St. Mary's Road Sydney NSW 2000 Phone: (02) 9220 0400 Fax: (02) 9223 5208 Email: [email protected] Connect with us on Social Media! www.facebook.com/stmaryssydney Instagram: @stmaryscathedralsydney Sunday, 03 March 2019 Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C Dear Parishioners and Visitors, We are about to begin a time of change, a testing time. A time of dying and rising. Lent is coming, and Ash Wednesday is this week. The timetable for Masses on Ash Wednesday is 6.45am; 12noon; 1.10pm; 5.30pm. There will also be a 5.30pm Mass at Sacred Heart Church, Darlinghurst. May our Lenten discipline bear fruit in our lives. In regard to the news about Cardinal Pell, please see below messages from Archbishop Anthony, and from the President of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference. With prayers for the week ahead, Fr Don Richardson, Dean. A message from Archbishop Anthony Fisher As you would be aware the news of Cardinal Pell’s conviction is now public. The details you will hear and read in the media over the coming days will be truly shocking and confronting. The Cardinal has announced that he will appeal the conviction. Therefore, as the legal process is not complete I won’t be making any further comments and I urge people to wait for the appeal process to run its course before reaching a final judgement on this matter. Once again, I express to those who have suffered abuse at the hands of Church personnel, to their families and to the entire community my shame and apology for that dark chapter in our history. I renew my commitment to ensuring the safety and wellbeing for all young and vulnerable people in the Church. Yours sincerely in Christ, Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP STATEMENT FROM ARCHBISHOP MARK COLERIDGE, PRESIDENT OF THE AUSTRALIAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS CONFERENCE The news of Cardinal George Pell’s conviction on historical child sexual abuse charges has shocked many across Australia and around the world, including the Catholic Bishops of Australia. The Bishops agree that everyone should be equal under the law, and we respect the Australian legal system. The same legal system that delivered the verdict will consider the appeal that the Cardinal’s legal team has lodged. Our hope, at all times, is that through this process, justice will be served. In the meantime, we pray for all those who have been abused and their loved ones, and we commit ourselves anew to doing everything possible to ensure that the Church is a safe place for all, especially the young and the vulnerable. February 26, 2019 Liturgy… First Reading Sir 27:4-7 A reading from the prophet Ecclesiasticus Do not praise someone before they have spoken. In a shaken sieve the rubbish is left behind, so too the defects of a man appear in his talk. The kiln tests the work of the potter, the test of a man is in his conversation. The orchard where the tree grows is judged on the quality of its fruit, similarly a man’s words betray what he feels. Do not praise a man before he has spoken, since this is the test of men. The word of the Lord. Response: Thanks be to God Responsorial Psalm Ps 91:2-3. 13-16. R. See v.2 (R) Lord, it is good to give thanks to you. 1. It is good to give thanks to the Lord to make music to your name, O Most High, to proclaim your love in the morning and your truth in the watches of the night. (R) 2. The just will flourish like the palm-tree and grow like a Lebanon cedar. (R) 3. Planted in the house of the Lord they will flourish in the courts of our God, still bearing fruit when they are old, still full of sap, still green, to proclaim that the Lord is just. In him, my rock, there is no wrong. (R) Liturgy… Second Reading 1 Cor 15:54-58 A reading from the letter of St Paul to the Corinthians Victory has been given to us through Jesus Christ. When this perishable nature has put on imperishability, and when this mortal nature has put on immortality, then the words of scripture will come true: Death is swallowed up in victory. Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting? Now the sting of death is sin, and sin gets its power from the Law. So let us thank God for giving us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Never give in then, my dear brothers, never admit defeat; keep on working at the Lord’s work always, knowing that, in the Lord, you cannot be labouring in vain. The word of the Lord. Response: Thanks be to God Gospel Acclamation Phil 2:15-16 Alleluia, alleluia! Shine on the world like bright stars; you are offering it the word of life. Alleluia! Liturgy… Gospel Lk 6:39-45 A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke A person speaks from what is in his heart. Jesus told a parable to his disciples, ‘Can one blind man guide another? Surely both will fall into a pit? The disciple is not superior to his teacher; the fully trained disciple will always be like his teacher. Why do you observe the splinter in your brother’s eye and never notice the plank in your own? How can you say to your brother, “Brother, let me take out the splinter that is in your eye,” when you cannot see the plank in your own? Hypocrite! Take the plank out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly enough to take out the splinter that is in your brother’s eye. ‘There is no sound tree that produces rotten fruit, nor again a rotten tree that produces sound fruit. For every tree can be told by its own fruit: people do not pick figs from thorns, nor gather grapes from brambles. A good man draws what is good from the store of goodness in his heart; a bad man draws what is bad from the store of badness. For a man’s words flow out of what fills his heart.’ The Gospel of the Lord Response: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ Weekend Mass Saturday Vigil: 6.00pm Sunday: 7.00am, 9.00am, 10.30am (Solemn High Mass); 12.15pm Latin Mass in the extraordinary form; 6.00pm Mass Weekday Mass Monday to Friday: 6.45am, 1.10pm & 5.30pm Saturday: 9.00am & 12noon Public Holidays: 9am (or as advertised) Reconciliation Monday-Friday: 12noon - 1.00pm & 5.00pm - 5.25pm Saturday: 11.30am - 11.55am, 4.30-5.30pm Vespers Saturday: 5.30pm (Evening Prayer) Sunday: 5.00pm (with Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament) ASH 06 MARCH: PLEASE NOTE THAT THERE WILL BE AN EXTRA MASS CELEBRATED WEDNESDAY AT AT 12.00PM IN ADDITION TO THE REGULAR SCHEDULED DAILY MASSES. Stations of the Fridays @ 4.30pm: March – 08, 15, 22, 29 & April – 05, 12 Cross CATHEDRAL CLERGY CATHEDRAL STAFF Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP Chris Backhouse – Cathedral Sacristan Father Donald Richardson, Dean Thomas Wilson – Director of Music Father Brendan Purcell Helen Morassut – General Manager, Father Emmanuel Yoon Jae Seo St Mary’s Cathedral Precinct Father Gerard Woo Ling SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEW LOOK CATHOLIC WEEKLY OR PURCHASE A COPY FOR $2. CATHEDRAL NOTICES ….. PLEASE NOTE: ASH WEDNESDAY, 06 PROJECT COMPASSION CAMPAIGN MARCH 2019. There will be an extra Mass LAUNCH 2019. Tuesday, 05 March. celebrated at 12.00pm in addition to the Please join us for the Caritas Project regular scheduled daily Masses. Compassion Launch for 2019 commencing with Mass at 1.10pm celebrated by Most ROME PILGRAMAGE - 16 to 23 May Reverend Anthony Fisher OP. After Mass we 2019. To celebrate our Cathedral’s 150 years it will gather in the Crypt to listen to our would be a great opportunity to join Fr Don International Speaker Super Dube from Caritas Richardson, Dean of St Mary’s Cathedral on a Zimbabwe. Super Dube will explain how your unique tour of Rome. Get your free pilgrimage generous donations bring hope and empower kit today by ringing Rome Pilgrimages on 1800 people in great need to shape a better future for 753 959 or Email: themselves, their families and their [email protected]. communities. Please join us for refreshments after the session. PRAY FOR THE PLENARY COUNCIL Across Australia, Catholics are gathering to SCHOLARSHIP AT THE CATHEDRAL. pray, talk and listen to one another about our The Archdiocese of Sydney, together with experiences of faith and the Church. Many Notre Dame University’s Institute for Ethics & parishes within the Archdiocese have Society have a number of engaging lectures commenced their journey towards the Plenary featuring eminent international and Australian Council 2020, sharing and reflecting on the intellectuals coming up in 2019. Please join us future of the Catholic church in Australia. as the Archbishop of Sydney, Most Reverend Please continue to pray for the community of Anthony Fisher OP delivers his second the Sydney Archdiocese that we will respond instalment of “The Godless Country? Part II, well to the call of the Holy Spirit, by engaging Christian Australia”. “Are we living in a in the preparatory phase of the Plenary with Christian country? Certainly, Christianity is open and humble hearts, listening to what the the largest religious group in Australia. But Spirit is saying to each one of us as we share where is the Church situated in the mind of our experiences of faith towards the preparation modern Australia?” – Archbishop Anthony of the agenda of the Plenary Council.