UPDATED COVID RESTRICTIONS AS AT MIDNIGHT ON 23RD DECEMBER.

Following Restrictions Apply

1. Electronic Sign-in is mandatory (via QR Check-in Card, manually on IPAD at church doors or NSW Services App on mobile phone)

2. Wearing of masks is now mandatory.

3. from the 27th December - 1 person per 2 sq meter rule will apply for indoor settings only.

As always, we all need to be mindful of everyone’s safety.

View or Download NSW Health Infection Factsheet

We will continue to update website with further information

My Dear Parishioner,

This Sunday is the Third Sunday in Ordinary time and we are well and truly back into our daily lives after the holiday season. I hope and pray that you all had a good break and a restful time. I also hope that you were able to catch up with family and friends, especially those you have not seen for some time. As COVID still continues to make its mark felt, it is sometimes difficult to feel comfortable being out and about. I certainly understand that feeling. I hope that you have considered having your Booster shot by now and that this will help, in the long run, for us to meet together at Mass and other functions.

This Wednesday we celebrate Australia Day, whilst this day can be distressing for so many of our Indigenous Australians, let us use this day to pray for our Country, for healing and reconciliation. We are so blessed to live in such a beautiful country.

As our school children return to school next week we pray for them and their families and we pray for all our teachers and school staff. This is still a difficult time and we know that many people are feeling anxious and concerned. Let us continue to keep them in our prayers this term.

The Sacramental Program continues this term with the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We are hoping that we can run the classes face to face and this information will be on our website. We hope that all the children who were Confirmed last year will continue with the program towards Eucharist in term two.

In the Gospel this weekend Jesus proclaimed the words from Isaiah “The spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for he has anointed me. He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free, to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour.” Let us keep these words in our heart and try to live by them as 2022 continues.

God Bless you,

Fr Satheesh

This week marks the beginning of the liturgical use of the gospel of Luke that will feature throughout this year. The choice of passage to begin our journey with Luke is most appropriate. We have the first four verses of the gospel in which the writer makes his purpose clear. We then skip over all the infancy narrative and pick up again in chapter 4 of the gospel where Jesus makes his first public appearance.

Jesus returns to the synagogue in which he has worshipped all his life. He is given the scroll of Isaiah to read and reads the first two verses of Isaiah, chapter 61. But in the middle of this passage he flips back to chapter 58 of Isaiah and reads an additional line, ‘to set the downtrodden (oppressed) free’. This event in Nazareth is sometimes referred to as Jesus’ inauguration or declaration of mission. The inclusion of the additional verse from Isaiah signals very clearly the way in which Jesus will be portrayed throughout this particular gospel. The gospel of Luke is characterised by the focus of Jesus’ mission on the outcast; the oppressed; the downtrodden.

The gospel of Luke is often described as a gospel of compassion. Throughout the gospel we see Jesus enact the verses from Isaiah – bringing good news to the lowliest of society; inviting the least to share in the reign of God. In fact, having read from the scripture, Jesus’ very simple homily on the text is ‘This text is being fulfilled today even as you listen’. Jesus declares himself to be acting out and fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah. This short extract from Isaiah that Jesus adopted as his own ‘mission statement’ is indeed a mission statement for all Christian people. This is what we too are called to do.