Message on the 2nd Sunday of Lent (YR C)
My dear people,
The number of people who attended Mass last weekend was a great sign that life is getting back to normal. By my estimation, there were very close to 1000 people at Mass over the four Masses. A Lenten initiative of inviting our young parishioners to be readers and choir members as well as inviting them to bring up the offerings started last Sunday at the 12pm Mass. The families at Christ the Priest were invited to be part of this initiative and the take up was nothing short of exemplary. This initiative is of course open to all children of the parish. Many of the families decided to stay back after Mass to enjoy the hospitality provided by the social committee and the Evangelisation Team.
If I may share that last weekend was a bit of a highlight for me. On Saturday, there were 12 baptisms in the parish, over three sessions. I baptised the children at two of the sessions and Fr Simeon baptised the children at the third. Members of the Baptism Team were there to help us and I am very grateful to them. I also met with three couples whose wedding I will celebrate this year. On Sunday, there were the three usual parish Masses, a meeting with the leadership of Ablaze Youth and Ablaze Young Adults, a Mass with First Holy Communion and Confirmation at 3pm and Altar servers training at 4:30pm. At 6:30pm, I conducted a catechism class for a young couple whom I will baptise in October and whose Nuptial Mass I will celebrate in November. On Monday, I was with the teachers at Christ the Priest for their Spirituality, which was a great success. Last weekend reminded me very clearly that Jesus is working very hard at the moment to bring life back into our parish and we must cooperate with him. The Holy Spirit is certainly very much here in our parish. The path of renewal on which God is inviting us is an opportunity which simply cannot be missed!
Last weekend, we had the “Commitment” weekend of our Stewardship Renewal program. Frank Schobben, from Parish First, was here to explain to us the importance of committing financially to the parish by giving us the reasons why it is important to do so. If you have not been able to give your pledge card, you can give them this weekend at Mass or at the parish office at your convenience.
If you have not already done so, I invite to you to visit our new parish website. We are still putting some final touches to it. As Fr Simeon mentioned last weekend, it is indeed an exciting time for us as we are improving on our social media presence. As always, we welcome any and all feedback you may have.
I will be absent from the parish this weekend. This afternoon, I am flying to Adelaide. Two of my friends will be ordained priests for the Archdiocese of Adelaide tomorrow and will be offering their First Masses of Thanksgiving on Sunday. May I take this opportunity to invite you to continue to pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life and that God may inspire one of our own parishioners to explore the possibility of the priesthood or religious life.
We continue to pray for Ukraine. It seems to me that the atrocities are increasing by the day. I guess we should heed the invitation of the Holy Father and do more prayer and penance for a prompt end to this senseless war. May Our Lady of Peace also intercede for us at this tragic time.
I wish all of you a blessed second Sunday of Lent and May God bless you.
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