December is here!

Secondary St ory Headline

December 1, 2007 Issue 6

Padua News The Padua News is the official quarterly Newsletter of St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, Cnr Exford & Wilson Roads Melton South, VIC 3338 Tel: 03-9747 9692 Fax: 03-9746 0422 Email: sapmssec@netspace.net.au

Parish Priest: Father Martin J Fleming

What does this mean? To some, it is holiday time! To others it is a time to cele-brate, to be thankful for all the achievements through-out the year, for all the joys and happiness that we have experienced. Yet to others, a time to heave a sigh of relief of the challenging year that we have survived, to reflect on the sad events that have occurred in our lives or a time to close an-other chapter of our lives. Some people take the op-portunity of this time of the year to sit and reflect and to make resolutions for the new year. Even though we all see De-cember in a different light, one thing is the same for all of us - December is the month of the birth of our Saviour! It is a time to get together with family and friends, to rejoice, to spread the message of love, peace and hope, to give, knowing that Jesus came into this world about two thousand years ago to save the world. It is a time to reach out to the poor and needy, to the less fortunate,

to the homeless and weary. What can we do? – say ‘I love you’ to all your loved ones, smile, smile a little more, laugh, laugh a little louder, sing a song, be a member of the church car-olers, wish a stranger “Merry Christmas”, give a gift to the poor, spend an hour to visit the aged home, read to the blind, write a letter to a friend whom you have not met for a long time, call some-one in a distant land to spread a word of cheer, invite a neighbour for a ‘barbie’, give up your seat in the train for someone you don’t know, smile and wish the stranger you meet as you walk along the street, thank the postman, volunteer in one of the par-ish’s many committees, take part in the activities held, get to know our fel-low parishioners better – all these little things we can do to spread the Christmas message. We hope we do not get sidetracked by losing our focus as we move into the year but, if we do, we look forward to renewing this

spirit in December in the following year. The Padua News Com-mittee would like to thank everyone for their contri-bution and support of this quarterly newsletter which has now gone into its sec-ond year of production. In 2008, we will be celebrating the silver jubilee anniver-sary of St. Anthony‘s parish in Melton South. We would like to work towards Father Martin’s vision of bigger, bumper issues in the coming year and with your support and contribu-tions, we can make this happen! Finally, we hope that you have enjoyed reading the Padua News as much as we have enjoyed compiling it for you. Blessed and Merry Christ-mas to all and a Happy New Year! Padua News Committee

Editorial Committee Dolores Turcsan Edwina La Rose Godwin Barton Lorraine Tellis Kim Barton If you are interested in being part of the Editorial Com-mittee, please contact any one of the committee mem-bers.

Thank you.

Issue 6 Page 2 Padua News

Getting to know ….

On the nineteenth of Sep-tember 2007, I boarded a plane with five of my school friends and my teacher Mr. Lee and headed off on a three week exchange program to In-dia. I went to Kottayam in Kerala. This is in the south west of India. We had an eleven hour stopover in Singapore where we went to Singapore zoo. There were many animals there and we got to see the ele-phants being washed. We had breakfast with the Orang Utans. My favourite animal was the Snow Leopard. I fell asleep on the plane to Cochin, in

India, but once I got there I was still tired. After sleeping at June’s house, (the principal of Pallikoo-dam School) we drove to Kottayam. We were taken to school and then our

host families took us to their home. We did many things at school, such as pot painting, tie-dying and cooking Mahogany cake and Banana toffee. As well as going to school, which included classes on Satur-day mornings, we went on day and overnight trips. We visited a coffee factory and saw how coffee is roasted and packed. They even gave us free samples to take home. We went to a petrol station and timber

In 2005, I had the wonder-ful opportunity to partici-pate in a two week pilgrim-age to the World Youth Day in Cologne, Germany. I traveled with a group of 250 youths from all around Australia. Our pilgrimage

commenced from Vienna, Austria on coaches, through the Czech Repub-lic and ending in Germany. Along the journey, we stopped and visited various religious sites and grand cathedrals. The highlight of

the trip however was the meeting with Pope Bene-dict in Cologne. An amaz-ing experience whereby the love of God was mani-fested not only in the 1.2

My Reflections on World Youth Day 2005

Continued on Page 4

Youth Exchange to India

yard that had a working elephant. The elephant handler brought him over to us and we each had a

ride on him. We nick-named him Stampy. On the last Saturday of my trip, my host family took me to the shrine of St. An-thony of Padua. It was very beautiful and I donated some money to charity. As soon as I went to India, I came back, I was away for three weeks, but it only felt like a couple of days. I was glad to see my family again. Submitted by: Michael La Rose

World Youth Day is the Catholic Church’s gathering for and with young people across the world are invited without discrimination, whilst the event itself celebrates the Catholic faith.

Padua News Issue 6 Page 3

On behalf of our Parish, we would like to thank Sister Mary for all that she has done at St. Anthony’s Parish. May the Lord continue to bless her with good health and happiness.

Beloved and loving friends at St. An-thony’s. It is with a heart full of gratitude that I write to tell you I am on the move in 2008, God willing. My life is one of faith, and after prayer, I believe I am being called to be a presence at the Parish of Numurkah. Since I came here 9 years ago, I have been very enriched by the acceptance, love and support I have experienced from the priests, sisters and parishioners. I carry you all in my heart and prayers. A very warm welcome awaits you anytime at 77 Saxto St, Numurkah. There is also a spare bed! May you all be abundantly blessed! Many thanks, Mary McArdle, RSJ

“Farewell” Sister Mary McArdle…...

A Christmas Prayer by Robert Louis Stevenson

Loving Father, Help us remember the birth of Jesus, that we may share

in the song of the angels, the gladness of the shepherds, and worship of the wise men.

Close the door of hate

and open the door of love all over the world.

Let kindness come with every gift and good desires

with every greeting. Deliver us from evil

by the blessing which Christ brings,

and teach us to be merry with clear hearts.

May the Christmas morning

make us happy to be thy children,

and Christmas evening bring us to our beds

with grateful thoughts, forgiving and forgiven,

for Jesus' sake. Amen.

http://www.dltk-holidays.com/xmas/

a_christmas_prayer.htm

Padua News Issue 6 Page 4

Submissions for next newsletter All Parishioners are wel-come to give their sugges-tions. If you have any arti-cle of interest for the next newsletter, please submit them to the Parish Office by February 1, 2008.

Editorial Policy The content of the articles contained herein may not necessarily reflect the official stance of the church or the committee and may differ from the opinion of the edi-tors. The Padua News is approved by Father Martin Fleming prior to printing. The editors and Father Martin reserves the right to edit all articles submitted. Articles may be reproduced with permission from the writer and editor.

For more information about the World Youth

Day 2008, contact

the Parish Office or John Scerri

Guidelines and

requirements of the home stay program are

available online at www.did08.com or by

speaking with the St Anthony’s Parish

Melbourne Stay Coordinator

John Scerri Ph 0411 989 008 or

03 9746 9856

million estimated people from all over the world (who left workers and help-ers, including police, as-tounded at the absence of even the slightest sign of violence or drug abuse, ex-claiming, “Where else in the world can we find young people like this?!”), but also in the message that the Holy Father gave us, which focused on the theme, “We have come to worship Him” which centers on the three Kings whose example we are called to follow by way of finding Christ, wor-shipping Him and allowing Him to send us back out to the world as witnesses to

His love. We also attended a meeting with 90,000 youths from the Neocate-chumenal Way and numer-ous cardinals and bishops (including our own George Pell) who gave a blessing to roughly 2,000 young men who felt the call to the priesthood and 1,500 young women called to be nuns. From this experience I can bear witness to the love that God has to his chil-dren, and it was an amazing experience to see so many young people worshiping God. The atmosphere was one of worship and praise,

and all were left awestruck by the sense of joy and communion we experi-enced. Pope Benedict XVI will be coming to Sydney next year for the World Youth Day 2008 and I am sure that it will be an amazing event. I strongly encourage our young people to attend be-cause I believe this is one experience that could change your life for the better. Submitted by: Nathan Antony

In the week leading up to World Youth Day 2008, Melbourne will host “Days in the Diocese” with an array of events that will inspire and engage thou-sands of people who will experience the “Living” church in action. The Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne has estimated that over 25,000 pilgrims from all over the world, will travel to Melbourne,

and join in our local World Youth Day celebrations. This is an exciting oppor-tunity for the youth of the world to join our local communities in prayer, celebration and to experi-ence our great hospitality in Australia’s most multi-cultural city. Families are being asked to open their homes and offer simple accommodation to these pilgrims as they make their way to Sydney to be with

the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI. Potential host families will be required to billet a mini-mum of two pilgrims, sup-plying bed and breakfast during one or both of the following periods:

5th – 9th July, 2008 9th – 14th July, 2008

See top left hand corner for contact details.

World Youth Day 2008 - Melbourne Stay - Billeting Program

Continued from page 2

Issue 6 Pullout 1 Page 1 Padua News

Issue 6 Pullout 1 Page 2 Padua News

A CELEBRATION OF LIFE...

Michael Joseph Portelli was born on the 30th of March 1946. He lived in Rabat, Malta where he com-pleted his schooling. He was one of 12 children. He has 5 brothers, 4 sisters and two other siblings who died at a young age. All his broth-ers and sisters live in Malta. As a child he helped his father in the fields and when he turned 17 he decided to come to Australia to look for a better future. He arrived in Australia in 1963 with his eldest brother Thomas. His brother de-cided to go back to Malta after two years. Michael decided to stay in Australia. Michael worked in the railways as a porter for 7 years, riding his horse to work every morning (but some-times he was dragged to work when the horse threw him off!!!). He married Rose on the 30th of May 1970 at St. Bernadette’s Church in North Sunshine. They then moved into their home in St. Albans in December 1970. During this time Michael worked at John Lysaght. Their first child, Pat-rick, was born on the 1st of Au gust 1971. Their second child,

Annmarie, was born on the 7th of October 1972. Over the years, Mi-chael changed jobs several times to enable him to adequately provide for his family. The week before Patrick was born, Michael changed jobs three times. He left the first job after one day, because he couldn’t stand the noise from the machinery. He then tried his hand at a printing company and gave that the flick after a week due to insufficient pay and overtime opportunities. He later worked at Massey Ferguson, Steelmark, Oper-ated the family Milk Bar, BGJ Steel, Airport Doors and finally at Colonial Weighing. He certainly enjoyed working with steel and was a very good welder and designer. He took pride in his work and al-ways liked a challenge. In 1985, Michael and his family moved to a farm in Melton South. This is where he continued to enjoy his gardening and looking after his farm animals including cows, os-triches, chickens, birds, dogs and cats. In July 1990, Michael lost his son Patrick after a very long illness.

This was devastating to the whole Family. It took Michael many years to overcome his grief and found it very difficult to accept Patrick’s death. Without Patrick, Michael’s life changed enormously. Patrick was almost 19 and at the age where father and son become best mates. Michael maintained close and regu-lar contact with his parents in Malta. His parents visited Australia in 1988. He was proud to show them his family’s achievements and showed them some of the Austra-lian highlights. His mother passed away in 1999 and his father in 2006. Michael was fortunate enough to visit Malta on several occasions throughout his life.

In July 2000, Michael’s daughter, Annmarie married Robert Zahra. Many of you were there on that special day and witnessed Michael walking Annmarie up the isle. Mi-chael was as proud as punch that day, I’m sure one of the happiest and memorable days in his life. In June 2004, Michael became a Nannu for the first time after Kyara

Michael Joseph Portelli RIP 9 October 2007

Continued on Page 2

Padua News Issue 6 Pullout 2 Page 1

A CELEBRATION OF LIFE...

was born. In March 2006 when his second grandchild, Kyle was born, Michael had already been fighting his battle with cancer for 4 months. When Annmarie and Robert were expecting their third child the doc-tors advised Michael that he may not live to see his third grandchild but he defeated the odds and lived not only to see Tymika Born on 30th July this year but he lived a further 2 months. He finally lost his battle on the 9th of October 2007. Michael was a kind and loving man who befriended everyone he met and you are all testimony to that. He loved to tease people, especially about the football. He had a great sense of humour and his laughter lit up a room. He loved to watch or listen to his beloved Bombers playing football each weekend. In fact he loved to watch any sport regardless of what it was. He never fell asleep watch-ing sports but when a movie came

on TV for the first time he would say, “We’ve already seen this” and would quickly fall asleep on the couch. Michael always had a love for food, especially ice-cream and chocolate. He would polish off a carton of ice-cream all on his own, if you let him, not to mention a family block of Cadbury chocolate!!!

Michael loved to fish, especially off the rocks. He tried courageously to fish from a boat many times but always ended up sea sick, feeding the fish and having to be brought back to shore prematurely. He had a love for birds and up until a week before his death was still asking how his birds were far-ing. Michael will be remembered as a loving, caring, family man. This was shown by all the love and sup-

port he bestowed on Rose through-out her time of need and he was frustrated because he was unable to continue that support when he be-came ill. Michael was always willing to help in anyway he could. He was “happy go lucky” and would always try to cheer you up when you were down. All his family and friends will dearly miss him, but his love and laughter will live on through his grandchil-dren. God blessed us with you Mi-chael, and now you are in God’s care. May you rest in peace.

Michael Joseph Portelli Continued from page 1

Padua News Issue 6 Pullout 2 Page 2

Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies. John 11:25

A CELEBRATION OF LIFE...

Kevin Francis Doyle was born 78 years ago on 12 September 1929 at the Royal Women’s Hospital in Carlton. He grew up in a number of places around Melbourne and country Victoria due to various cir-cumstances beyond his control be-fore eventually settling with his aunty Rose Barty who was Len Barty’s mother in Spotswood. In 1948, while playing football for Spotswood at one of their games, he met a girl named Lorraine An-drew and they dated on and off un-til 1952 when they were married and, eventually, they settled in Newport. In 1954, they had a gor-geous little boy who they named Robert. Again, in 1956, they had an even more gorgeous boy, Christo-pher. Dad was a member, player and one-time coach of the Spotswood Foot-ball Club and was also a long time member of the Spotswood Cricket Club as a player, coach, life member, president, secretary, and a proud member of the team of the century. In his working life, he was a motor mechanic by trade but worked in a number of jobs and had a number of business interests

throughout his lifetime. Of course, he supported Footscray or the Western Bulldogs as they are now, but still only got to see one pre-miership. I mentioned Dad was a motor me-chanic so, most of the time, we worked on our own cars. I can re-member a time back in 1995 when I purchased a Lada Niva 4 wheel drive for Sue and I, in order to tour around Australia. Now, the Rus-sians may have put men into space but they struggled with the finer points of motor vehicle building. In getting the Lada ready for our trip one day, a one hour job turned into a ten hour job and, I must say, the air at times became a trifle blue. Dad nutted it out and we towed a caravan with that car 37,500 kilo-metres around Australia over seven months without a hitch. By the time I got rid of Boris, I think Dad had almost learnt a second lan-guage. Such was the perseverance of the man. The measure of a man’s life is pos sibly that he has left this earth a better place. In thinking about what Dad’s legacy would be (and the word legacy put simply means

something handed down by a predecessor), I kept coming back to his character and the qualities that he possessed and the words; Integ-rity, Loving, Caring, Generous and Loyalty easily come to mind. Then it hit me that these are the qualities of his generation and that we some-times think, possibly this world would be a better place if those qualities were more prevalent today. He loved his grandson Christopher and when we got the phone call to come into the hospital last Sunday night, I suggested to Christopher that it might be better for him to stay home with Mum as Grandpa was very ill and it may not be long before he would pass away. He was adamant that he wanted to be there. Christopher sat there holding his Grandpa’s hand, comforting him and would not leave him until he had passed. Again, when we were thinking of people to do the readings at the funeral, Christopher jumped in and said he would like to do it. Not surprisingly, his beautiful cousins, Victoria and Al-exandra, also said they would love to help out.

Kevin Francis Doyle RIP 21 October 2007

Continued on Page 4

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A CELEBRATION OF LIFE...

Now, I know this seems to have got away from the point of the fu-neral but, in reality, this is the point because, if we have a loving genera-tion like these wonderful children who are influenced by their grand-parents and parents – children like Madison and Alana, Victoria and Alexandra and Christopher – then I know the legacy from that genera-tion and, more to the point, those who have been directly influenced by my father, then that legacy still lives on and the world can only be a better place for that. I know Dad would want me to rec-ognise his darling wife, Lorraine. Mum and Dad were together for near-on 60 years and had been married for almost 55 years. Over the last ten years or so, Dad had been unwell and more so in the last five years. In that time, Mum had driven Dad to various points off

the compass for his treatment and also countless trips to the Royal Melbourne Hospital. We joked how the car should now know its own way there. Dad said to me many times how marvellous Mum was to do all she did for him, and never once would you hear her complain, but again that just rein-forces the quality of his judgement. We often said jokingly that Mum should be sainted – Saint Lorraine of Melton South. I know he loved you dearly, Mum, and cherished every day you were together. Finally I would like to share this verse with you because I think it sums up Dad’s way of thinking … Dad, just as you were proud to call Lorraine your darling wife, Susie your daughter-in-law and Christo-pher Andrew your grandson, equally, your sons, Christopher, John and I were so very proud to

Grandpa Doyle RIP 21 October 2007

I would just like to say that I loved my Grandpa very much. He had good qualities that other people didn’t have. He was a kind, loving man and I was proud to be his grandson. Grandpa and I always used to make things together. There was one day when we decided to make a boat. I had a great mental picture of Grandpa in a speed boat with me in my boat tied onto the speed boat. It went fine except for one small problem, it had no floor. Luckily, we did succeed on one thing – a plane. That will always be special to me. He also used to tell me stories and jokes and we played games like foot-ball, cricket, dominoes, pick-up-sticks and other stuff. Although you are gone, you’ll always be in our hearts. Goodbye Grandpa – I love you.

Christopher Doyle

Continued from page 3

Kevin Francis Doyle

Padua News Issue 6 Pullout 2 Page 4

call you our DAD. Thank you, Robert Doyle

He is Gone

You can shed tears that he is gone, Or you can smile because he lived,

You can close your eyes and pray that he will come back,

Or you can open your eyes and see all that he has left.

Your heart can be empty because you can't see him

Or you can be full of the love that you shared,

You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday,

Or you can be happy for tomorrow be-cause of yesterday.

You can remember him and only that he is gone

Or you can cherish his memory and let it live on,

You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back,

Or you can do what he would want: smile, open your eyes, love and go on.