The Catholic Parish
of Frenchs Forest
to Love and Serve
Our Parish is made up of three vibrant communities:
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 Biju, Fr Shiju, or myself, or browse our website.
We want you to feel at home with us. - Fr Satheesh
from Fr. Satheesh
In the Gospel reading this weekend St. Luke places a good deal of Jesus teaching in the context of his journey to Jerusalem, but today he extends the horizon to the end-times when the Son of Man will return and will come when we least expect. We are advised not to put so much time and effort into our worldly possessions, but rather share these with others, especially the poor.
This year the Catholic Church in Australia celebrates National Vocation Awareness Week from 7-14 August. This is an opportunity to celebrate the call of all the Baptised and to promote vocations to the Ordained Ministry and Consecrated Life. Where such a Vocation is concerned, God speaks, God calls and God commands: we do not choose, but listen and obey, and in that, we will find our deepest happiness and fulfilment. Bishop Anthony Randazzo reminds us all of our Baptismal call and of the unique call which God makes to each of us. He also reminds us: we must pray to the Lord for Vocations, to the Lord who always continues to call.
On Monday 15th August we celebrate a Holy Day of Obligation with the Feast of the Assumption. We have Masses at OLGC and St Martin’s at 9.15 and at St Anthony’s at 10.30 as well as an evening Mass on the 15th at 7.30pm at OLGC. There will be no Vigil Mass for this Feast as that is the Sunday evening Mass as usual.
As you know Fr Biju is not with us for the month of August, but we welcome Fr Joey and Fr Marek who will be helping us with Mass during the month. We are very grateful to them for their service to our Parish Community.
This weekend and next we will be having a special collection for Catholic Care’s homelessness services. This is a very worthwhile and very much needed collection. Please give as generously as you can.
May God Bless you,
Fr. Satheesh Antony OSH
Reflection
In the middle of Ordinary Time we discover a theme normally associated with the end of the liturgical year and the season of Advent – vigilance in anticipation of the return of the master. This vigilance demands that we live lives of faith. We do not know when God will open the door of our existence and call us into a deeper realisation of the sacred dimension of life itself. Vigilance is a characteristic of a Christian at all times, for all times. We must be ever vigilant.
While we live in the expectation of the coming of God in the future, we also live now in the presence of God. This means that God is present with us now, as a companion in our lives. It also means that this presence is the context within which our lives unfold. However, until all things are brought to fulfilment, we live in this presence by faith. Faith and hope are intimately joined. As believers we are called to trust in the promises of God, even when what is promised seems impossible.
We are assured that we will be blessed, but we can never be sure of the exact nature of the blessing. In faith, we put our trust in God and then carry out our responsibilities. In faith we wait for the Lord, who is our help and our shield, not really knowing under what guise he will come to us. Faith is both the cost of living as a disciple and the reward.
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