The Catholic Parish of Frenchs Forest.

My Dear Parishioners,

On the Fifth Sunday of Easter, we are too familiar with the gospel reading. Christ is the vine and we are the branches, sometimes in need of a good pruning. But God’s purpose is not to produce a perfect vineyard. It is to produce a full-bodied wine at the end of history.

There is a foretaste of this at every Mass. The wine we offer – ‘fruit of the earth and work of human hands’ – becomes the spiritual drink which best serves the purpose of our Heavenly Father. 

We could take a moment to pray that we respond to the pruning and the tending and the pressing by our Heavenly Father so as to contribute our distinctive character to the vintage at the end of history, the spiritual drink of the Kingdom of Heaven. We are celebrating the feast day of Our Lady of Good Counsel on this Sunday 28 April at 10am Mass at OLGC. It is a special day for all of us whenever we celebrate one of our churches feast day. Our Lady of Good Counsel is a title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary, after a painting said to be miraculous, now found in the thirteenth century Augustinian church at Genazzano, near Rome, Italy. Measuring 40 to 45 centimeters (16 to 18 in) the image is a fresco executed on a thin layer of plaster no thicker than an egg shell. Over the centuries, devotions to Our Lady of the Good Counsel grew among saints and Popes, to the extent that a reference to it was added to the Litany of Loreto and the devotion spread throughout the world. Her feast day is 26 April.

We pray that Our Lady of Good Counsel will continue to be with us always.

This is to let you know that I have appointed Margaret Wood as the Parish Administrative Assistant and she commences her job on 1 May 2024. Let us welcome Margaret and wish her all the best on her new appointment. 

For your awareness, there will be two Counts of Mass Attendance in Broken Bay in 2024. It will be held in May and November 2024.  Hence, the first one will be commencing from 4/5 May.

Please remember the weekend Mass changes in our Parish from 1 June, 2024. 

Changes are hard for some but let us welcome the changes whole heartedly. 

Pastoral Discernment Northern Beaches, Community Forum will be held on 4 May at OLGC School Hall from 11 am to 12 Noon. Register your attendance here: https://forms.office.com/r/W28mjLvNKq. All are invited as we launch into the Community Engagement phase of the Project.

I would like to welcome all visitors to our churches and please come and say hello to us when you are at mass. 

God Bless you
Fr Satheesh Antony OSH