The Catholic Parish of Frenchs Forest

Rejoice - He is Risen

Welcome

Our Parish is made up of three vibrant communities:

Our Lady of Good Counsel - Forestville

St Martin de Porres - Davidson

St Anthony in the Fields - Terrey Hills.

If you’re a visitor or new to our parish, we extend a very warm welcome to you.

If you have any questions, please chat with Fr Shiju, Fr Satheesh or myself, or browse our website.

We want you to feel at home with us. - Fr Jose

Each of our special communities is centred on a different church and has its own story to tell.

Together, as a parish, we are united in 'Sharing One Faith in Christ’.

Here at Frenchs Forest Parish we offer many opportunities for personal growth,

spiritual enrichment and social interaction.

Ascension Sunday Readings

Ascension Sunday Reflection

Letter from Fr. Jose

Contributions and Donations

Sharing our Story May Parish Newsletter

Letter from Bishop Anthony Ascension Sunday

Bishop Anthony's Homilies and Refelections

Vatican Readings of the Day and Pope's Reflections

We celebrate the 5th anniversary of the publication of the Encyclical Laudato Si' (Praise Be to You!)

during the Week May 14th - 24th

See how you can participate in celebration Laudato Si! Week

Ascension Sunday Eucharistic Celebration

view below or on Parish Youtube Channel

The Online Mass for Ascension Sunday will be available below by Sunday 24th May

from Fr Jose (Ascension Sunday)

Greetings on this special feast day – The Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ into Heaven.

How blessed we are that some of you can attend Mass this weekend as Community and that others can enjoy the Mass from the comfort of their Lounge rooms. However you are celebrating this Feast Day let us all remember the words that Jesus said to us “I am with you always” What a wonderful promise this is, especially at this time when we cannot all gather together as one community.

From the bookings for the Masses it would appear that many of you are taking the opportunity to attend when you can. Please be aware that I would like as many parishioners as possible to attend Mass, so you may have to give others your spot if you have already attended Mass that week.

I will of course inform you as and when restrictions are eased or changed in any way.

Our Parish Office is open with Di or Ivona being there from 9am to 2pm weekdays and they can assist you with bookings, questions or concerns.

Next weekend we celebrate the very special Feast of PENTECOST. Let us all prepare our hearts for this Birthday of the Church, maybe we could all say the special prayer daily “Come Holy Spirit fill the hearts of the faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love.” As we prepare for this feast you may also like to read and pray with the Acts of the Apostles and The Gospel of John, this would be wonderful preparation to read how the early Christian community worked together and received the Holy Spirit both into their hearts and their actions.

On Monday we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady Help of Christians, a very special feast for Australia as we are entrusted to her. Please pray for our Country especially on this day, and let us remember the Mother of our Lord on this day.

Once again thank you to all those who read and gather information from the website in order to stay in touch and thank you to those who continue with their planned giving donations and other donations including CWF, we still have a shortfall for CWF so would appreciate any donations you are able to make.

Until next week,

Yours in Christ,

Fr Jose Philip OSH

Pictures of what you are doing during Isolation. We have people:

We can now visit at a distance (Hooray), my garden has never been more beautiful - Craft Galore - Bush walking, - An Easter window and enjoying THE ‘holiday’ in matching bath robes - going on family adventures or playing cricket in the park - practising your sport and music at home - getting that garden looking like you always wanted to - still dressing up for dinner, - family project building a chicken coop - doing some fine needle work - cooking- building models - doing gardening - celebrating ANZAC day at home - even matching DYI haircuts.

What are you doing at home during this period of isolation.

THE ASCENSION OF THE LORD

“I am with you Always” When Christ ascended into heaven he did not abandon his disciples. Matthew’s Gospel begins with the angel’s words that Jesus will be called Emmanuel, which means God-is-with-us, and it ends with Jesus’ promise: ‘Know that I am with you always, yes to the end of time.’ In a special way Emmanuel is with us in this Eucharist for ‘where two or three are gathered in my name, I shall be there with them.’

REFLECTION

When I was a boy, Sir Edmund Hillary came to speak at my school. I can remember the fuss surrounding the visit of the first person to scale Mt Everest. And though there is now a school of thought that holds that he was beaten to the summit by Tenzing Norgay, his Tibetan colleague, there was an aura around this New Zealander who had been to the top of the world.

Some of my usually dour teachers were in awe of Sir Edmund. There was more than a little hero worship going on that day. Rather surprisingly in his address Sir Edmund did not say very much about his adventure to the peak. He was much more interested in what we do to each other on the plains than what he did on the mountain top. He spoke about justice, peace and the dignity of humanity. I can vividly remember him sending us out at the end of his speech to create a better world for all people everywhere. When questions came, there were several about whether he felt closer to God at the top of Mt Everest, and although he said he did, he mentioned there were life and death moments on the way up and down, where God's presence and companionship were much more real to him.

Hillary's visit to my school is not far from what happened to the disciples in today's Gospel. Matthew tells us that the eleven men who worshipped Jesus were commissioned by him to go out to the world and they were promised that he would stay with them until the end of time.

Worship is a word Catholics don't use all that often. While other denominations describe their liturgy as ‘worship’, we tend to use it only in a more secular way like in ‘hero worship’ or ‘not an altar at which I worship’. The concept behind this word, however, is an important one. To worship God is to admit that we are not God. We are creatures and our worship is directed toward our Creator, Saviour and Sustainer.

Whether we realise it or not we are commissioned to go out to the world at the end of every liturgy, ‘Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.’ This changes our worship. We are not here just for ourselves. Mass, which comes from a word meaning ‘to be sent’, indicates that our liturgy is about celebrating what God has done in the world in and through us, and is a preparation for what God still wants to accomplish.

Finally, we continue to experience the abiding presence of Christ in our daily lives or else we wouldn't be here. God, as revealed in Jesus Christ, is not distant to our lives or impervious to our needs; we believe in a Companion-God who seeks our company as much as we need his.

In this Mass, then, let's thank God for the mountain top of Christ's Ascension that lifts us up out of our everyday life to celebrate that we are creatures, not the Creator. Let us hear again Christ's call to each of us to move away from the complacency of a spiritual cafeteria to a church moving out to change the world. And let's rejoice in Christ's presence which abides before us, behind us, over and in us, within and without, now and forever. Amen. (© Richard Leonard SJ)

Readings

ASCENSION SUNDAY

First Reading

A reading from the Acts of the Apostles

In my earlier work, Theophilus, I dealt with everything Jesus had done and taught from the beginning until the day he gave his instructions to the apostles he had chosen through the Holy Spirit, and was taken up to heaven. He had shown himself alive to them after his Passion by many demonstrations: for forty days he had continued to appear to them and tell them about the kingdom of God. When he had been at table with them, he had told them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for what the Father had promised. ‘It is’ he had said, ‘what you have heard me speak about: John baptised with water but you, not many days from now, will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.’

Now having met together, they asked him, ‘Lord, has the time come? Are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He replied, ‘It is not for you to know times or dates that the Father has decided by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and then you will be my witnesses not only in Jerusalem but throughout Judaea and Samaria, and indeed to the ends of the earth.’

As he said this he was lifted up while they looked on, and a cloud took him from their sight. They were still staring into the sky when suddenly two men in white were standing near them and they said, ‘Why are you men from Galilee standing here looking into the sky? Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven, this same Jesus will come back in the same way as you have seen him go there.’

Responsorial Psalm

(R.) God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.

All peoples, clap your hands, cry to God with shouts of joy! For the Lord, the Most High, we must fear, great king over all the earth. (R.)
God goes up with shouts of joy; the Lord goes up with trumpet blast. Sing praise for God, sing praise, sing praise to our king, sing praise. (R.)
God is king of all the earth. Sing praise with all your skill. God is king over the nations; God reigns on his holy throne. (R.)

Second Reading

A reading from the letter of St Paul to the Ephesians

May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a spirit of wisdom and perception of what is revealed, to bring you to full knowledge of him. May he enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see what hope his call holds for you, what rich glories he has promised the saints will inherit and how infinitely great is the power that he has exercised for us believers. This you can tell from the strength of his power at work in Christ, when he used it to raise him from the dead and to make him sit at his right hand, in heaven, far above every Sovereignty, Authority, Power, or Domination, or any other name that can be named, not only in this age, but also in the age to come. He has put all things under his feet, and made him, as the ruler of everything, the head of the Church; which is his body, the fullness of him who fills the whole creation.

Gospel Acclamation

Alleluia, alleluia!

Go and teach all people my gospel.

I am with you always, until the end of the world.

Alleluia!

Gospel

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew

The eleven disciples set out for Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had arranged to meet them. When they saw him they fell down before him, though some hesitated. Jesus came up and spoke to them. He said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, make disciples of all the nations; baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commandments I gave to you. And know that I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.’

Prayers of intercession

The Ascension of the Lord

Priest: Brothers and sisters, with Christ ascended into heaven, let us bring our prayers to the Lord.

Reader: That the Holy Church will continue to bear witness to the Gospel with grace and courage.

In your glory: