Sacred Heart Parish Mildura 257—261 Eleventh Street Mildura Parish Office: 5021 2872 Fax: 5023 0337 Presbytery: 5022 9959 P.O. Box 10037 Mildura, Vic 3502 parish@sacredheartmildura.org.au Fr. Michael McKinnon PP Fr Gregory Tait www.ballarat.catholic.org.au/parishes Our Lady of Lourdes Werrimull St. Francis Xavier Elms Street, Irymple Parish Secretary: Carmel Russo The Ascension of the Lord / Year A 31st May and 1st June, 2014 Weekend Mass Times Sat: 6:00 pm Sun: 9:00 am, 5:00 pm Irymple: 8:30 am Werrimull 11:00 am (2nd Sunday each month & 5th Sunday) Weekday Masses If there is a Funeral Mass on Wed, Thurs, the advertised Mass will be cancelled. Tues: 7:00 pm Wed: 9:10 am Thurs: 9:30 am Fri: 5:40 pm Sat: 10:00 am Weekly Prayer Opportunities Prayer of the Church: Tues/Wed/Thurs/Fri. 8:40 am Rosary: Monday 5:00pm Scripture Reading: Thurs 10:30 am - 20 Beasy Court Christian Meditation: Sat 11:30 am Parish Prayer Room Charismatic Prayer Group : meet Tues 7:30pm in Church Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament: held the 1st Friday of each month in the Church from 12 – 5:00 pm Devotion Prayer and Exposition: Fri 3:00pm Reconciliation: Saturday 11:00 am to 12:00 noon RECENT DEATHS: Maria Piscioneri, Marjorie Nicholls,, Victor McTaggart ANNIVERSARIES: Saturday 6pm: Luka Marlais (first year anniversary) Antonino (Nino) Romeo (one month Mass), Alex Pytel Tuesday 7pm: Mavis Sullivan (birthday remembrance) Thursday 9.30am: Fr Stjepan Gnjec (first year anniversary) Friday 6pm: Pasquale Carfora (first year anniversary), William (Bill) Lakey (Only members of the deceased’s immediate family are permitted to arrange anniversary Masses.) PLEASE PRAY FOR THE SICK:: If you want a sick person prayed for, ask for their permission. Please let us know when to take their name off the list. Georgie Manning, Dorothy Norris, Fr Justin Woodford, Fr Denis Dennehy, Eileen Flanner, Eli Madden-Andrews, Kevin (Sid) Robinson, Vince Manno, Lucas Whitelegg, Shane Dickeson, Mary Baldock, Kel Townsend, Vince Alicastro, Peter Hutchinson, GOSPEL REFLECTION Loss is an integral part of the human experience, and death is generally the most painful experience of loss. Today’s Feast of the Ascension invites us to face the experience of loss in a transformative way. In Ordinary Time, we celebrate the life and ministry of Jesus. Over the period of Lent and Easter, we have been re-membering his death and resurrection. As we come towards the end of the Easter season, the liturgy draws us into another aspect of the Mystery, that of the presence and absence of the Risen One. There are two Lukan Ascension stories: one forms the conclusion to the gospel, Luke’s first volume, and the other opens the Acts of the Apostles, his second volume. Both stories presuppose a pre-scientific, three-tiered understanding of the structure of the world. In this ancient view, God is in the heavens above and the prophet Jesus, like the prophet Elijah of old, is caught up into God’s presence. The Holy Spirit will ‘descend’ upon God’s people and ‘clothe’ them with power to bring the gospel to the ends of the earth. The vertical (up and down) movement is balanced by a horizontal movement: Jesus’ family and followers who grieve the loss of their loved one are told not to keep looking up to the heavens. They have work to do: strengthened by his blessing, they are to stay in the city for the present and be empowered by the Holy Spirit to continue the prophetic ministry of Jesus, to be witnesses to his death and resurrection. They have to face the fact that the physical loss of Jesus means a new and different sort of presence and that they have a role to play in making him present in their world. Like us, the early Christians needed time to grasp each dimension of the one great Mystery of God’s life in their midst. The gospel details the content of the message to be proclaimed. It is a message of ‘repentance and forgiveness of sins’. Repentance in a gospel context calls for an expansion of one’s vision, a capacity to think beyond self and embrace the pain of the world in transformative ways. Forgiveness in a gospel context is both an assurance of God’s saving power (Luke 1:77) and an imperative for God’s people in their dealings with each other (Luke 6:37; 17:3, 4). - Veronica Lawson rsm SACRAMENTAL LIFE & LITURGY COMMUNITY LIFE & OUTREACH MASS COUNT During the weekend of May 31st/ June 1st, June 14th & 15th and June 21st & 22nd , we will be conducting the yearly Mass Count. WALNUT AVE BCC The next BCC meeting will be held at Rosemary Byrne’s home—8 Bingara Close, on Sunday 1st June at 12 midday. BYO finger food to share and own drinks. All welcome. BEREAVEMENT TEAM MEETING A Bereavement Team meeting will be held on Tuesday 3rd June, 9am at the Parish Office. ANOINTING MASS An Anointing Mass will be held on Thursday 5th June, 9.30am. All welcome. FIRST EUCHARIST Reminder that Dismissals for children preparing for their First Eucharist will take place this weekend. Please note there will be NO dismissals at the 5pm Sunday Masses. VOLUNTEERS REQUIRED The Parish is in need of volunteers who can help out in the following areas:  Baptism Preparation—4th Wednesday of each month on a rostered basis.  Baptism Sponsors—2nd & 4th weekend of each month— on a rostered basis.  Money Counters Volunteering strengthens our Parish Community and helps lessen the workload on those who are currently helping out. It is a rewarding and engaging experience Training can be provided. Please contact the Parish Office on 5021 2872 for further information. PARISH FINANCE Last week’s collections 1st Collection (support of Priests & Presbytery) $1445.95 2nd Collection $1320.80 Loose Plate $ 509.60 CENSUS CARDS Thank you to those families who have completed the Census cards. These cards will help in updating the Parish computer database. As some families may have been away the past weekends, Census Cards will still be available to complete. These will be located at each church entrance. Once completed please place in the collection tray as they come around during Mass. PARISH STEWARDSHIP PROGRAM As most of us are aware, this year we are renewing our Parish Planned Giving Program. From this point on, you will notice it referred to as the Parish Stewardship Program. The weekends dedicated to the Stewardship Program will be: July 12th /13th, July 19th/ 20th, July 26th /27th & August 2nd /3rd. REMINDER: An Information meeting for all Parishioners, topic: Parish Finances/Achievements/ Plans, will be held on Thursday 31st July 7pm in the Holland Room, Mercy Stadium. FEAST OF ST ANTHONY A Committee meeting for the Feast of St Anthony will be held on Thursday, 5th June, 7pm in the KSC Clubrooms. The Committee is in desperate need of new members. If you are able to be help, all interested and new members are most definitely welcomed. A huge thank you to those who came to the last meeting. All parishioners are invited to the Feast, on Sunday 15th June 9am, free pasta and BBQ brunch provided. Raffle tickets (limit 1000) are available at each Mass. All profits will go to the Monaghan Centre. AUSTRALIAN CATHOLICS Now available copies of the Winter 2014 Australia Catholics magazine. Great reading - Respecting human dignity—Exploring what it means to value each human life and Pixar’s social teaching. STEWARDSHIP CORNER — THOUGHTS ON GIVING “I am praying for them…..” John 17:9 Prayer—the foundation of our Faith and the foundation of Stewardship. Pray in good times and in bad. Prayer is always the first best option in any situation. Pray for friends and family and for those that may not treat you very well. Pray to give praise, to thank and to ask God for help. Also, pray to see what Gad wants us to do. 10TH NATIONAL eCONFERENCE The 10th National eConference will be held on Wednesday 11th June, 10am—3pm Hillman room. Topic—Pope Francis Modelling the Ministry of St Peter. To register please contact the Parish Office 5021 2872. Please see flyers on the noticeboard. BUS TRIP TO WERRIMULL Our next bus trip to Werrimull will be held on Sunday 29th June. We will celebrate Mass followed by a counter lunch at the pub. Please contact the Parish Office to make a booking on 5021 2872. NEWS FROM ST JOSEPH’S COLLEGE NEW FROM OUR PARISH SCHOOLS Dear members of the Sacred Heart Parish Community, As a part of Catholic Education Week, the College held its Open Day and visits from the grade fives of the four Catholic Primary Schools in the region. Both of these events took place on Wednesday. The Open day was an opportunity for us to showcase our programs and facilities and for families to “get a feel” for the College as they experienced (and in some cases tasted!) some of the programs on offer. I would like to thank all of the families who attended and who expressed interest in having their children come to the College at some time in the future. The Grade Five visits provided an opportunity for the students in the four Catholic Primary Schools in the region to experience a “day in the life of the College”. My hope is that they came home full of enthusiasm about what the future holds for them in secondary education and more specifically at St. Joseph’s College. Sr Karen Schneider RSM Visit to St Joseph’s College Last Tuesday, the College was blessed to be joined by Sr. Karen Schneider, a Mercy Sister and Medical Doctor who spend some valuable time with some of the Religious Education classes and teachers, talking about her mission work in Peru to bring medical care to impoverished children. Catholic Education Week Last Friday the 23rd of May I had the pleasure to attend the Ballarat Catholic Education Week launch, along with Deputy Principals Mr Kluske and Dr Finn, which included a Mass and Dinner recognising those staff who have contributed 30 years to Catholic Education in our Diocese. Each year as part of that celebration a past students from a school within the Diocese is invited to be the guest speaker on the night. This year the guest speaker was a former St Joseph’s College, Student and one of our Inspiring Alumni recipients from two years ago – Sabra Lane. Sabra she is currently the ABC’s Chief Political reporter on the ABC’s 7.30 Sabra spoke beautifully for about 20 minutes about her journey and she spoke very fondly of her time at St. Joseph’s College back in the mid 1980’s and of the teachers, who guided, inspired and supported her, highlighting the enormous influence teachers have on students. Kind regards, Mr Anthony Banks—Principal SACRED HEART PRIMARY SCHOOL Dear School Families and Friends, A happy Catholic Education Week (CEW) to all! The theme for CEW 2014 is ‘Fullness of life for all’, and you may have read more about this, and the Diocesan’s Vision in the Ms Audrey Brown’s (CEOB Director) CEW letter as part of Sunraysia Catholic Schools’ CEW promotion in last Saturday’s ‘Sunraysia Daily’ (please let us know if you would like a copy of this). The theme is most suitable to Ms Cathy Rowles who celebrated her 30 years of service to Catholic Education last Friday, as she has committed herself along with others in Catholic Education of creating the realisation of ‘Fullness of life for all’. This morning we had a very meaningful and fantastic Mass to celebrate CEW with the school communities of St Paul’s, St Joseph’s Red Cliffs and Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Merbein Primary Schools. We welcomed them back to SHPS for morning tea and recess. Tomorrow we have the Sacred Heart Primary School (SHPS) Open Day on Thursday 29th May. Classes will be ‘open’ from 9.00am to 12.00pm and tours will be occurring at 9.30am and 12.00pm. Please share this information with anyone who may be enquiring about SHPS, and ask them to contact the School Office for further information. We ask current SHPS families who have a child to begin Prep in 2015, to please come in to the Office and collect an enrolment package. Also tomorrow we have our elected senior student leaders participating in GRIP Student Leadership Program as part of developing their leadership skills. We look forward to hearing their feedback from this day. Please mark on your calendars the Sacred Heart Feast Day on Friday 13th June and more detailed information will follow about the arrangements, activities etc for the day. Well done to the SHPS School Choir on their performance at assembly last week and we wish them good luck for the Eisteddfod on Friday morning. It was great to see the AFL return last week! Have a great week. THE MONAGHAN CENTRE Brochures promoting the Monaghan Centre are available. This project will be officially launched on the weekend of the 7 th & 8th of June. Although the Monaghan Centre is seen as something apart from the Planned Giving Program due to the fact that we will be targeting benefactors beyond our regular supporters, nevertheless, a proportion of the repayment of the loan required to complete the construction will be reduced through our Planned Giving contribution. For this reason, the Monaghan Centre launch and the Planned Giving Program will be overlapping to some extent. Towards the end of May, we will be presented with more information preceding the official launch on the second weekend of June. Our plan is to have this Centre completed by the end of our current year. Des Lowry—Principal ST PAULS PRIMARY SCHOOL Dear St Paul’s families and friends, Welcome to this week’s news. Wednesday we celebrated our Catholic Education Week Mass at Sacred Heart Church. It was wonderful to see all the children of our Catholic schools gathered in God’s house celebrating the Eucharist. Afterwards we shared a morning tea back at Sacred Heart Primary School which allowed our children to play and enjoy each other’s company. An open day was held on Thursday. It was wonderful to see so many people showing an interest in our school. The Sacred Heart Parish is working very hard to commence the building of the Monaghan Centre at Sacred Heart Church. As a school of the Sacred Heart Parish we are going to assist through some fundraising. The new centre will greatly benefit our parish and school community for many years to come. I look forward to your support. On Thursday our senior student leaders attended the GRIP Student Leadership Conference. This was an excellent opportunity to learn more about leadership and to develop the skills to become great leaders amongst their peers. On Monday our Breakfast Club celebrates its first birthday. We would like to thank our Breakfast Sponsors for contributing to this worthwhile program. Keep the faith! - Vince Muscatello—Principal Our Parish Schools Our Parish Vision “Our Parish is a Eucharistic Community united by our faith in Jesus Christ. We work together in the power of the Holy Spirit to spread the good news of God’s Kingdom.” Sacred Heart Primary School Principal: Des Lowry 5023 1204 St Paul’s Primary School Principal: Vince Muscatello 5023 4567 St Joseph’s Secondary College Principal: Anthony Banks 5018 8000 31st May & 1st June 7th & 8th June THIS WEEK’S READINGS NEXT WEEK’S READINGS First Reading: Acts 1:1-11 Resp Psalm: Ps 46:2-3, 6-9. R. v. 6 Response: God Mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord. Second Reading: Eph 1:17-23 Gospel: Mt 28:19, 20 First Reading: Acts 2:1-11 Resp Psalm: Ps 103:1, 24, 29-31, 34. R. v. 30 Response: Lord, send out your Spirit and renew the face of the earth. Second Reading: 1 Cor 12:3-7, 12-13 Gospel: Jn 20:19-23 EUCHARIST MINISTERS EUCHARIST MINISTERS SATURDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY 6PM 9AM 5PM 6PM 9AM 5PM 7 Ministers required 7 Ministers required 5 Ministers required 7 Ministers required 7 Ministers required 5 Ministers required Robert Symons Narie Lewis Tony Finn Leo Kearney Lisa Cirillo Sander Walker Katy Quinlan Philip Opie Melanie Ransome Ellen Frauenfelder Katalina Mafi Mario Zema Jen Ditchfield Sonia Opie Bill Dolence Maria Cirillo Aloisia Mafi Josie Zema Margrett Gilson Catherine McErvale Sue Hermans Maria Capogreco Ross Tongue Joyce Ribarits Brian Weightman Elvira Mazza Danielle Mazzini Lorraine Gooch Talia Faingaanuku Clem Carlucci Trish McNamara Anau Paseka Greg Johnson Anne-Maree Greville Michael Faingaanuku Morris Henderson Jill Joslyn Margaret Sheahan Maureen Speed MUSIC MUSIC M Hammond Italian Choir Youth Mass J Ljubic First Eucharist First Eucharist M Sullivan N Armsden M Guthrie J Macri Filipino Group All Leader welcome ALTAR SERVERS 2-3 Servers required Please volunteer 2-3 Servers required Please volunteer ALTAR SERVERS 2-3 Servers required Please volunteer 2-3 Servers required Please volunteer Sr Rosemary Barb Bunting Jen Ditchfield COUNTING TEAM 7 BRIAN BLEESER 5021 1828 Mary Jackson Please volunteer Lyn Welsh Tony Finn COUNTING TEAM 8 TREVOR AUST 5023 6597 IRYMPLE - SUNDAY READER Please volunteer 2-3 Servers required READERS READERS Katy Quinlan 2-3 Servers required EUCHARIST MINISTER Margaret Hill IRYMPLE - SUNDAY READER David Nicholls EUCHARIST MINISTER Ken Knight