MESSAGE ON PALM SUNDAY (YR C)
Friday 8th April 2022
My dear people,
Last Wednesday, Mr Frank Schobben presented the final report of our Stewardship Renewal Program. Fantastic news! The pledge for stewardship income has increased by 22.9% to $7,374 per week and the pledge for the presbytery is $1,311 per week. A more detailed report is available below as a separate document to this message.
Again the success of the Children’s Liturgy over the past five weeks at 12pm Mass has reminded us of the importance of Children’s Liturgy at Mass and we are eager to resume this in the parish. We are inviting anyone who would like to help in this wonderful ministry to contact the parish office. We can discuss at which Masses this will be offered as well as the training and resources needed. If you are interested, we will provide you with the formation for this worthwhile ministry.
I am also delighted to announce that our parish has been gifted with a wonderful tool to help us get closer to Jesus and to know our faith more. There is also a letter that explains what FORMED is about. I strongly encourage you to sign up and to start using this tremendous resource and everything available on this website. I sincerely believe that it is truly an immense blessing from God that we have been gifted with such a priceless resource to grow in our faith. We sincerely thank the team at Kings Park Medical Centre for their generosity in making FORMED available to us.
Holy Week is upon with Palm Sunday being this weekend. I, for one, am very excited about this week when we will re-live the most important events of Salvation History. Again, I invite you to take note of the different times of the Holy Week and Easter Triduum liturgies. This includes the Good Friday Stations of the Cross at 9.30am where we will be processing and carrying the cross around the oval opposite the church. All these details are now in the bulletin, on the website and on the doors of the church. I look forward to seeing all of you at the different liturgies.
School holidays for Easter begin today. I would like to wish all our parishioners who will be on holidays from today a wonderful break. May it be a time for relaxation and “recharging of batteries” and for looking after one another.
I wish all of you a blessed Palm Sunday and Holy Week.
We continue turning to our patron saint and we ask for her intercession.
St Catherine of Siena, Pray for us.
Yours sincerely in Christ,
Fr Richard Rosse PP
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Results – Parish Renewal Program
My dear people,
Having endured a global pandemic, COVID-19 has had far reaching consequences for how we live, work and connect with one another. No one could have envisaged the unprecedented challenges that we experienced in 2020 and 2021.
Thankfully, many of those extraordinary times are behind us and, as our lives now return to normal, we are able to re-engage as a parish community. For those reasons we resolved to conduct our Stewardship Renewal Program. We were challenged to: commit to serve our community by joining our parish groups and ministries; increase current Stewardship income from $6,000 (from 661 existing givers) to $7,500 pledged per week; and make a specific pledge to the presbytery.
The good news is that we have achieved some very positive and pleasing results. Our parish groups and ministries have been revitalized with 79 existing volunteers and new volunteers offering their commitment to support our Mission.
Stewardship income has increased by 22.9% to $7,374 per week – pledged by 596 existing givers and 72 new contributors. Pleasingly, 170 givers (i.e. 132 existing and 38 new contributors) also made a specific pledge to the presbytery totalling $1,311 per week.
These results enable us to continue our work and help fund our vital priorities.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to the program and who helped to achieve these outcomes.
Yours sincerely in Christ,
Fr Richard Rosse PP
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FORMED – Online Catholic Materials
My dear people,
It gives me great joy to share with you that our parish now has been gifted a subscription to FORMED by Kings Park Medical Centre. FORMED is a premier online platform filled with over 4,000 Catholic studies, movies, audio dramas, talks, e-books, and even cartoons for our children. FORMED has content from over 60 apostolates, including Augustine Institute, Ignatius Press, and the Knights of Columbus, with material that is professionally produced, engaging, and solid in its catechism. Best of all, this material is free to you.
Our parish will be using the material on FORMED to support our ministries and provide continuing education for staff members and parishioners, as well as outreach for our sick and homebound members. You have easy access to all of the material on FORMED to support your own faith journey and that of your family members.
Are you hesitant to return to the Sacrament of Reconciliation after a long absence? Watch Forgiven: The Transforming Power of Confession. Would you like to be more confident in answering your teenagers’ questions about the validity of the Gospels? Watch Lectio: The Case for Jesus. Do you search for a reliable source of Catholic teaching on current issues? Tune in each week to The Augustine Institute Show with Dr. Tim Gray. Have you despaired of finding good movies that your family can enjoy together on a Friday night? Start with Mother Teresa, the story of the selfless saint who brought hope and love to the poorest of the poor.
You can enjoy FORMED on your computer or on your television with an inexpensive Roku device or Apple TV. You can even listen on your phone as you commute to work or do chores.
My hope and prayer is that the content on FORMED will enrich, deepen, and inspire your faith. Please pray for our benefactors who have made a FORMED subscription a reality for our parish. Please pray for the people at the Augustine
Institute who create this wonderful and much-needed Catholic content for our people.
To gain access to all of FORMED’s content, follow these simple steps:
- Go to https://signup.formed.org/
- Enter our parish’s postcode
- Enter your name and your email address
That’s it! You’re in. Now you can get the free FORMED app for your phone by searching FORMED Catholic in your app store.
Again, I sincerely thank the Lea and her team at Kings Park Medical Centre for their wonderful generosity in donation the subscription to our parish.
Yours sincerely in Christ,
Fr Richard Rosse PP