Parish of Our Lady of the Southern Cross December 15/16, 2018

Contact us ...

Fr Peter Hoang sdb ( Parish Priest) Joan Parr (Secretary)

Thao Tran (Assistant Secretary) Jennifer Jacobs-Vandegeer

(Liturgy Co-ordinator)

Email: collclift@hotmail.com; office@olsc.org.au Website: olsc.org.au

St Joseph’s Community (1862) 46 Otter Street, Collingwood

Tel: 9417 2959 School: 9419 4918

The Good Shepherd Convent (1863) Abbotsford Tel: 9417 2909

St John the Baptist Community (1882) 61 Queens Parade, Clifton Hill

Tel: 9481 7333 School: 9489 1346

Ms Rachel Smith (Principal, St Joseph’s – 1861) Mr Daniel Ryan (Principal, St John’s – 1886)

The Collingwood Cottage Inc (Foodbank) Fridays : 9.00 am to 12.00 noon

St Joseph’s Community Store (St Vinnie’s) Tel: 8415 1593 (since mid 1800’s)

Normal weekend Mass times: St Joseph’s : Saturday 6 pm [English] Sunday 9 am [Vietnamese] St John’s : Saturday 6 pm [English] Sunday 9 am [Italian] 10.30 am [English] 5 pm [English] Good Shepherd Chapel : Weekdays, Sundays 9.30 am

Our Parish Priest

Response to the Prayers of the Faithful …

Lord, hear our prayer

Fr Peter Hoang PP is normally available at St John’s on Tuesdays and Thursdays, between 10am and 3pm. He is normally available at St Joseph’s on Wednesdays and Fridays between 10am and 4pm.

Sacramental Reception

Baptism : on first and third Sundays at 12 noon Marriage: by appointment Reconciliation: approach a priest before Mass to make an appointment. First Communion and Confirmation: Preparation for this is conducted in our two schools; we also offer this preparation to State School children. Ring our office on 9481 7333 for further information.

For the sick and injured ...

Returned to the Father ... Condolences : We pray for the families and souls of those who have departed recently. Anniversaries : Rosa Formica.

Please remember the following in our prayers: Julia Rickard, Gabe Sullivan, Deidre Rooney,

Trevor Williams, John Capicchiano, Joe Brancatella, John and Teresa Boetti, Ida and Mario Misurelli,

John Vo, Joseph Vodinh and Cecilia Nguyen.

If you hear of any of our parishioners who are not well or who have been injured, please let Joan know so that we can all remember them in our prayers. Advent is the first season in the church calendar. Since the 7C AD, Christians have included this cele-bration in their preparation for Christmas Day. Beginning four Sundays before Christmas, its purpose is twofold: first, it prepares us for the celebration of the birth of Christ and second, it reminds us that we are eagerly waiting for Jesus' return in glory. The word "advent" originates from the Latin word advenio which means coming to. Advent is the time when we focus on Christ coming to the world. Throughout history, the Israelites anticipated the coming of their Messiah. In the Old Testament, over 400 scriptures and prophecies outline His birth, life, death, resurrection, and return. SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT: HOPE We light a second purple candle on the second Sun-day of Advent to represent the hope of Christ coming to the world. God’s plan for humanity unfolded in the town of Bethlehem, the birthplace of the Messiah, joyously fulfilling a long-awaited promise. Today we confi-dently wait for the Messiah's triumphant return. Collingwood Cottage has been serving the Colling-wood area and surrounds for many years, offering food parcels, coffee and ‘warm fuzzies’ to anyone in need. This service is now closed over the Christmas break and will re-open on February 8. We take this opportunity to thank Sr Zita, Sr Helen and all their very willing helpers for all they do for our community. Well done !!

Following the Ordination to the Diaconate of Br Jack at St Joseph's Church, Collingwood on 1 December, our Parish had five Deacons for a short time. Now, following the completion of their theology studies, Deacons Anusit, Abilio and Lourenço have returned to their home countries. They are involved in a variety of ministries as they prepare for their Priestly Ordinations. Anusit will be ordained a priest in Thailand on 19 January, 2019. Abilio and Lourenço will join seven other young Sale-sians from their Province, and will be ordained in Timor Leste on 15 August 2019. We are grateful for their presence amongst us and for all that they con-tributed to the life of our Parish. We wish them well in their priestly ministry and we assure them of our ongoing prayers. After Christmas Deacon Jack will move to our Sale-sian Parish in Engadine, Sydney for two months and Deacon Sean will join our Salesian Parish in St Mary's in Sydney. We wish them well in these new experi-ences and we will welcome them back in late Febru-ary 2019 and enjoy their presence in our Parish for one more year. When someone is nasty or treats you poorly, don’t take it personally. It says nothing about you and a lot about them. Author unknown

Roster St John’s

15/16 December

6.00 pm Saturday 10.30 am Sunday 5.00 pm Sunday

Readers Joseph Jennifer

Edie Sue Smith

Michael Thomas

Offertory Parishioners Parishioners Parishioners

Commun-ion

Parishioner Deacon

Quyen Samoan

Jennifer Deacon

22/23 December

6.00 pm Saturday 10.30 am Sunday 5.00 pm Sunday

Readers Timothy Nicholas

Vicki Keiran

Thomas Michael

Offertory Parishioners Parishioners Parishioners

Commun-

ion

Virginia

Deacon

Quyen

Christiaan

Daniel

Deacon

We would like to open St John’s Church up from Mon-day 14 January 2019 to as many parishioners and passers-by as often as we can, additional to Mass times. Perhaps you can offer some time—an hour or two every week or fortnight, so there is someone to welcome visitors to our church. If you think that you can help with this, please let the Parish office (9481 7333) know, leaving your name, contact details and times when you could help out with this initiative or ring me direct on 0439 614 461. Or you can complete the form available at the back of the church. Thanks for your help. John Andrews

Our questions about and our hopes for the Church arise from hearts that listen to the Spirit. Having spent time listening to each other’s stories over the past week, this week, we are inviting all our parish-ioners to share what it is they think God is asking of us at this time. You can respond via or by writing on a post-it note and placing it on the Plenary Wall at the back of the Church. Also... please note that we are beginning to post Plenary Responses in the back bulletin board, so you can see how our parish is responding. All responses are completely anonymous unless requested other-wise.

Many thanks to Sue Smith for her gentle instruction on mindfulness meditation during our last Advent reflection evening on Tuesday. We discussed how mindfulness meditation is a wonderful tool for eas-ing our busy minds into the present moment, which makes more room in our hearts for joy. Thank you to all who attended any of the Advent Reflection eve-nings. Your attendance made the evenings possible and life-giving. As we have done over the past three years, our Salesian community are joining us to visit two local nursing homes today (Sunday). We would love you to join us and help swell the numbers. Thanks to those giving joy to our elderly today for giving up their time with family. Thank you !!

Carols at the Good Shepherd next Thursday at 7pm.

Advent Reflection

Our Parish Deacons

Plenary Council 2020

Advent Season

Opening St John’s Church

Collingwood Cottage Carols to our elderly