OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY PARISHOUR LADY OF THE ROSARY PARISHOUR LADY OF THE ROSARY PARISH

3rd Sunday of Lent Year B Cycle l 8 March 2015

Parishioners are invited to a Parish BBQ next Sunday 15 March after 9:30am Mass. Cost $7.50 includes morning tea, coffee, lunch, fruit juice and wine!

Please pay at the parish office before Friday 13 March for catering purposes. The BBQ will be held at the Muldoon Room and canteen.

Don’t miss out on this opportunity for fun, food and friendship. All welcome!

Parish BBQ

Jesus Understands Well Our Human Nature

Common during this season of Lent are retreats and recollections. Our commemoration of the suffering and death of Jesus touches, it seems, a unique spot in our human hearts that are usually easily moved by the sight of pain and sorrow. We slow down, and we take time to reflect on the great love manifested in the unimaginable and ignominious passion of Jesus. Like-wise, we take time to consider: How have our lives - both personal and communitarian - expressed our appreciation and gratitude in exchange for Jesus’ sacrifice? Lent thus also becomes an interior journey into our humanity.

In the First Reading, we are reminded of the Com-mandments God gave to Moses. The words of the Law make us realise: God did not mean the law to be a burden, but a ‘tutor’ or a ‘pedagogue’ (cf Gal 3:24). God’s law and commandments are a first stage in God’s plan to rescue man. God’s law and command-ments are then meant to be holy, spiritual, and good.

Paul teaches that the special function of the law is to guide human nature to goodness by disclosing and denouncing sin in all its forms. Along this line, the law may be enslaving in that it may overwhelm us with lessons on how weak and broken our human nature is.

The law tends to condemn us!

Hence, God sent his Son Jesus. The cross of Jesus is the fullness of God’s plan to reach out to us. The cross may appear as a stumbling block or a scandal (Second Reading). This is so because when we simply focus on the suffering and death of Jesus on the cross, we can-not but ask the philosophical question: ‘Can God die on the cross?’ However, for us who believe and seek God, the cross of Jesus is a lesson of God’s great love… a love that gives all amidst human sins and cruelty. Hence, Paul proclaims: ‘The weakness of God [the death of God] is stronger than human strength.’

In the Gospel, Jesus ‘cleanses’ the temple of Jerusalem. Jesus is not just interested in cleansing and restoring order to the physical temple of historic Jerusalem. Jesus is interested in resurrecting the temple of our human nature. His human body that will be put to death… then raised up on the third day… is the ‘firstborn,’ the prototype of what God wants to do with our own chaotic and crowded human nature. Beautifully, John the evangelist declares: Jesus ‘did not need anyone to testify about human nature. He himself understood it well.’

365 Days With the Lord Fr Gil Alinsangan SSP

The year of consecrated lifeThe year of consecrated lifeThe year of consecrated life Page

2

Quote

for the

Week

Don’t ever be afraid to admit you were

wrong, it is like saying you are

wiser today than yesterday.

Bible Café

The Gospel

of Luke

A great series with scripture scholar Frances Hogan Wednesdays

10:30-11:30am (15mins later in Lent)

& 7-8pm in the Muldoon Room.

Meek

Because Jesus once described himself as ‘meek and humble of heart’ (Mt 11:29), a lot of Christians see him as some kind of unassertive, weak-kneed pushover. And countless images and statues of him, which present him as an asexual sissy, sadly reinforce this wrong impression. But today’s gospel episode should dispel these misleading images. Jesus was not a softy. Sometimes he could experience very strong emotions - anger in particular - and express them unequivocally. This might be shocking for some Christians, who automatically associate anger and sin, as if feeling anger were itself sinful. But anger is not a sin. It is a God-given passion intended for various purposes: self-defense, protection of others, defense of the weak, service of justice, and so forth. What can be sinful is the excessive or inappropriate expression of anger.

In the present case, what caused Jesus’

Congratulations

Fr Kelly

on the occasion of

your

57th Anniversary

of

Ordination

8 March 2015

Remember Project Compassion this Lent

In praying to God we must listen

In a conversation, if you are the wisest, it makes sense for you to do most of the talking. If the other person is wiser, it makes sense for you to do most of the listening. The wiser the other is, the more listening you want to do. Well, prayer is conversation with God, and it makes no sense for us to do most of the talking. We ought to be listening most of the time.

But, you may object, we cannot hear God’s voice as we can hear the voice of another human being. True, but we can hear God’s voice in other ways. We hear him in nature, which is his art. We hear him in his providential directing of our lives, and in the lessons in human history, and in the ‘still, small voice’ of our conscience, God’s interior prophet. We hear him loud and clear in Scripture, his inspired Word deliberately given to us. One way of praying is listening to God’s voice in Scripture, reading Scripture as God’s Word - which is exactly what it is!

And the best listening, the listening that gets the closest to God’s heart, the listen-ing that hears the most total revelation of God, is listening to Christ, God incarnate, God in the flesh, ‘very God of very God.’ ‘The Word of God’ means the Bible only secondarily; primarily it means Christ. In the words of the Catechism, Christ is ‘the

Listen to Pray

anger was the fact that the Temple was used for commercial purposes by the chief priests instead of being used as a house of prayer. Jesus was offended by this abuse. Not that he was particularly pre-occupied with his Father’s dignity, for he knew that our sins cannot ‘offend’ God personally. What ‘offends’ God is the fact that we act against our own good or the good of someone else. In the case at hand, the abuse committed by the chief priests deprived the people of an adequate place to pray. How could visitors to the Temple find an appropriate atmosphere for inner recollection with all these financial transac-tions taking place all around them? It is to protect them and their prayer life that Jesus reacts with such passion. The chief priests are spiritually harming a lot of people by their Temple business. That is what ‘offends’ Jesus and provokes his anger.

365 Days With the Lord Fr Nil Guillemette SJ

Father’s one, perfect, and unsurpassable Word. In him he has said everything; there will be no other word than this one. (CCC 65) Praying by reading the Gospels prayerfully and ‘listeningly’ is one of the very best ways to pray.

We also need to hear what God says to us at each moment of our lives. This is a hab-it we gradually develop, for God’s voice is ‘a still, small voice’. But he promised that we would learn to recognise it: ‘The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name… and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.’ (Jn 10:3-4)

How do we listen to his voice? With the ear of our heart. With love. Love has ears, as love has eyes. Just be there, and love him, and let him love you.

What will happen then? What will we hear? Let God take care of that. Seek only him, do not use him as a means to seek any other end. He is not your Santa, he is your Saviour. I cannot tell you what he will give you, except for one thing; he will give you himself. He will give you more of himself the more you want him, that is, the more you love him. He wants to pour infinite riches into your soul; prayer is a way of opening up your soul so that more of God can enter.

Peter Kreeft PhD

Congratulations

Frank & Nina

Grech

on the occasion of your

45th Wedding

Anniversary

7 March 2015

Page 3 THE MONTH OF ST JOSEPHTHE MONTH OF ST JOSEPHTHE MONTH OF ST JOSEPH

This week we would like

to thank Marj Wiley

for many years in our music

ministry playing the organ.

Thank you Marj!

International Day of Women - 8 March

Stations of the

Cross

Wednesdays in Lent 9:30am

(after 9am Mass)

St Peter’s College Information Evening An information evening for Year 7 enrol-ments for 2016 is being held on Monday 16 March. Sessions run every half hour from 4pm to 6pm in the College Hall, 84 Gavenlock Rd Tuggerah. Enq: 4351 2344 or stpeters@dbb.catholic.edu.au

Reflection Evening for Priesthood An invitation for men who are interested in discerning vocation to the priesthood will be held at Holy Name Church 35 Billyard Avenue Wahroonga Thursday 12 March 5:30pm. Enq: Fr Paul Durkin 9484 1427.

William Parker’s Niche Blessing

Bill Parker’s inurnment and niche blessing will be held on Saturday 14 March at 11am. For those who were unable to attend the funeral due to the short notice you are most welcome to attend.

20 Day Pilgrimage

Fr Dariusz of St Patrick’s East Gosford is leading a pilgrimage to Poland, Prague, Vienna and Budapest. Departs Wednes-day 8 July returns Monday 27 July. $6,600pp twin share. Enq: 4325 1042.

Please Note

More Lenten Suggestions

Take a walk with one of your family members one-on-one. Or work on a fun project together. Spend time connect-ing and sharing joy.

Participate in ‘The Stations of the Cross for Families’ and reflect as a family on how each of The Stations can be applied to our daily lives. (Download from www.dbb.org.au/family)

Practice hospitality by welcoming a

friend, relative, co-worker or neighbour to your table for a simple meal today or a chat over tea or coffee.

Pick out one snippet of Scripture or part of the Mass and think about it through the week. Invite your children to do the same.

Find ways to compliment/express gratitude for every one of your family members.

Sing With Us

Do you enjoy community singing (no special talent needed) and if so, would you like to join a small group of people on the 2nd and 4th Monday of each month

from 10-11am entertaining the dementia residents at The Lodge, Nareen Gardens?

Please contact Margaret Kirkham for more information 4333 8063.

equality, empowerment of women, wom-en’s full enjoyment of human rights, the eradication of poverty and the elimination of violence against women and their chil-dren are essential to economic and social development. It also stresses the vital role of women as agents of development.

For more info: www.un.org/en/events/womensday/

International Women’s Day is a time to reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their countries and communities.

This year’s theme, ‘Equality for women is progress for all’ emphasises how gender

Faith & Families Forum

All are invited to a family evangelisation forum on Thursday 26 March 8:45am-3:30pm in the Parish Centre.

The work of evangelisation begins within our own families – in our homes – and also within the spiritual family, our parish. The purpose of this Forum is to explore together how parishes do/can support families in their calling to live, pass on and share their faith. The day will feature input

from Dr Aoife McGrath along with a variety of workshop streams highlighting specific ministry areas.

The keynote address will take a closer look at what Pope Francis has called ‘the art of accompaniment’ (Evangelii Gaudium).

For more information contact Janette Davidson on 0409 074 908 or email at janette.davidson@dbb.org.au

Lenten

Adoration

All Saturdays in Lent in the Prayer Room following 9am Mass and

continuing through the day until Benediction at 5:30pm.

All welcome!

1300PRIEST

(1300 774 378)

If you need a priest in an emergency and cannot reach the parish number (4332 2216) call 1300PRIEST for

assistance.

Serving the Catholic Community of The Entrance and extending the Kingdom of God

PARISH PRIEST & DEAN Fr Bill Stevens ASSISTANT PRIEST Fr Shaju John OSH PASTORAL COORDINATOR Anne Allen Office Hours Monday-Friday 9.30-5.00pm Postal Address PO Box 189 THE ENTRANCE 2261 Street Address 239-243 The Entrance Rd Tel 4332 2216 Fax 4333 5344 Email info@ourladyoftherosary.org.au Website www.ourladyoftherosary.org.au

PROPERTY MANAGER Michael de la Motte Tel 4334 7600 (BH)

GIFT CENTRE Sunday 9:00am - 9:30am & 10:30am - 11:00am Tuesday-Friday 9:30am - 1:30pm Tel/Fax 4332 5997

OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY PRIMARY SCHOOL Tel 4332 5594 Fax 4334 5599 ST PETER’S CATHOLIC COLLEGE Tel 4351 2344 Fax 4351 2965

THE ENTRANCE PARISH DIOCESE OF BROKEN BAY

Mass & Devotions in Ordinary Time

Liturgy of the Hours Saturday 8:40am

Rosary Monday-Thursday 8:35am Friday 11:20am Saturday 9:30am

Cenacle Wednesday 9:30am

Christian Meditation Group Friday 10:30am Muldoon Room

Sunday Masses Saturday Vigil 6:00pm Sunday 8:00am & 9:30am

Weekday Masses Monday -Thursday 9:00am Friday 11:45am

Saturday 9:00am

Sacrament of Reconciliation Saturday 9:30am & 5:00pm

Our Lady of the Rosary

GIFT

CENTRE For all your devotional needs...

Keep Us In Your Prayers

Recently Deceased: Patrick Rooney, Fr Vince Pedemont, Heather Wise, Gloria Fitzgerald, John Jenkins, Maryanne Madden, Michael Comensoli, Eamon Egan, Marie Davis, Bernard Bond.

Funeral: The funeral of Fr Vince Pedemont was held during the week. Please pray for Fr Vince and his family.

Anniversaries: Terence Rayner, Barry de Courcey.

Remembrances: Bruce Parry, Beryl White, Nora O’Leary, Jean Workman, Col McLaurin, Dorothy Cribb, Gloria Shackleton, Jean Beaton, Bruce Evers, Mary & Joe Pace, Noeleen Corrigan, Maurice Cramsie, Alice Minogue, Gabrielle Ramondo, Tricia Malone, John Tyrrell, William Hall and the Holy Souls in Purgatory.

Families: Bouchet.

Sick: Susann Magri, Susie Reyes, Lyn Moon, Roger & Grant Thomas, Fay Gallagher, Cecily Bastick, Margaret Pizzuto, Sr Mar-garet Bubb, Stan Johnson, Mary Suckling, Taylor Grady, Michael Sullivan, Gaye Llyk, Carol Jones, John Verhoeven Snr, Mary Camil-leri, Julie Webb, Patricia O’Brien, Dorothy Patterson, Brian Crowe, Mary Hughes, Pat O’Hara, Antoinette Grech, Bernie Lowe, Sue Batten, Sue MacSween, Elaine Keyte, Lisa Hennessey, Hayley Hartas, Brian & Valerie Staggs, Zoe Kidd, Jenny Carter, Linda Read, Christopher Forster, Grace Miller, Delma Clarke, Debbie Simonds, Jenny Rist.

Welcome Newly Baptised: Eila Drew.

Reconciliation Programme: We pray for the children & their families who are preparing for First Reconciliations.

3rd Sunday of Lent Year B I

Today’s Readings: Ex 20:1-17 1 Cor 1:22-25 Jn 2:13-25

Entrance Antiphon

My eyes are always on the Lord, for he rescues my feet from the snare. Turn to me and have mercy on me, for I am alone and poor.

Responsorial Psalm

Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.

Gospel Acclamation

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ, king of endless glory!

God loved the world so much, he gave us his only Son,

that all who believe in him might have eternal life.

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ, king of endless glory!

Communion Antiphon

The sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for her young: by your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. Blessed are they who dwell in your house, for ever singing your praise.

We have lovely gifts and cards for all occasions. The Gift Centre specialises in gifts for Reconciliation, Eucharist and Confirmation, as well as Baptisms and all the Sacraments. Come in for a browse.

You’ll find us behind the Church carpark, corner of Ashton and Copnor Avenues.

Open:

Sunday 9am-9:30am & 10:30-11am

Tuesday-Friday 9:30am-1:30pm Phone/Fax 4332 5997

Pearly

Gates