MESSAGE ON THE 5TH SUNDAY OF EASTER (YR C)
Friday 16th May 2025.
My dear people,
I would like to thank the organisers of the Parish Feast Day Dinner which occurred on Saturday 3rd May. It was a truly wonderful night and those who were able to attend had a great time. The Social Committee worked tirelessly to put the night on and, on behalf of the parish, I thank all the members of the Social Committee for their hard work over several weeks. We are also grateful to the band which came together quite spontaneously to provide us with entertainment on the night.
Our Mother’s Day fundraiser was a great success. On everyone’s behalf, I would like to thank Shirley Chung for her great idea and hard work in organising the whole event. She had a few dedicated members of our parish to help her along the way. For a first-time initiative, it was a great success. It is wonderful how much good can be achieved with just a few people coming together for a good cause; Praise Jesus! We look forward to more such fundraisers for the parish project of church refurbishments and the building of a hall.
Speaking of fundraisers, we had a very successful bingo last Monday, with about 65 people attending. There was a wonderful feeling around the room. Please keep in mind that we will also have a Dance Night to raise funds, and this will take place on Saturday 31st May. Please put that in your diaries. Tickets are available with Sonny and Jenny Mallia on 0412583069 and 0413478780 respectively. We are likewise immensely grateful to Sonny and Jenny and their team for putting the Dance Night together. I hope to see a large number of parishioners there. Again, all for a good cause!
The first of our monthly Healing Masses was a vibrant success. There were around 180 people present, all of whom found the Mass to have brought them what they were looking for. We thank Fr Wahid Riad for celebrating the Mass and the members of SRM for their tremendous work in preparing for the Mass, as well as all who helped with the logistics of the Mass.
The members of the Grief and Bereavement Ministry had an initial meeting on 8th May, at which I was present. Their formal training by Catholic Care followed on 13th May. They will have two more training sessions on 20th and 27th May. After that, the team will be ready to help with grief and bereavement in the parish. We will publicise information about the way in which they will help once all the training is completed.
We will start a new way of publishing our financial situation from this weekend. This weekend’s bulletin will include our financial situation for the first quarter of 2025. We will simply publish the income, expenditure and surplus or deficit. Subsequently, we will publish this information on a monthly basis as well as quarterly, four times a year. It will give you, the parishioners, a better indication of how we are going financially. As I mentioned many times before, you are welcome to ask me any question about the finances of the parish, and about any other aspects of the running of the parish, for that matter.
I would like to let you know that I will be on my annual leave from 1st to 28th June. My mother is turning 70 this year. She has always wanted to go to Lourdes, Fatima and Rome and we are going to take her there, as a family. We will also visit friends and relatives in England and France.
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