Sunday Gospel: Luke 21:5-19, Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C

In this week’s Gospel, Jesus has now reached the end of his journey and is in Jerusalem. Here, other questions are raised. What do we do when things go wrong? How do we find faith in God when life collapses around us? These are questions all Christians face and today’s Gospel gives us a brief insight into the pain and struggle of Luke’s small community who had such faith and hope in Jesus, but life did not appear to be blessed. God wasn’t intervening to save them from conflict within families and persecution from governments. Luke tries to reassure his community that such discord and trouble is part of a living Christianity and can be expected. Faith in Jesus doesn’t take us out of the world, or permit us to live as some sort of aliens in the world. We are part of a struggling humanity.

Through Jesus’ words, Luke teaches his community that in this time of waiting there will be hardship and struggle; these are not incompatible with Christian faith and are not to be taken as signs that God is absent. Endurance is required.

Illuminate – Youth Ministry Day

On Friday 8^th November, Saints Peter and Paul’s Year 5 students travelled to St Vincent’s at Aranda to participate in the ‘Illuminate’ Youth Ministry Day.

The Illuminate gathering was a wonderful opportunity for our students to celebrate their faith together, through a variety of talks, drama, testimonies and other faith based activity stations and experiences.

We had a very prayerful, engaging and fun day. Mrs Hitchings and I had a lovely time with our Year 5 students, and we were very proud of the children for the reverent way they participated in the day.

Reconciliation and Parish Mass

On Sunday, 17^th November at 9:30am, our parish will be celebrating our Term 4 Parish School Mass, and candidates for First Reconciliation will be presented to the community.

All are warmly invited to attend Mass and support our Year 3 students who are receiving this sacrament.

 Fr John and Catherine (the Parish secretary) have requested that all families who have enrolled their child to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation ensure that they have submitted to the parish, a copy of their child’s Baptismal Certificate (not needed if your child was baptised in our parish). This is vital, as your child cannot participate in the sacrament if it has not been received.

Dates for your Diary:

Sunday 17^th November  - Term 4 Parish School Mass/Presentation Mass for candidates receiving the sacrament of Reconciliation.

Tuesday 26^th November – Retreat Day for Reconciliation candidates.

Thursday 28^th November – Sacrament of Reconciliation, 7:00pm at Holy Trinity Church.

Blessings for the week ahead,

Stephanie Burns

Religious Education Coordinator