MESSAGE ON EASTER SUNDAY (YR A)
Thursday 2nd April 2026
My dear people,
Ash Wednesday happened seemingly too soon after Christmas this year and Easter also seems to be early. This Season of Lent has gone by so fast. Today, we start re-living the most wonderful events of the church’s calendar beginning with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper this evening. Tomorrow, we recall the events of the Passion at the Solemn Liturgy of the Passion of the Lord and on Saturday we celebrate the very reason for our faith, the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ. I invite you to enter deeply into these events so that they are not simply a distant memory but truly the very reason for living the way we do.
We also celebrate the new life which comes after death and Jesus Christ, in his death and resurrection, shows us that not even death has the last word. What a tremendous realisation! This realisation is the more poignant at this time when we are concerned about the events in the Middle East, which have already changed the way we conduct our lives here in Australia. However, with the Resurrection of our Lord, we know that there is light at the end of the tunnel because of our Lord’s victory over death. St Paul reminds us that without the Resurrection, our faith and our preaching are in vain. It is because of Easter that our worship of God every Sunday and all the activities which comprise our spiritual lives make sense. I strongly encourage all of you to avail yourselves of this wonderful opportunity to come and worship our loving God at the liturgies of the Triduum, advertised on the website and in the bulletin.
At the Easter Vigil this year, nine members of our parish community will celebrate one or more of the sacraments of initiation. Samantha Fadlallah and Indi Aryana will celebrate the three sacraments of initiation, Baptism, Confirmation and receive Holy Communion for the first time. Anastazia Stojakovic, Shermaine Chen, Ryan Corriea, and Erin Cas will celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation. Jacqueline De Almeida, Keziah Dryden-Ford, and Kurt Maerz will celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation and receive Holy Communion for the first time. What a blessing for our parish! We sincerely congratulate and warmly welcome them to our community.
At Easter, we celebrate new life. Our parish will run its thirteenth session of Alpha starting on 22nd April. I highly urge you to think about attending Alpha this year. 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 your daughter or son, brother or sister, or colleague 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!
A reminder that our Parish Feast Day celebrations will be on 3rd May, immediately after the 12:30pm Mass. More details are available in the bulletin. If you have not already done so, I humbly ask you to mark your calendars with this event.
I would like to take the opportunity to warmly thank each and every one of our ministry coordinators and volunteers for all their work so far and particularly in the preparation for Easter. I would also like to sincerely thank the parish staff without whom I simply would not be able to do what I need to do.
To finish, I sincerely wish you and your loved ones, near and far, a very Happy and Holy Easter. May the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus bring you joy and peace.
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