December 2023
Year B
3 Advent 1B, combined Mass 11am. Book sale
8 Immaculate Conception of Blessed Virgin Mary
10 Advent 2B
17 Adcvent 3B
24 Advent 4B
25 Nativity of Lord
26 Stephen
27 John
28 Holy Innocents
31 Holy Family
January 2024
Samoan Mass 12.30 4th Sundays
Sacramental Reception Baptism :
Second and fourth Sundays of the month at
12 noon (email the
office to book) Marriage:
by appointment Reconciliation: approach a priest before Mass
First Communion and Confirmation:
Preparation for this is conducted in our
two schools; we also offer this preparation to State School
children. Email our office at
office@olsc.org.au for
further information.
Our Parish Priest
Fr Anthony Dung Ngoc Nguyen SDB PP The mobile phone
is available anytime via text. In case of an emergency a call
can be made. 0424 376 193 A word from Fr Anthony
If a parishioner would like to have a pastoral visit
from the Parish priest, or a priest, or a seminarian, or
a co-parishioner, kindly leave a message to the office
or to my cell phone number: 0424 376 193.
Assistant Parish Priest
Fr Peter Varengo SDB
HEART OF LIFE
delivers programs for spiritual
and pastoral formation through the way of heart.
Have a look at what’s on for 2024 and consider how
Heart of Life can help your Parish Life!
We offer accredited formation programs, spiritual direction,
professional supervision, prayer & spiritual enrichment. We also
facilitate and lead reflection days for parishes and groups,
personalised according to your need.
Contact us:
www.heartoflife.melbourne or
email:
info@heartoflife.melbourne
Support lifeline.org.au
13 11 14 BeyondBlue.org.au 1300 22 46 36
Defence Family Helpline 1800 624 608
Open Arms 1800 011 046
SANE Helpline 1800 18 SANE (7263)
Domestic Violence 1800 RESPECT (737 732)
Vic Statewide Suicide helpline 1300 651 251
Mensline Australia 1300 789 978
Drug info. to your mobile phone 0439 TELL ME
CrimeStoppers 1800 333 000
Suicide Helpline Victoria 1300 651 251
parentsbeyondbreakup.com 1800 853 437
Where homeless people might go for help ...
* Ozanam House in North Melbourne
* Mary House of Welcome in Fitzroy
* Jesuit Social Services in Richmond
* Margaret Oats Van, corner of Smith and Stanley Streets (near
Safeway) in Collingwood.
For further information on where people can get free meals
contact Joan in the office on 9481 7333.
At Our Lady of the Southern Cross,
we hold the care, safety and wellbeing of children and young
people as a central and fundamental responsibility of our
parish.
We acknowledge that we are meeting on the traditional land of
the Wurundjeri people and offer our respects to the elders past,
present and future. We recognise and respect the cultural
heritage of this land.
Parish of Our Lady of the Southern Cross
St John the Baptist, Clifton Hill -
St Joseph's, Collingwood
Sunday Advent 2B -
Nov 26
Dec 10
For kids
Audio Gospel Reflections -
Fr Frank Moloney SDB
Sunday Cinema Online Viewing
for this Week's Liturgy
[Updated Dec 8]
Prepare the Way of the Lord
This is time of great energy and
excitement franti cally engaging us into a world of
hyper-activity as we
ready ourselves for the most exciting time of year. Tra ically,
however, if Christmas is exhausted in a ritual of
frantic energy and maddening commercial hype this
magical time of goodwill and joyful gathering can betray
us into a few hours of tinsel and muzak, hijacking us
into “taking a lot out of us and giving little or nothing in
return”, leaving us deflated, and despondent.
Advent calls us into awareness of God-with-us in
our humanity “now” and the liturgy persistently calls us
to “prepare the way of the Lord”, urging us into radical
transformation with God and with each other. By looking at the
original event of this joyful time beyond the
transient and the marginal we are energised into discovering
“God-with-us” in our personal and collective narrative behind
the external and the ephemeral of daily
experience.
The story begins with John the Baptist, the most
arresting characters of the original story and the first
and critical exemplar of the Christmas narrative, beginning with
an honest self-appraisal and ending with a total commitment to
transformation of self and the
world. For John, God was never a distant stranger out/
up there, but very much a present reality in his life and
cultural milieu, in our midst challenging the here-and now here,
inviting a personal relationship coupled with
a radical personal and collective transformation.
“Someone IS following me, someone who IS more
powerful than I am”, John declared pointing out to us
that our Christmas cannot remain a memory of a distant
place and time, but it must speak the word IS as a personal
experience present in the here and now. John’s
appearance is revolutionary and his striking lifestyle is
only matched by the fiercely passionate words addressed to his
hearers and to all of us for all time. He is fired into
something much deeper and much more personal than externals.
Blazing words and arresting demeanour of camel hair and wild
honey stand as the very incarnation of a passion touching the
depths of the heart and commitment, demanding a radical response
welling up from the inner self of hearers and readers now alike.
John the Baptism is the unwavering prophet proclaiming the
onrush of God into the human story, transform
humanity as the place where God is at play and at work
on us the actors of God’s presence.
God is the primary actor in the Christmas story and
the initiator and energy of our story, and like John the
Baptist, “unworthy to untie the thong of is sandals” we
need to be open and stand in trust and hope, sincerely
and humbly acknowledging this divine dimension in
spite of personal weakness, brokenness and need. Only
this kind of honesty will make us alert and aware of the
presence of God in us and around us in spite of peripheral and
externals. Only this kind of sincerity will energize us into
confronting the questions thrown at us by the unavoidable Advent
and Christmas calls for radical transformation. Fr Peter
Varengo
OLSC Advent Mass
After a week of cold and rainy weather, we were blessed with a
glorious Sunday to celebrate our combined mass on the First
Sunday of Advent.
Fr Peter Varengo presided over our mass where we
heard the first reading in Samoan, the Responsorial
Psalm in English and second reading in Vietnamese.
We then had the prayers of the faithful in Italian and English.
Our 3 choirs sang beautifully in
English, Samoan and Viet namese. A truly culturally
diverse celebration.
True to OLSC style, we finished up with lots of international
dishes ranging from Vietnamese spring rolls, fried rice, fried
chicken wings, the much loved Samoan food and of course, our
good old sausages and bread.
Thanks to everyone who organised, cooked and
contributed. We look forward to seeing you all over the
Christmas celebrations. Wishing you all a Joyful and Blessed
Christmas.
The Parish Pastoral Council
The Lighting of the Advent
Candle The lighting of a different candle
on each Sunday in Advent invites us to pause and reflect. Each
candle has its own symbolism, while the intertwined evergreen
leaves of the Advent wreath remind us of the promise of eternal
life that Christ brings. In most Christian traditions the first
candle, lit on Advent Sunday itself, represents hope – a sign of
our hopeful expectation as we await the coming of the Messiah.
The next three candles mark the themes of peace, joy and love.
The large white candle is the ‘Christ candle’, lit as we mark
the birth of Jesus on Christmas Day. Courtesy of St Beuno’s
Outreach, the Diocese of Wrexham, UK
KEEP THIS DATE FREE….. On Sunday 1
March 2026 we will commemorate the 150th Anniversary of
the laying of the Foundation Stone of the Church which took
place on 26 February 1876. We still cannot find the foundation
stone. Is it buried somewhere? Does anyone have any clues? Let
John or Joan know.
There are several avenues in which
Mass can be viewed.
1. EWTN
provides Masses every day at 8am and many other quality
programs about the Catholic faith. the EWTN App can be
downloaded to your phone or iPad. It has continuous live
streaming of programs. These include news, interviews,
children's and teenager's programs and more. Access the EWTN
schedule at
https://www.ewtn.com/tv/
schedule/asia-pacific
or on the EWTN App go to "Program Schedules" then "Pacific
Rim".
The 11am Sunday Mass at St Patrick's Cathedral will continue
to be televised free to air on C31
(often listed as Channel 44
on digital TVs) 3. Mass for You at Home 6.00-6.30am Sundays or catch up
on
10 PlayFreeview [need to sign up!]
Returned to the Father
Condolences:
We pray for the families and souls of
those who have departed recently:
Anniversaries:
Rosa Formica,
Mary-Ann Balmer,
Rafaele Verrocchi, Giovanni Boetti.
We remember ...
Prayers for healing:
Ian Armstrong,
Matt Kennedy,
Lorena Ferri,
Tony Addamo,
Betty Croker,
Attilio De Rango,
Teresa Boetti,
Fr Chris Riley,
Cecily Hollingworth,
Mario Misurelli,
Julia O’Malley.
Please let us know if the office can help in any way.