Sunday Gospel: Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time, Matthew 16:13-18

In this week’s gospel, Jesus asks the disciples who people say He is. They report that people say Jesus is like one of the great prophets of Jewish tradition. By people identifying Jesus with other great prophets they were projecting Jesus into the same mould as that prophet. What they were saying was that Jesus will be a great leader in the style of John the Baptist, or Elijah or even Jeremiah. The expectation of a messiah was running very high at the time of Jesus and everyone had their own idea about what that messiah would be like – usually aligned with some previous leader. They didn’t seem to understand that Jesus was breaking the mould and was not going to fit in with any of those expectations. To see Him as one of the great prophets come again is always going to be an inadequate understanding of Jesus as messiah.

When Jesus pushes the disciples for their own ideas, it is Simon Peter who speaks up and identifies Jesus as being the Son of the living God. Making a play on Peter’s name (in Greek, Petros = Peter and Petra = rock), Jesus states that hereafter, Simon Peter will be known as Peter and upon the rock of his profession of faith the church will be built. Interestingly, this week’s Gospel is the one chosen by our two parish schools to be the theme for the 2020 school year. ‘On this Rock, I will build my Church’.

(Adapted from a Gospel Reflection by Greg Sunter)

Sacrament of Confirmation

Many of our Year 6 students and their families have begun the journey towards Confirmation. We all join in praying for them as they prepare for the Sacrament to be held at the end of this term. All parents of candidates should have been emailed a link to a Google Doc (included again below) that will allow them to book a spot for their families at one of the Confirmation Masses. Please contact me if you are having any issues with this link. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rB1sASzwzASD6d6-xwo_I_M-oYDPXe2VnuLuKg7WVUY/edit#gid=0

Children’s Liturgy at Transfiguration Parish this weekend!

Children’s liturgy will be run this Sunday during the 9:30am Mass at Holy Trinity, all are welcome to attend. A reminder that during this time of COVID-19 restrictions, all Mass times will remain the same, but due to social distancing measures, all Masses will be celebrated at Holy Trinity, Curtin for the time being. There is a limit of 100 people that can attend each Mass, and the Parish will accept booking online (Trybooking.com, search Transfiguration Parish), or click here or via a phone call to the office.

Youth Ministry at Sts Peter and Paul

Our Youth Ministry Team will have a new look starting this week! Our Youth Minister, Maddie has created, for the team, these T-shirts that they will wear whenever they are running or participating in a Ministry experience. We are blessed to have such a dedicated Youth Minister who would put so much time and effort into something like this for our students. We appreciate you, Maddie!

 God bless,

Stephanie Burns

Religious Education Coordinator