MESSAGE ON THE 27TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (YR C)
Friday 3rd October 2025.
My dear people,
I would like to sincerely thank all the people who worked hard at making the AFL Grand Final Fundraiser on Saturday 27th September 2025 a great success. Those who were able to attend enjoyed themselves even if the team they were supporting did not win while others were happy that their team won. As you can imagine, a lot of work went into the preparation, organisation and the work on the day itself. I am deeply grateful to the members of the Fundraising Committee and all the other people who helped before and during the event itself. We raised $1,171.00 on that occasion. May God continue to bless our endeavours with the church extension and building a hall project.
A reminder that Fr Ian will be the Principal Celebrant at all Masses this weekend (4th and 5th October). A celebration of his Ordination to the Sacred Priesthood of Jesus Christ will follow the 12:30pm Mass on 5th October. This event will be combined with our annual International Food Day.
I am delighted to announce a special project with Christ the Priest. Over the next weeks and months, we will publish some letters to the community from Grade 6 students. As part of RE, they will explore scripture passages about Jesus’ teachings connected to being stewards of people and creation, Catholic Social Teaching, Pope Leo’s heart for people and the poor, as well as modern day Saints (Carlo Acutis, Pier Gorgio Frassati, and Blessed Eileen O’Connor – and other Saints), exploring how they lived out stewardship. We look forward to reading these letters and increasing our own knowledge of stewardship.
Our parish will run its twelfth session of Alpha starting on 8th October. I highly urge you to think about attending Alpha this time. We all have gone through times in our lives when we have questioned the very meaning of life. Perhaps you are going through this right now. Perhaps someone close to you is going through this. Alpha is the best way to come to reflect on the deeper meaning of life, over dinner, a short film and conversation. May I ask you to consider attending and warmly inviting others to attend Alpha? The transformation in people’s lives, their healing and closeness to Christ is testament to the fruits this wonderful program has to offer!
Over the past two weeks, I preached on the importance of silence before, during and after Mass, punctuality and not leaving Mass before the Final Blessing and Dismissal. Some people have asked for these homilies to be put on our website. Here is the link to them: https://www.stcatherinecarolinesprings.org.au/homilies/
I conclude my fortnightly message this week with a reminder of some very important news. After careful consideration and conversations between Fr Alex Clemente, Parish Priest of Melton and Melton South, members of the Vicar General’s Office and me, there is a proposal to change the boundaries of the parishes of Caroline Springs, Melton and Melton South. You will receive an email soon directing you to a letter from Fr Alex and me to parishioners of the three parishes. The letter invites comments and questions to be sent to our parish’s email address. Please feel free also to ask me any questions when we see each other this weekend.
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