MESSAGE ON THE 8TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (YR C)
Friday 28th February 2025.
My dear people,
It is with great joy that I inform you that Archbishop Peter A Comensoli will celebrate Mass at Christ the Priest Catholic Primary School at 4:30pm this afternoon. Archbishop Peter is here to participate in the celebrations for the 25Th Anniversary of the opening of the school. Fr Karmel Borg, who was instrumental in the opening of Christ the Priest, will also be here as will Deacon Ian and Br Greg. After Mass, there will be activities for the children around the school. I invite you to pray in thanksgiving to God for the past 25 years of Christ the Priest and to pray for His continued blessings on the work done there at the moment and will be done in the future. We also pray for everyone who has been part of the family of Christ the Priest since it opened in 2000 and those who continue the wonderful work there.
To let you know, I had a meeting with Mr David Powick, Director of Development and Philanthropy Office of the Archdiocese on Wednesday morning to continue to try new, different and better ways to make our Parish Offertory Campaign this year as successful as possible. We have decided that our approach will change slightly, and the launch of the campaign has now been delayed by two weeks. More information will be made available as soon as I have it.
It is wonderful for me to announce that it has been decided to start a new ministry in the parish. I was contacted by one of our parishioners to start a Grief and Bereavement Support Ministry, the task of which will be to be a listening presence to people in the parish who are grieving and bereaved. We all know that there are many different reasons which cause grief and people often just need someone to talk to. Anyone who may be interested is most welcome to join. Please reach out and let me know of your intention. I will contact Catholic care to provide us with training since it is a serious and sensitive domain into which we will venture. With this new ministry also, as soon as more information is available, I will let you know.
You might remember that I shared with you the news that Pat Gurrie had indicated he wanted to reduce his volunteering in the parish. Again, he is not leaving all ministries of which he is a part of. He resigned as a member of Finance Committee and as the Coordinator of the Piety Stall. We thank Pat for the work that he has done for us in these two very important roles and pray in thanksgiving to God for his work among us. Pat will continue with the membership of all the other ministries where he is involved. I am pleased to announce that Llewy Berchy has accepted my invitation to join the Finance Committee and Lilian Fernandes has accepted my invitation to be the Coordinator of the Piety Stall. We thank Llewy and Lilian, welcome them in these new roles and assure them of our prayers.
A new initiative will begin soon in our parish and that will affect slightly our celebration of the Mass. As mentioned before, one of the important aspects of missionary renewal is that we are a welcoming parish. I can’t remember the number of times people who visit us or newcomers in the parish have told me that they feel welcome here. This indicates that we are doing very well in this area. What we have not done is to formally welcome visitors and newcomers at the start of Mass and we will start to do that very shortly. This welcoming will be done at the start of Mass, just before I ring the bell. A few more discussions need to take place, and we will start this new initiative as soon as possible.
It seems unbelievable but the Season of Lent is already upon us. This Wednesday is Ash Wednesday. We will have two Masses in the parish for Ash Wednesday, at 9:30am and 7:30pm. These two Masses will include the imposition of ashes. Let us enter this season of Lent with due reverence, remembering that it is a time to turn back to the Lord, to remove sin from our lives and to endeavour to walk more closely to him. I wish you a Blessed Season of Lent.
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