be ‘tested’ there. [‘Tested’ is a more accurate translation of the Greek peirazein than the usual ‘tempted].
The three-fold testing of Jesus in the wilderness is about the proper exercise of power and about trust in a loving God. In refusing to turn the stones of the wilderness into bread in order to satisfy his own hunger, Jesus demonstrates that he is not prepared to exercise power over the other-than-human Earth, even if he had the capacity to work such magic. By refusing to accept the ‘glory of all the kingdoms of the world’, he shows that power over the human communities of the Earth is not ‘of God’, and that worship belongs to God alone. Finally, in refusing to cast himself from the parapet of Israel’s holiest shrine, the Jerusalem Temple, he makes it clear that he is not prepared to test the power of God to rescue him from a self-inflicted death or to use God’s holy place to such ends. The Lukan Jesus passes the tests that the people Israel failed in the wilderness of Sinai.
Adelaide priest, Michael Trainor, in a wonderfully sensitive reading of Luke’s gospel, detects three ecological ethical principles in today’s gospel reading: 1) Earth is to be cared for and treated respectfully, not ravaged through greed; 2) All ecological and environmental engagement is grounded in and enhanced by one’s communion with God; and 3) Earth’s resources are to be respected by all and not usurped as a means of power and control by one over another. These principles derive from the story as a whole with its three-fold testing and from Jesus’ three-fold response to the tests
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish Sunbury 
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