Religious Education
First Holy Communion
Congratulations to these students who with the support from their families, the parish and our school, have prepared for and made a significant step in their faith journey and recently received the Sacrament of First Communion. Many blessings to you all.
FEAST OF THE SACRED HEART MASS
Families are invited to join us in celebrating Mass for the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on Wednesday, 25th June at 9:30am.
This special feast day is a reminder of Jesus's love, mercy, and compassion, inviting believers to embrace and reflect these virtues in their daily lives.
We will welcome a representative from the St Vincent de Paul Society to our Mass and hand over some of the items collected in our Can Challenge. The remaining items will be donated to Baw Baw Food Relief. Both the St Vincent de Paul Society and Baw Baw Food Relief do wonderful charity work in our community.
Can Challenge
Our Can Challenge is in full swing, and Grade 4 Silver has shown amazing generosity with a total of 119 cans collected so far!
As we head into the final week, we encourage you to add a few extra non-perishable items to your next grocery shop and send them along to support your child’s class in reaching their goal.
Let’s finish strong - our can challenge wraps up next week!
Sacrament of Confirmation
Our Confirmation Mass with Bishop Greg will take place on Friday, 15th August at 7:00pm at St. Ita’s Church.
Parents who wish for their child to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation are kindly asked to attend an Information Meeting on Thursday, 19th June at 7:00pm, in the Marian Room, Warragul.
For more information, please contact Liz via email: warragul.sacraments@cdsale.org.au
Children's Liturgy
A message from Deacon Mark
Where's Melchizedek?
Listening closely to the Old Testament reading this Sunday (Gen 14:18-20) our ears prick up at the story about Melchizedek. We hear about him elsewhere, in Psalms and in Paul’s Letter to Hebrews, but who is this guy and how is he tangled up with our Mass? And particularly in the Eucharistic Prayer, where the priest prays after the consecration, “Look with favour on these offerings and accept them as once you accepted the gifts of your servant Abel, the sacrifice of Abraham, our father in faith, and the bread and wine offered by your priest Melchizedek.” The first, archetypal, “priest”, Melchizedek’s bread and wine remains only that, but, with echoes of Melchizedek, Jesus the ultimate priest, offers himself totally to God in the form of bread and wine telling his disciples to "do this in remembrance of me." (Luke 22:19-20)
Today’s Psalm (Ps 109 (110)) is sung at the ordination of every Catholic priest: “You are a priest forever, in the line of Melchizedek”. Regardless of the worthiness of the individual, the priest is enrolled under Jesus in that Order of Melchizedek, empowering him to consecrate, acting in the personhood of Christ, the bread and wine as Christ’s body and blood.
In the feeding of the multitudes, today’s gospel (Luke 9:11-17), Jesus takes and breaks the bread in a ritual prefiguring the celebration of the Eucharist and sends the apostles to feed the people. It is this total offering of self to which Jesus refers in his instruction to "do this in remembrance of Me." Following Jesus instruction, as the priest elevates the chalice containing Christ’s blood, he is faithfully doing so in remembrance of Jesus’ directive and reminding himself and all of us of Jesus’ instruction to address the needs of the people. That total self-offering is spiritual food for us. Eucharist regularly nourishes us in order that we might give of self for others as Christ Jesus does.
Deacon Mark Kelly