St Christopher’s Cathedral Parish, Canberra (including St Peter Chanel’s Church, Yarralumla)

27th Sunday

in Ordinary Time

Year B

3/4 October 2015

Archdiocese of Canberra & Goulburn

Archbishop: Most Rev Christopher Prowse DD STD

Administrator & Vicar for Education: Msgr John Woods

Vicar General: Fr Tony Percy

Assistant Priest: Fr Varghese Vavolil

St Peter Chanel’s Church: Fr Peter L’Estrange SJ

Sunday Mass St Christopher’s

Cnr Canberra Ave & Furneaux

Street, Forrest (Manuka) ACT

Sunday: 8.00am, 11.00am,

5.30pm

St Peter Chanel’s Cnr Weston & Loch Streets,

Yarralumla ACT

Saturday: 6.00pm Vigil

Sunday: 9.30am

Weekday Mass St Christopher’s Monday to Saturday: 12.15pm

Tuesday to Friday: 6.45am,

St Peter Chanel’s Tuesday: 5.30pm

Thursday: 10.00am (9.30am

Adoration): Anointing Mass first

Thursday of the month.

Reconciliation

St Christopher’s Thursday: 6.00 - 6.30pm

Saturday: 11.00am - 12noon

St Peter Chanel’s Tuesday: 6.00 - 6.30pm

Saturday: 5.15 - 5.45pm ____________________________________________________

Baptisms St Christopher’s: Second and

fourth Sundays, 12.30pm

St Peter Chanel’s: Third Sun-

day, 10.30am

Weddings St Christopher’s: Saturday

1.30pm, 3.00pm and 4.30pm

St Peter Chanel’s:

By arrangement

Entrance Antiphon: Within your will, O Lord, all things are established, and there is

none that can resist your will. For you have made all things, the heaven and the

earth, and all that is held within the circle of heaven; you are the Lord of all.

Responsorial Psalm: May the Lord bless us all the days of our lives.

Gospel Acclamation: Alleluia, alleluia! If we love one another, God will live in us in perfect love. Alleluia!

Communion Antiphon: The Lord is good to those who hope in him, to the soul that seeks him.

Respect Life Sunday Celebration Mass : At today’s 11am Mass, Archbishop Christo-pher Prowse will celebrate the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn's inaugural Respect Life Sunday Mass. He will especially welcome those who work at the coal-face in caring and advocating for human life at its most vulnerable stages. Enquiries to: lara.kirk@catholiclife.org.au. It is fortuitous, that we celebrate Respect Life Sun-day on the Feast of St Francis of Assisi, the man who renewed the Church with an awareness of the dignity of all life, especially humanity created in God’s image and lifeness. Pope Francis has drawn on his charism to promote an ‘integral ecology’ (cf. ‘Laudato Si’) which acknowledges God as the creator and sustainer of all life. I will be especially mindful of this intention when gathered in Assisi on this day with St Clare’s Pilgrimage. Msgr John Fr. Martins Obo Aloga: My Little Story My coming to the Archdiocese of Canberra-Goulburn is courtesy of the long term re-lationship between my Bishop in Nigeria, Michael and the Archbishop Christopher. Thanks to the two Bishops and their respective Dioceses. Thanks to Msgr. John Woods and Fr. Varghese for their fraternity. I appreciate the faithful of St Chris-topher’s Cathedral, Forrest, from the office personnel to the presbytery and from the sacristy assistants to the pews. Everyone on the list is awesome! I was born into a Christian family. At the age of five, I find myself playing the mass using Coke and Biscuits with my senior brother who acted as priest and I, the altar server, in imitation of the Irish priest in our local parish then. This inspired me to the priesthood. Thank God, today I am one. I’m enthusiastic about my priesthood and I have great passion for the celebration of the Holy Eucharist (the mass), and generally, the celebration of the sacraments of the Church through which we experience the mysteries of Christ and our salvation. My hobbies are: listening to people, news, music; learning new things, reading, writing, teaching (including catechesis), current affairs, sports and team work. I enjoy cycling even though; I’m yet to have a bicycle. I play lounge tennis and participate in track events. What else do you need to know? No worries mate, you will get to know soon, just tell me your name first!

PARISH OFFICE

Add: 52-54 Franklin Street, Forrest ACT 2603

Mailing add: PO Box 3012 Manuka ACT 2603

Phone: (02) 6234 5546

Email: st.chris@cg.catholic.org.au

Web: www.stchristophers-act.info

Office hours: Monday to Friday, 8.30am-

12.15pm, 12.45pm-4.30pm

Parish Secretary: Michelle O’Connor

Post Mass Cuppa: After 11am Mass at St Christopher’s, 25 Oct. All welcome.

PARISH & OTHER NEWS

PARISH MINISTRIES Parish Pastoral Council

Parish Finance Council Msgr John Woods

Director of Music Jaki Kane

Liturgy Rosters Edwina & Mark Hyman

School of Religion Muriel Joseph

Accounts Karina Widjaja

Maintenance Manager Pieter van Gent

St Vincent de Paul

Assisting people in need and combatting social injustice in our

community

Young Adults Animating parish and Archdioce-san life through prayer and event

participation

Perpetual Novena to Mary Wednesday 6.00pm SCC

Good Shepherd Prayer Group Wednesday at 7pm SPC

Legion of Mary Sharing the faith through charita-ble works and Marian spirituality

Christian Meditation Saturday at 5.00pm SPC

__________________________

Other Communities

African Community

Third Sunday of the month at 11.30am SPC

Spanish Community First Sunday of the month at

11.30am SPC Syro-Malabar Community

Sundays 5.30pm SPC

For details of any of the

above, contact the Parish Office.

Prayer for the Synod

on the Family

4-25th OCTOBER 2015

Jesus, Mary and Joseph, in you we contemplate

the splendour of true love, to you we turn with

trust. Holy Family of Nazareth, grant that our

families too may be places of communion and

prayer, authentic schools of the Gospel and

small domestic churches. Holy Family of Naza-

reth, may families never again experience

violence, rejection and division: may all who

have been hurt or scandalised find ready com-

fort and healing. Holy Family of Nazareth, may

the approaching Synod of Bishops make us

once more mindful of the sacredness of the

family, and its beauty in God’s plan. Jesus,

Mary and Joseph, graciously hear our prayer.

Amen.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to

the Holy Spirit: As it was in the beginning, is

now and ever shall be, world without end.

Amen.

Synod Prayer You are invited to recite the prayer

below for the October Synod on Mar-

riage and the Family. As you do so, re-

member your own family and given

thanks for them. For some that will be

very easy, for others not so.

The Parish Office phone number is 62345546 (bh)

The Priests residence or Presbytery number is 62959555 (af)

POSITIONS WANTED: Recently arrived committed parishioners and parents of school age

children are seeking positions to utilise their tertiary qualifications and acquired skills in

Human Resources (husband) and Administration (wife). Enquiries to Msgr John (62345546)

Mental Health Week This week, 4-10 October is Mental Health Week in Australia. It concludes with World Mental Health Day next Saturday, 10 Octo-ber. One in five Australians will experience metal illness this year. We are called to look after our own mental health and see that those suffering mental illness do not feel isolated. The Australian Catholic Bish-ops Commission for Pastoral Life has re-leased the following prayer:

Blessed are those who don’t have it all together

Blessed are those who have run out of strength, ideas, will power, resolve or

energy Blessed are those who ache because of how severely out of whack the world is Bless are those who on a regular basis

have a dark day in which despair seems to be a step behind them wherever they go

Blessed are you, for God is with you God is on your side, God meets you in that

place.

(Jonathon Blundell)

Liturgy Training

New Lectors and Eucharistic Ministers are re-

quested to attend on the following training

sessions at St Christopher’s Cathedral:

Saturday 17 October:

Lectors — 2pm; Eucharistic Ministers—3pm

Wednesday 21 October:

Lectors—7pm; Eucharistic Ministers—8pm

THE CATHEDRAL PIETY STALL: open the 4th Sunday, 25th October (not the 3rd

Sunday) after the 11am Mass for purchases of religious items.

Dear Parishioners

Our Syro-Malabar Community in Canberra is

going to be established as a parish - St Alphonsa

Syro-Malabar Catholic, Parish, Canberra - under

the Syro-Malabar Eparchy of St Thomas, Mel-

bourne on this Sunday 4th Oct. On this signifi-

cant milestone of our community, we extend our

gratitude to St Christopher's parishioners and St

Peter Channel's Church community, Yarralumla

for their generous continuous support, helping

the community to grow.

God bless, Fr Varghese Vavolil

PARISH & OTHER NEWS

To mark Respect Life Sunday, the Catholic Archdiocese of Mel-bourne has produced helpful resources about end of life care including a video and other material which can be viewed and downloaded free from the Life, Marriage & Family Office website: www.cam.org.au/lifemarriagefamily Look for the Be Not Afraid button. Or for more information contact: (03) 9287 5587. Guinness & God - 6 October - ‘Individuality Versus The Com-mon Good’. Fr David Pascoe, the Dean of the Cathedral of St Stephen, Archdiocese of Brisbane, exploring the notion of indi-vidual freedom and how it relates to the common good. At King O’Malley’s Irish Pub, Civic. Dinner & live music from 6.30pm, talk starting at 7.30pm. For more info email youth_events@catholiclife.org.au or call 6163 4300. The Knights of the Southern Cross Canberra Branch (KSC) next meeting 11.00am – 1.00pm, 10 October 2015, Parish Cen-tre behind St Benedict’s Parish Church, Narrabundah. See the KSC website www.ksca.org.au for further information. All Catholic men are invited. Contact Bob Perkins on 6247 2977 or Doug Gaudencio 6169 6866. The Archdiocesan Commission for Women Anne Lanyon pre-sents ‘A Spirituality for the Whole World’. Anne is Deputy Di-rector of Sydney’s Columban Institute. She will examine our sacred responsibilities as stewards of God’s creation, now and into the future, and the Pope’s encyclical Laudato Si’. Please join us at the Parish Centre, Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Strangways St., Curtin on Wednesday evening 14 October at 7:30pm. Men and women are invited to attend. A $5 dona-tion would be appreciated to cover costs. Enquiries to Marga-ret Ryan 6231 0664 or 0417 418 838. Catholic Voice – The October edition of Catholic Voice is out now. Meet the Archdiocese’s three new priests from Nigeria; read about the Pope’s changes to the annulment process, Coo-ma’s productive Parish Assembly, and the Pearce parishioner beating the Irish at their own sport. Get your free copy at Mass this weekend. Retreat: Are we not worthy? 31 October - 1 November, Galong Retreat Centre. Are you feeling unloved by the church? Do you feel that Jesus has abandoned you? Then why not take some time out to reflect on your innate holiness and your relationship with the community of the church? Retreat Leader: Sr Carmel Pilcher. Cost $240. For more info and regis-tration: Matt Walsh, 0421 311 521, or matt.j.a.walsh@gmail.com.

International Day of the Girl Child – 11 October 2015. The

United Nations’ International Day of the Girl Child promotes

girls' human rights, highlights gender inequalities

that remain between girls and boys and addresses the various forms of discrimination and abuse suffered by girls around the world. • Over 60 million girls worldwide are forced into mar-riage before the age of 18 • 125 million girls and women worldwide have undergone female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) • 1.2 million children are being trafficked each year – many of these children are girls forced into sex trafficking • Pregnancy is the leading cause of death worldwide for women aged 15 to 19 • Literacy rates for girls in many countries re-main low – just 12% of Afghan women aged 15 and over are literate. For more information and resources please vis-it: http://www.un.org/en/events/girlchild/. For prayer and reflection resources please visit: http://opw.catholic.org.au/prayer-and-reflection/blog.html

Archbishop Christopher Prowse invites you to attend the Farewell Reception for Shawn van der Linden. Wednesday 14 October 2015 at 6.30pm at the Rheinberger Centre, cnr Wes-ton & Loch Streets, Yarralumla. RSVP essential to sandy.cassidy@catholiclife.org.au or 6163 4300, by Friday 9 October. Please advise dietary requirements.

2015 Blackfriars Lecture Series: Tuesday 20 October. Chief Executive Officer of the Truth, Justice and Healing Council, Mr Francis Sullivan will present the fourth lecture of the 2015 Blackfriars Lecture Series, which in 2015 focuses on the theme of children and families. The topic of the presentation will be: The Royal Commission and the unique challenges for the Catholic Church. 5:30pm for registration and refreshments, lecture 6pm - 7pm. Free. Venue: Room B10, Blackfriars Build-ing, ACU Canberra Campus, 127 Phillip Ave, Watson ACT RSVP: Friday 16 October to Mary Moran, (02) 6209 1129 or OCD.Canberra@acu.edu.au.

Merciful Love of the Lord: Saturday 31 October, join Arch-bishop Christopher Prowse and Father Ken Barker MGL for a day of teaching about the Merciful Love of the Lord. The Arch-bishop invites all Catholic Charismatic prayer groups and com-munities, and anyone who wants to deepen their faith in the Lord, to come to this inspiring day at the Conference Room, Rheinberger Centre, Weston St, Yarralumla ACT. 9am to 4pm, with Mass at 3pm. Entry is free. A collection will be taken to support the work of the CCR in this Archdiocese. To register for the day, please call Neda 0415 266 019, Sandra 0405 692 999, or Susanna 0419 902 293.

We pray for…

Those to be Married: Meagan Guascoine & Adam Brideson, Madeleine Aldred & Liam Gallagheer, Jason Borg & Marinella Pisk-

uloska, Terrance Foster & Sonia Brassil

Those to be baptised: Celeste Rubiano, Matthias Casdro Barragan

Those who are ill: David Cusack, Margaret Murray, Ernie Oxwell, Br Clem from St Clement’s, Galong, Anthony O’Connor, Michael

Leon, Peter Hill, Peter Roberts, Hugh Patton, Gilbert Ferguson, Cate Davis, Timothy Batinich, Margaret Butkus, Noel Honan

Anniversaries of death: William Boyle, Dorothy Whitfield, William Duffy, Victor Res, James Millwood, Alice Campbell, Phyllis Re-

gazzi, Kathleen Scott, Annie Kelly, Mick Enderby, Lillianna Fulop, Kath McIntosh

Recently deceased: Maria Tarlowski, Muslim Pilgrims who died at the Haji Mecca, Domenica Sergi, Guerino Belmonte, Eugenia

Grincelis, Ana Marko, Joe Croker, Maria Prostimo, Berenice Prior, Jim Phelan, Kim Flaherty, Brother Frank Flynn CSsR, Alfonso

Cadona, Francis Tankiang, Monica McKie, Eileen Rice, Ron Mills, Natale Bartone, Edie Fenney, Lachlan Pocierek, Lora Glasson,

First Reading Genesis 2:18-24 The Lord God said, 'It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helpmate.' So from the soil the Lord God fashioned all the wild beasts and all the birds of heaven. These he brought to the man to see what he would call them; each one was to bear the name the man would give it. The man gave names to all the cattle, all the birds of heaven and all the wild beasts. But no helpmate suitable for man was found for him. So the Lord God made the man fall into a deep sleep. And while he slept, he took one of his ribs and enclosed it in flesh. The Lord God built the rib he had taken from the man into a woman, and brought her to the man. The man exclaimed: 'This at last is bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh! This is to be called woman, for this was taken from man.' This is why a man leaves his father and mother and joins him-self to his wife, and they become one body. Second Reading Hebrews 2:9-11 We see in Jesus one who was for a short while made lower than the angels and is now crowned with glory and splendour because he submitted to death; by God's grace he had to experience death for all mankind. As it was his purpose to bring a great many of his sons into glory, it was appropriate that God, for whom everything exists and through whom everything exists, should make perfect, through suffering, the leader who would take them to their salvation. For the one who sanctifies, and the ones who are sanctified, are of the same stock; that is why he openly calls them brothers. Gospel Reading Mark 10:2-16 Some Pharisees approached Jesus and asked, 'Is it against the law for a man to divorce his wife?' They were testing him. He answered them, 'What did Moses command you?' 'Moses allowed us' they said 'to draw up a writ of dismissal and so to divorce.' Then Jesus said to them, 'It was because you were so un-teachable that he wrote this commandment for you. But from the beginning of creation God made them male and female. This is why a man must leave father and mother, and the two become one body. They are no longer two, therefore, but one body. So then, what God has united, man must not divide.' Back in the house the disciples questioned him again about this, and he said to them. 'The man who divorces his wife and mar-ries another is guilty of adultery against her. And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another she is guilty of adultery too.' People were bringing little children to him, for him to touch them. The disciples turned them away, but when Jesus saw this he was indignant and said to them, 'Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. I tell you solemnly, anyone who does not welcome the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.' Then he put his arms round them, laid his hands on them and gave them his blessing.

Readings of the Day - 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

St Christopher’s Cathedral Parish encompasses the areas of Barton, Causeway, Deakin, Forrest, Fyshwick, Griffith,

Kingston, Manuka, Parkes, Red Hill, Yarralumla

LITURGICAL MINISTRIES ROSTER

Lectors Extraordinary Ministers of Eucharist

Mass 3/4 Oct 10/11 Oct 3/4 Oct 10/11 Oct

6.00pm

(SPC)

Marg McKinnon

Frances Bulbrook

Judy Blundell

Tan Roberts

Mary Debus

Sue Buckingham

Margaret McKinnon

8.00am

(SCC)

Assigned

Phil Pocock

Mineke Peerboom

Assigned

Any available EMHC Phillip Pocock

9.30am

(SPC)

Gloria Osborne

Colliss Parrett

Therese Jordan

Lynn Chan

Any available EMHC Any available EMHC

11.00am

(SCC)

John Austen

Edwina Hyman

Gabrielle Wright Jacqueline Hipwell

Mark Hyman

Ceciley Matthews

Edwina Hyman

5.30pm

(SCC)

Robert Davies

Jacob Madden

YOUTH MASS Wilfred & Margaret

Lawrence

Mary Lou & Robert Davies

Helen Jacobs