RECYCLING PROGRAM Please continue to leave your aluminium
cans, car batteries copper & brass BEHIND
the clothing bin at the Church or contact
Ian Goldthorpe on : 9630 1494 for pick up.
All monies raised either goes to St. Vincent
de Paul, Christian Blind Mission projects or
Parramatta Lions Club disabled
program. Please contact Ian for
enquiries.
1st Wednesday of every month. The next one will be on the
6th of April at 7:30pm
St Monica's Bingo Night 堂區將會舉行燒烤遊戲晚會，誠意邀請大家參與。詳情如下：
日期：4月29日星期五
時間：6:00 pm 開始燒烤 7:00 pm 遊戲開始
地點：學校禮堂
餐卷：家庭$20，個人$5，請自備飲品。 Come along and join the St Monica's Bingo Night on Friday 29th April. BBQ Dinner commencing at 6.00pm. BYO Drinks and Nibbles. Bingo starts at 7.00pm. Tickets cost $20 per family or $5 per single.
主日午餐服務暫停
由於學校假期，主日午餐服務將於今個主日，10/04及17/04等主日暫停，並將於24/04恢復。
Good Friday Appeal We would like to thank you for your generosity . All together on Good Friday we raised $3,752.90 for the Holy Land.
Project Compassion Please return your project compassion boxes, so we can account to Caritas, thank you very much for your donations and remember donations over $2 are tax deductable.
Anzac Day A special Mass will be held on Monday the 25th of April at 9.15am for Anzac day.
Youth Group For all who are interested, youth group will be running formation based on the series 'Catholicism'. It is a great chance for people to catch up and also learn more about their faith. When: It is held on the 1st Sunday of the month ( 6th March) Who: Aimed towards older youth, 16 yrs and older. Lunch will be provided and start at 1, with the formation to start at 1:45 and finish 3:30 the latest. If you have any enquires please contact by email to [email protected]
Hello everybody: I greet you all again on this Holy Season of Easter, may the Risen Lord be present in your lives to fill them with hope, joy and peace! The gifts of the Risen Lord to the Church and his believers!
To continue with the presentation of Saints in the year of Mercy, I want to introduce to you a saint that is very close to the devotion of the Divine Mercy. On this Second Sunday of Easter, the Church is invited to celebrate the Divine Mercy, a devotion promoted by St Faustina Kowalska
Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, an apostle of Divine Mercy, belongs today to the group of the most popular and well-known saints of the Church.
Through her, the Lord Jesus communicates to the world the great message of God's mercy and reveals the pattern of Christian perfection based on trust in God and on the attitude of mercy toward one's neighbours.
Sister Faustina was born on August 25, 1905 in Glogowiec, Poland of a poor and religious family of peasants, the third of 10 children. She was baptized with the name Helena in the parish church of Swinice Warckie. From a very tender age she stood out because of her love of prayer, work, obedience, and also her sensitivity to the poor. At the age of seven she had already felt the first stirrings of a religious vocation. Helen made her first Holy Communion at the age of nine, which was very profound moment in her awareness of the presence of the Divine Guest within her soul. She attended school for three years. After finishing school, she wanted to enter the convent, but her parents would not give her permission. Being of age at 16, Helen left home and went to work as a housekeeper in Aleksandrów, Lodi, and Ostrówek in order to find the means of supporting herself and of helping her parents.
Helen never lost her desire for a religious vocation. After being called during a vision of the Suffering Christ, she entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy on August 1, 1925, and took the name Sr. Maria Faustina of the Most Blessed Sacrament. She lived in the Congregation for thirteen years in several religious houses. She spent time at Krakow, Plock and Vilnius, where she worked as a cook, gardener, and porter.
Externally nothing revealed her rich mystical interior life. She zealously performed her tasks and faithfully observed the rule of religious life. She was recollected and at the same time very natural, serene, and full of kindness and disinterested love for her neighbour. Although her life was apparently insignificant, monotonous and dull, she hid
within herself an extraordinary union with God.
It is the mystery of the Mercy of God which she contemplated in the word of God as well as in the everyday activities of her life that forms the basis of her spirituality. The process of contemplating and getting to know the mystery of God's mercy helped develop within Sr. Maria Faustina the attitude of child-like trust in God as well as mercy toward her neighbours.
The Lord Jesus chose Sr. Maria Faustina as the Apostle and "Secretary" of His Mercy, so that she could tell the world about His great message, which Sr. Faustina recorded in a diary she titled Divine Mercy in My Soul. In the Old Covenant He said to her: "I sent prophets wielding thunderbolts to My people. Today I am sending you with My mercy to the people of the whole world. I do not want to punish aching mankind, but I desire to heal it, pressing it to My Merciful Heart." (Diary, 1588)
In an extraordinary way, Sr. Maria Faustina's work sheds light on the mystery of the Divine Mercy. It delights not only the simple and uneducated people, but also scholars who look upon it as an additional source of theological research. The Diary has been translated into more than 20 languages, including, English, German, Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Arabic, Russian, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, Polish, Castilian, Brazilian, Vietnamese, Korean, Chinese, Swedish, Ukrainian, Dutch and Japanese.
Sister Maria Faustina, consumed by tuberculosis and by innumerable sufferings which she accepted as a voluntary sacrifice for sinners, died in Krakow at the age of just 33 on October 5, 1938, with a reputation for spiritual maturity and a mystical union with God. The reputation of the holiness of her life grew as did the cult to the Divine Mercy and the graces she obtained from God through her intercession. In the years 1965-67, the Investigative Process into her life and heroic virtues was undertaken in Krakow and in the year 1968, the Beatification Process was initiated in Rome. The latter came to an end in December 1992.
On April 18, 1993 our Holy Father, John Paul II raised St. Faustina to the glory of the altars. She was canonized on April 30, 2000. St. Maria Faustina's remains rest at the Sanctuary of the Divine Mercy in Krakow-Lagiewniki. Peace in Jesus Fernando Montano
本堂神父的話:
2nd Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday) - Year C 3rd April 2016
First Reading ACTS 5:12-16
The faithful all used to meet by common consent in the Portico of Solomon. No one else ever dared to join them, but the people were loud in their praise and the numbers of men and women who came to believe in the Lord increased steadily. So many signs and wonders were worked among the people at the hands of the apostles that the sick were even taken out into the streets and laid on beds and sleeping-mats in the hope that at least the shadow of Peter might fall across some of them as he went past. People even came crowding in from the towns round about Jerusalem, bringing with them their sick and those tormented by unclean spirits, and all of them were cured.
The word of the Lord
Responsorial Psalm PS 117
(R.) Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his love is everlasting.
1. Let the sons of Israel say: ‘His love has no end.’ Let the sons of Aaron say: ‘His love has no end.’ Let those who fear the Lord say: ‘His love has no end.’ (R.)
2. The stone which the builders rejected has become the corner stone. This is the work of the Lord, a marvel in our eyes. This day was made by the Lord; we rejoice and are glad. (R.)
3. O Lord, grant us salvation; O Lord grant success. Blessed in the name of the Lord is he who comes. We bless you from the house of the Lord; the true God is our light. (R.)
Second Reading APOCALYPSE 1:9-13,17-19
My name is John, and through our union in Jesus I am your brother and share your sufferings, your kingdom, and all you endure. I was on the island of Patmos for having preached God’s word and witnessed for Jesus; it was the Lord’s day and the Spirit possessed me, and I heard a voice behind me, shouting like a trumpet, ‘Write down all that you see in a book.’ I turned round to see who had spoken to me, and when I turned I saw seven golden lamp-stands and, surrounded by them, a figure like a Son of man, dressed in a long robe tied at the waist with a golden girdle.
When I saw him, I fell in a dead faint at his feet, but he touched me with his right hand and said, ‘Do not be afraid; it is I, the First and the Last; I am the Living One. I was dead and now I am to live for ever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and of the underworld. Now write down all that you see of present happenings and things that are still to come.’
The word of the Lord
Gospel Acclamation
Alleluia, alleluia! You believe in me, Thomas, because you have seen me; happy those who have not seen me, but still believe! Alleluia!
Gospel JOHN 20:19-31
In the evening of that same day, the first day of the week, the doors were closed in the room where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews.
Jesus came and stood among them. He said to them, ‘Peace be with you,’ and showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were filled with joy when they saw the Lord, and he said to them again, ‘Peace be with you.
‘As the Father sent me, so am I sending you.’ After saying this he breathed on them and said: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained.’
Thomas, called the Twin, who was one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. When the disciples said, ‘We have seen the Lord’, he answered, ‘Unless I see the holes that the nails made in his hands and can put my finger into the holes they made, and unless I can put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe.’
Eight days later the disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them. The doors were closed, but Jesus came in and stood among them. ‘Peace be with you’ he said. Then he spoke to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; look, here are my hands. Give me your hand; put it into my side. Doubt no longer but believe.’ Thomas replied, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him:
‘You believe because you can see me. Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe.’
There were many other signs that Jesus worked and the disciples saw, but they are not recorded in this book. These are recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing this you may have life through his name.
