Our One Mission, Two Parishes
Theme or Focus for 2024 is:
Reach out in Love and Mercy: Mark 6: 32 - 34
- Year B Sunday Cycle: the Gospel of Mark Year B is not just the ‘Year of Mark’: in some ways it’s also the Year of John. The brevity of Mark’s Gospel allows for excursions into the Gospel John on numerous occasions throughout the year.
- Year 2 Weekday Cycle
Background:
After the year devoted to reflecting on the documents and studying the fruits of the Second Vatican Council, Pope Francis has proposed that 2024 should be marked as a year dedicated to prayer. In preparation for the Jubilee, dioceses are invited to promote initiatives to remind people of the centrality of both individual prayer and community prayer. One idea might be for “pilgrimages of prayer” to be organised at a diocesan level – these would be effectively courses or ‘schools of prayer’ with monthly or weekly meetings, presided over by the local bishops, but open to the entire People of God. In addition, to help mark this year more fruitfully, the Dicastery for Evangelisation will publish a series of “Prayer Notebooks”, with material taken from the many forms of prayer to be found in the rich Catholic tradition.
| St Luke's | Faith | Comunity |
Future |
2021 - 2025 Pastoral Plan |
| & St Timothy's | Vital | Vibrant | Viable | ... One Mission, Two Parishes ... |
| Local Church | Spiritual | Ministerial | Material | 2021 ... Take the Way of the Gospel |
| Universal Church | Communion | Participation | Mission | 2021 - 2024 International Synod |
It gives me great pleasure to welcome YOU to our Parish Website,
The Tomb of St Luke the Evangelist
Saint Luke the Evangelist's final resting place (images) ~ Abbey of Santa Giustina (& Wikipedia)
Saints in Rome and Beyond! Saint Luke the Evangelist
pdf
and our ACBC 2016 Parish Social Profile
(1.62 MB)
pdf
(1.62 MB)
Fr Gerard
Parish Priest
3 December 2023
This week we celebrate the First Sunday of Advent, the beginning of our next Liturgical Year. “Today’s readings contain several images: the faithfulness of those who suffer, even as they lament their predicament; the admonition to watch and wait; the expectation of the coming of the Day of the Lord. As trustees of the one who is coming, we live in the ‘in between’ time of ambiguity and hope. The placement of these readings at the beginning of Advent shapes the context for understanding the entire season. They fix our gaze on the world of human pain and then moves beyond it to the hope of a brighter future. Lamentation and expectation find fulfilment in the Day of the Lord.Waiting is a prominent image this Sunday. Some people wait to be released from suffering, others await the second coming of Christ. Waiting saps our energies and stifles our enthusiasm. Yet wait we must, and as we wait, we wonder: ‘What should I be doing?’ The readings suggest that we should wait with patient expectation for the day of reconciliation and peace; we should wait in joyful hope that what is to come will come soon. While we wait, we should faithfully fulfil our responsibilities. We believe that we have a future worth waiting for, that there are promises that God will keep. And so we look expectantly to the Day of the Lord, that future day of ultimate fulfilment." © Dianne Bergant CSA
& again ...
"The thirteenth chapter of Mark’s Gospel is a strange place to begin Advent. Today’s passage comes right before Jesus’ passion, and the marking of the nightwatch hours foreshadows what comes next: evening when Jesus foretells his betrayal; midnight when he finds his disciples asleep; Peter’s denial at cockcrow; and Jesus’ arrest at morn. Earlier in the same chapter, Jesus notes the grand buildings around the temple and remarks that a sign of the end will be their dismantling, stone by stone.
Hour by hour and brick by brick – isn’t that often how we create situations we don’t want to be in? Not by one momentous event or calamitous blow but by a series of missed opportunities, micro-aggressions, and small acts of indifference and inatten¬tion. A string of moments like these that go unnoticed can destroy a life, a relationship, a community at any given hour. Likewise, staying awake and watching, minute by minute, for every opportunity to do Christ’s work can only lead, step by step, to the peace of God’s reign whenever and wherever it appears.
Perhaps instead of insulating ourselves with an undisturbed quiet in hushed tones and candlelit spaces, we would better follow the Gospel this Advent if we turned on all the lights, blared trumpets, and shook one another awake: Be watchful! Be alert! Don’t be caught sleeping! Watch!" © GIA Publications
3 December 2023
What are the Pope's Intentions for the Month of December?
For persons with disabilities:
We pray that people living with disabilities may be at the center of attention in society, and that institutions may offer inclusive programs which value their active participation.
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