Message on the 2nd Sunday of Lent (Y A)
Friday 27th February 2026.
My dear people,
I begin my message this week highlighting one of the very important ministries in our parish, the Children’s Liturgy, which occurs at the 10:30am Mass during school term. The purpose of the Children’s Liturgy is to talk about and explain the Gospel of the day to children in such a way that they can take a message from it. We have some tremendous volunteers in this ministry, and I need to ensure that I help them achieve the above-mentioned goals. When very young children attend the Children’s Liturgy, it makes it very difficult for the volunteers to achieve the ministry’s goals since the point is not to look after children during the readings at Mass. This is why the Children’s Liturgy is only for children from Grade Prep to Grade 4, until the reception of First Holy Communion. From that point, we believe that our children are able to understand the Real Presence so they should stay for the duration of Mass and hear all the readings proclaimed.
When I visited St John’s Parish in Indiana in 2022, I saw a wonderful ministry there of minding children during Mass. This ministry enabled the parents of young children to completely participate in the Mass and not have to follow their toddlers around. It is indeed one cherished dream and desire of mine that one day we can offer this ministry in our parish. However, at present, we do not have the space to offer it. It will be with your donations to the projects for the future of the parish that we will be able to offer this ministry sometime in the future.
This evening, we resume the Vigil of Prayers for the reparation of all the harms caused by sin. As we know, the Church has had this custom for many years and it is indeed important to pray that the damage caused by sin be repaired. This year we pray particularly in response to the appeal made by Our Lady when she appeared in 1925 in Pontevedra to Saint Lucia who had preciously witnessed the apparitions of Our Lady in Fatima. Over 2025 – 2026, there will be many such vigils to hearken to the appeal of our Lady. We will start with Mass at 8pm and those who so wish, can start the evening with Stations of the Cross at 7pm. The Blessed Sacrament will be exposed from 8:30pm until Benediction at 11:50pm. The Sacrament of Confession will be available during the time of Exposition. There will also be prayers from 8:30pm until Benediction.
I am delighted to share with you the awesome news that, in addition to being our Assistant Priest, Fr Vespa has been appointed as Vocations Promoter of the Archdiocese of Melbourne. Fr Vespa thus joins the team of the Vocations office together with the Vocations Director, the Assistant Vocations Director and two other Vocations Promoters. Fr Vespa will have the particular responsibility of promoting vocations to the priesthood in schools, both primary and secondary. I invite you to pray for Fr Vespa in this new ministry of his as well as to pray for vocations to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Melbourne, particularly from our parish.
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