Please pray for our Year 3 teachers and students who are currently preparing for the Sacraments of First Reconciliation and First Holy Communion.  All families are welcome and encouraged to come along, bring their ‘precious memories ribbons’ and celebrate Mass together with the Parish. Don’t forget to bring your item for the St Vincent de Paul and collect your jigsaw puzzle piece.

St Mary of the Cross MacKillop

8 August is of particular note as she is celebrated as our first home-grown saint. The eldest of eight children, Mary was born in Melbourne to parents who had emigrated from Scotland. At seventeen she became the family breadwinner when she was employed by a paper merchant. She understood all too well the meaning of charity beginning at home as she helped raise her younger siblings and dreamed of becoming a teacher.

This dream coincided with her desire to work for God. Her faith was fierce and unambiguous and she believed that Australia needed a group of religious women who understood the tyranny of distance. She founded, together with Father Julian Tennison Woods, an Australian order for Australian conditions; the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart. She believed that where you are is exactly where God is to be found. This is a reminder that in all we do we are working for God, even if it doesn’t always look like it.  The opportunity is right in front of us. As a teacher she would have looked at her young charges in the make-do school in a barn in Penola and done her best by them. This is what you are called to do.

Mary was a wise woman who responded to the toughness of life in this land. She walked with the drover’s wife and the unmarried mother; she knew the cries of the hungry urchins without shoes and the lifelong sorrow of the disheveled man sleeping in a park; she knew about the people on the fringes of society, the downtrodden or voiceless, the ones who are invisible or ashamed, estranged or disturbed. Like Jesus, she was not afraid to minister to the poor and in her gentleness and grace and the largesse of her sainted heart she was beloved by men and women of all colours and creeds.
Doing God’s work was not just about being good to those in the group - the baptised Catholics - but about loving every person who came her way. That is the charge of every teacher in the Catholic school - to include with love each child in front of them and to make the Good News real for their unfolding young lives.

One of Mary’s most famous quotes is Never see a need without doing something about it. She is an Australian of which to be truly proud. She was tough and true, resourceful and resilient, prayerful and persistent; all qualities to which others should aspire. On her tomb in Sydney are engraved the words We are all but travellers here. This reminds us that we have a lot of good to do in this life before we travel to the next!

Year A| Sunday 6 August | white

“Jesus' face shone like the sun."

 

 

 Something to Think About

Have you ever heard God speaking in your heart? How would you react if you heard God’s voice speaking to you from the clouds? Would you be frightened? Surprised? Excited?

The Story

In the gospel reading today, Jesus goes up a mountain with three of his friends. His clothes become bright like a light and his face shines like the sun. Two important men, Moses and Elijah, are seen with Jesus. They lived long before Jesus and were highly respected because they had always obeyed God. Then, God speaks from a cloud and says something important about who Jesus is. The disciples are terrified when they hear the voice, but Jesus tells them not to be afraid.

Video: https://youtu.be/KfT5mInsr9A