Lent/Holy Week

I know this is early, however, Septuagesima starts next Sunday, and we are all so busy that it sometimes slips our mind when mass is to be held. I have also added a preliminary date for our May Marian Day.

LENT

Ash Wednesday: 2^nd March: Cowwarr

• 10.00am: Imposition of ashes/mass
• 6.00pm: Imposition of ashes/mass

During Lent our mass time for Fridays will change slightly.  The time change is to allow those who work to be able to make it to the devotions, and mass as they so intend.

Fridays during Lent: Cowwarr

• 6.00 pm: Stations of the Cross
• 6.30pm: Mass

• Timetable for Holy Week and Easter. 

HOLY WEEK:

Palm Sunday: 10th April: Procession and mass: Cowwarr

• 9.30am: Cowwarr
• 4.00pm: Mirboo North

Maundy Thursday: 14th April: Cowwarr

• 1.00pm: 24 Hour Adoration/Vigil starts:
• 7.30pm: Mass of the Last Supper
• Adoration continues after mass

Good Friday: 15th April: Cowwarr

• 12.00am Vigil starts
• 10.00am: Stations of the Cross:
• Vigil continues after Stations
• 2.00pm: Good Friday Liturgy & Mass of the pre-Sanctified

Solemn Vigil of Easter: 16th April: Cowwarr

• 11.00pm: The Solemn Vigil of Easter

followed by the

• The Mass of the Resurrection: Cowwarr

During the day

• 12.30pm: mass (not sure if we need this additional mass)

Divine Mercy Sunday: 24th April: No Mirboo North mass

• 1.30pm:  Mass: Cowwarr
• Divine Mercy Devotions:
  • 2.30pm – 3.30pm: (Exposition, Adoration, Confession, Divine Mercy Chaplet, Benediction)

Marian Day: Saturday 11th May: Cowwarr

• 9.30am: Mass – 3.00pm
• Theme: No theme as yet
• Lunch is BYO.  We will supply tea and coffee.

What do do when no mass

Not attending Mass presents the danger of slipping away spiritually. What to do when churches are closed.

1. Watch or listen to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

• • There is an Ordinariate Daily Mass streamed. Our Ordinary, Msgr Carl, streams his mass from his small chapel daily at 11.00am, though not on Sundays. Easy access to our Facebook page where the Mass is livestreamed is through our web page: ordinariate.org.au and then click on the Facebook symbol, which on my computer shows up in two places – upper right corner and bottom of page in the middle.
  • If you cannot attend mass; mass is streamed via the web. From the USA comes the Latin Mass http://livemass.net/.
  • Ordinary form of the mass. Sydney Cathedral: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZxfrykD8iSWExFBdM7fpRg

2. Read the Mass readings daily. http://www.ordinariate.org.au/mass-readings-for-the-day/
3. Read Magnificat. Temporarily online versions are available for free as a service to the Church (https://us.magnificat.net/free). This resource offers spiritual inspiration and the Mass readings.
4. Pray the Rosary and Chaplet of Divine Mercy.
5. Say the Ordinariate daily office: http://prayer.covert.org/
6. Go to adoration and make a Holy Hour. Go to online for a listing of 13 chapels that broadcast adoration https://virtualadoration.home.blog/.
7. Pray the Litany
8. Read the lives of the saints
9. Go and look at free traditional books online: https://www.traditionalcatholic.co/free-catholicbooks/  Thanks to technology, and perhaps due to Christianity’s low status in our modern liberal age, there is a  fantastic treasure trove of good, traditional Catholic books available for free or near-free. Below are links to valuable and timeless Catholic texts (including those written by great saints and Fathers and Doctors of the Church) that you can read and download for free. Take advantage of this – they have changed my life and will change yours, too

 

Update from the Gippsland Ordinariate

To the faithful who I carry always in my heart

As of noon Monday 23^rd March, all places of public worship are now closed on the directive of the Australian Government Phase 1.

I would like to take this opportunity to warn people that just as the government clearly stated that this is Phase 1, it also means that there will be a Phase 2.  Further restrictions will come as the Virus runs its course.  Personally, I believe these further restrictions will limit travel, and the ability to leave one’s home.  Germany, Italy, the USA, and other countries are already doing this, so it may indeed happen here.  We are living in uncharted territory here where things can change day by day, and hour by hour.

During the next months we must do what Our Lady asked us to do at Fatima.  Basically, the message of Fatima can be distilled into four calls:

1. PERMANENT CONVERSION, knowing that “The greatest obstacle to man’s journey towards God is sin, perseverance in sin, and, finally, denial of God (St. John Paul II, Homily in Fatima, May 13, 1982).”
2. Life of PRAYER, including that of the HOLY ROSARY;
3. REPARATION not only for our own sins but for the sins of the whole world
4. SACRIFICES, for the living and the dead

Owing to the directive the Cowwarr Church is locked but access to Our Lord continues as Christ in the Blessed Sacrament is now on permanent Exposition in the entrance until this crisis is past.

I will continue to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as an act of Sacrifice and atonement to the Almighty Sine Populo, in private masses, in this Church every day and before mass I also pray the Litany for the end of Pestilence.

Our Ordinary, Msgr Carl Reid has sent out the following to his priests:

The Sunday obligation to attend mass is commuted, not suspended. In commuting the Sunday obligation, the faithful are required to “perform some other pious work.”  The usual thing would be for you to encourage your faithful to reflect on the Scriptural readings of the Sunday (posted on our web site), perhaps to recite the Rosary, and certainly to make an Act of Spiritual Communion. 

In the Bulletin last Sunday, I pointed out that there are ten things we as Catholics can do during this time of trial

1. Watch or listen to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

• • The Ordinariate mass, Msgr Carl is live streaming his daily mass on Facebook at 7.30am.
  • If you worship un the Usus Antiquor and cannot attend mass it is streamed via the web. From the USA comes the Latin Mass http://livemass.net/.
  • Ordinary form of the mass. EWTN broadcasts it daily: https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/daily-readings/

2. Read the Mass readingsdaily. They can be found at https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/daily-readings/
3. Read Magnificat. Temporarily online versions are available for free as a service to the Church (https://us.magnificat.net/free). This resource offers spiritual inspiration and the Mass readings.
4. Pray the Rosary and Chaplet of Divine Mercy, two of our most powerful prayers after the Mass.
5. Say the Ordinariate daily office: http://prayer.covert.org/
6. Have a Holy Hour in your own home chapel, or go to online for a listing of 13 chapels that broadcast adoration – https://virtualadoration.home.blog/.
7. Pray the Litany as attached in a time of plague and pestilence: https://gippslandordinariate.wordpress.com/2020/03/23/litany-in-time-of-plague/
8. Develop a devotion to the dying to help escort them safely into the arms of Jesus.
9. Watch “The Veil Removed” (https://youtu.be/OOLZDaTgIaM) to deepen your appreciation of the Mass. This five-minute video removes the veil of this world to reveal the supernatural celebration of the Eucharist depicted in Revelation and given to us by Jesus at the Last Supper.
10. Open your Bible and read it.

The Church, you and I, are, in a very real way with Christ on the Cross. We suffer the loss of Christ. Our lives are entwined with Christ and His Blessed Mother. If we suffer, we suffer along with The Blessed Virgin at the foot of the Cross. Unite your suffering to her, as she unites her suffering to Him. Use this time to draw closer to Christ.

I am looking at ways to bring consolation, and the sacraments to people.  Bear with me as I try to fulfil the charge given to me as a priest.  I will do my utmost to stay in contact, and bring the sacraments to those I can.  However, even bringing the sacraments may be restricted in the future.  I am planning sacramental visitations for people but these will of necessity not be every Sunday or even every week.  They will occur when/if I am able.

Pray for our nation and an end to the scourge of the Virus; pray for our Church, our bishops, our priests; and pray for ourselves that we may walk with Christ to the Cross, and beyond. Take this time to offer oneself as an oblation, a living sacrifice to God the Father. Now is the time to pray, do penance, and become Holy.

We know we will get through this God has already won.  We will emerge stronger in the faith, more resilient, and Christ centred.  One of the obstacles through this time of trial is ongoing financial burdens placed on our parish such as insurance, and upkeep of the parish car etcetera.  If you would like to continue to gift your collection to the parish:

• BBB: 633000
• Account: 161730056
• Ref: Put your name as a reference

Ask for help if you need it, share if you have surplus, give to God His due, and to your neighbour your love.  May God bless all of you, and those you love. I remain your servant in Christ.

Fr Ken

………

There is also granted a Plenary Indulgence during this time of plague. The below is an excerpt from the Apostolic Penitentiary.

Decree of the Apostolic Penitentiary on the granting of special Indulgences to the faithful in the current pandemic, 20.03.2020[1]

…Plenary Indulgence is granted to the faithful suffering from Coronavirus, who are subject to quarantine by order of the health authority in hospitals or in their own homes if, with a spirit detached from any sin, they unite spiritually through the media to the celebration of Holy Mass, the recitation of the Holy Rosary, to the pious practice of the Way of the Cross or other forms of devotion, or if at least they will recite the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer and a pious invocation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, offering this trial in a spirit of faith in God and charity towards their brothers and sisters, with the will to fulfil the usual conditions (sacramental confession, Eucharistic communion and prayer according to the Holy Father’s intentions), as soon as possible.

Health care workers, family members and all those who, following the example of the Good Samaritan, exposing themselves to the risk of contagion, care for the sick of Coronavirus according to the words of the divine Redeemer: “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (Jn 15: 13), will obtain the same gift of the Plenary Indulgence under the same conditions.

This Apostolic Penitentiary also willingly grants a Plenary Indulgence under the same conditions on the occasion of the current world epidemic, also to those faithful who offer a visit to the Blessed Sacrament, or Eucharistic adoration, or reading the Holy Scriptures for at least half an hour, or the recitation of the Holy Rosary, or the pious exercise of the Way of the Cross, or the recitation of the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, to implore from Almighty God the end of the epidemic, relief for those who are afflicted and eternal salvation for those whom the Lord has called to Himself.

The Church prays for those who find themselves unable to receive the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick and of the Viaticum, entrusting each and every one to divine Mercy by virtue of the communion of saints and granting the faithful a Plenary Indulgence on the point of death, provided that they are duly disposed and have recited a few prayers during their lifetime (in this case the Church makes up for the three usual conditions required). For the attainment of this indulgence the use of the crucifix or the cross is recommended (cf. Enchiridion indulgentiarum, no.12).

May the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God and of the Church, Health of the Sick and Help of Christians, our Advocate, help suffering humanity, saving us from the evil of this pandemic and obtaining for us every good necessary for our salvation and sanctification.

[1] https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2020/03/20/200320c.html

Litany in time of plague

The attached Litany is adapted from the Rituale Romanum ‘Procession in time of plague’.  I have asked my parishioners to pray this Litany every day while the Virus runs its course.  It is easy to get scared, and feel helpless, in times like these and we forget to our peril that God is in charge.  I commend it to you.

Let us pray.
Hear us, O God, our Savior, and by the prayers of glorious Mary, Mother of God, and ever

a Virgin, of St. Sebastian, your martyr, and of all the saints, deliver your people from your wrath, and in your bounty let them feel certain of your mercy. Lord, mercifully heed our supplications, and heal our infirmities of body and soul; so that knowing your forgiveness we may ever rejoice in your blessing. We beg you, Lord, to hear our sincere pleas, and graciously to avert this plague which afflicts us; so that mortal hearts may acknowledge that such scourges come from your wrath and cease only when you are moved to pity; through Christ our Lord.
All: Amen.

Litany in a time of pestilence

Dissent and Obedience

‘God is love; and he that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him. … Perfect love casts out fear’

Sometimes I almost despair.  I have been praised and vilified, scorned, ignored, laughed at, hated, and all because I am a faithful Magisterial priest an obedient son of the Church. I am just one man and I feel the pangs, yet, I am called to be faithful, as are all baptised.

Someone asked me, “Today, what is the greatest danger to the Church?”  My answer is easy; it is disobedience.  Immediately, people will think of someone, bishop, priest, Pope, or anyone at all that is at variance with themselves, and the Church.

I am relatively new in terms of being a Catholic priest.  However, in the six years I have been a priest some of the following have happened.

• Been vilified on the phone by a Latin mass goer because “I am not a priest because I am married”.
• Been vilified because I do not (yet) celebrate a Latin mass
• Been praised for wearing a cassock, and been vilified for wearing the same
• Been praised for being a magisterial priest, been vilified for it
• Been praised for being obedient to the Pope, and been vilified for it
• Been told I am too orthodox, been told I am not orthodox enough
• Been praised for praying for Pope Francis, and been vilified for it
• Been vilified for not saying that Pope Benedict is still Pope, and been praised for it
• Been praised for teaching the Magisterium, been vilified for it
• Been praised for giving communion in the hand (an Ordinariate praxis), and been vilified for it.
• Been called a good priest, a bad priest, an evil priest, and the list could go on

Each and every one of the above has, at its heart, some form of disobedience and dissent.

Disobedience takes many forms.

• One can dissent from the teaching of the Magisterium as codified in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. I am a Catholic except for …. (insert some form of dissent – homosexual, abortion, infidelity…)
• One can dissent from obedience to those given charge over us, usually based on something they have done or said that does not fit our agenda.
• One can dissent from canonical obedience to the Rites of the Church. I only go to a Latin mass, people have said, yet there are 24 other Rites in the Church that do not use Latin or English, and the Ordinariate has been given the mass in English. I take communion only on the tongue, people have said, yet the Church has decreed that Communion can be given in both species, and the Ordinariate gives communion in both species, kneeling.  I wear a veil, people have said, which is right and a good practice (one veils what is holy), and yet the Church has decreed that women can choose not to wear a veil. Each and every instance has at its heart disobedience to what has been given by the Church through the Pontiff, and the Bishops.
• One can dissent by not acknowledging the Pope as the Supreme Pontiff. And the list could go on.

One might not like any of the above, one might question whether it is right or not.  However, the Church is a Divine Institution, a continuing revelation of Christ in the world, and as such, it is He and He alone that has control.  Usually, if one dissents, or is disobedient, there is a form of spiritual pride at work, one that says that “I know what is best.”

How does any of the above further the Kingdom of God?  How does any of the above attract people to know the beauty and Grace of God?  How does any of the above attract people into a loving relationship with Jesus Christ?  How does any of the above teach people that to follow God is a Holy and righteous occupation?  How does any of the above point to the love of God?  How does any of the above show the Sacrifice of Christ for all mankind?  How does any of the above demonstrate that we love?  How does any of the above tell people that God loves them, cares for them, and nurtures them?  How does any of the above demonstrate God’s forgiveness?

When I came into the Church, I had one aim, to further the Kingdom of God.  Furthering the Kingdom is the essential nature of the call to be Catholic.  Each and every one of us is charged with the Great Commission, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:  Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” (Mt 28: 19-20)

If all we do, day by day, is to snipe at each other, be disobedient to the Magisterium, be disillusioned with what is given by the Pope, and the Bishops, then how does that work to further the Kingdom.

Personally, I think that the Devil is having a field day, misdirection, dissention, sniping at each other, disobedience to the Pope and the Bishops, despair at this Synod or that Synod, looking to the next scandal, despair at the previous scandal, looking to the future and not the present.  All of this works in Satan’s favour.

There is much more to be gained by loving Christ, having a relationship with Him, working out our own salvation in fear and trembling (Philippians 2: 13) We must become holy, not only the priest up the road, not only the Pope, not only the Bishop, not only the man or woman one castigates because they do not do Church as you do, but ourselves.  If we want to further the church we must become holy, that means you and I.

The sense in which we are to work out our salvation in fear and trembling is twofold. First, the Greek verb rendered “work out” means “to continually work to bring something to completion or fruition.” We do this by actively pursuing obedience in the process of sanctification, which Paul explains further in Philippians. He describes himself as “straining” and “pressing on” toward the goal of Christlikeness (Philippians 3:13-14). The “trembling” he experiences is the attitude Christians are to have in pursuing this goal—a healthy fear of offending God through disobedience and an awe and respect for His majesty and holiness. St Paul says that, obedience and submission to the God we revere and respect is our “reasonable service”

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.  Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Rmns 12: 1-2)

Are you holy? Are you perfect? Are you building up the Body of Christ? Are you furthering the Kingdom of God?  Are you Christlike in what you do?  Are you Christlike in what you say? Are you Christlike in how you act?

The first sin was that of disobedience, and the world has never quite recovered, and we must not continue to be disobedient.  Christ came in obedience to the will of the Father, to offer Himself as an oblation of Love for all, we are called to further that Oblation in the world by becoming Christlike, in love, reparation and sacrifice. It is His Church, His Body and we do a grave disservice if we do not continue in obedience to Him, in faithful love, and Christlike surrender.

Marian Day, Cowwarr, Gippsland

The Most Holy Family invites you to come spend a day with us to celebrate Our Mother, Our Lady of Fatima.

Where: St. Brigid’s Catholic Church, Church Street, Cowwarr

When: Saturday 11 May 2018

Theme: St Jacinta: Reparation and Sacrifice

9am         Adoration & Confession.
10am       Benediction.
10:15am  Morning Tea.
11am        Speaker: Fr Ken Clark
11:45am  Procession and Crowning of Our Lady’s Statue.
12 noon  Holy Mass.
1pm         Lunch – BYO.
2pm        Speaker: Fr. Ken Clark.
3pm        The Divine Mercy Chaplet and Close.

Reparation/Redemptive Suffering:

Pope Pius XII spoke of this in his encyclical on the Mystical Body:

“In carrying out the work of redemption Christ wishes to be helped by the members of His Body. This is not because He is indigent or weak, but rather because He so willed it for the greater glory of His spotless Spouse. Dying on the Cross, He left to the Church the immense treasury of the Redemption. Towards this she (the Church) contributed nothing. But when those graces come to be distributed, not only does He share this task of sanctification with His Church, but he wants it, in a way, to be due to her action. What a deep mystery . . . that the salvation of many depends on the prayers and voluntary penances which the members of the Mystical Body offer for that intention, and on the assistance of pastors of souls and of the faithful, especially fathers and mothers of families, which they must offer to our divine Saviour as though they were His associates.”

St Jacinta had a tender and affectionate heart, but seized with fright at the sight of so many souls falling into the fire of Hell, she wished to make reparation in every possible way for their crimes, and obtain the grace of their conversion from the Immaculate Heart of Mary. She wanted to save them from eternal damnation at any price  : “Pray, pray much and make sacrifices for sinners, for many souls go to Hell because they have no one to pray and make sacrifices for them !” These words of Our Lady confirmed Jacinta in her ideal and primary objective. With an unlimited generosity, she was to give herself over to heroic prayer and sacrifice, for the conversion of sinners.

Other Ordinariates (Eastern)

A friend asked me the following question about other Ordinariates.

The exact question was “[A friend of mine] was telling us that their parish priest is also married, [previously] from the Uniting Church so it  got me wondering are there other  groups like the Ordinariate  who have changed back to the catholic doctrine?

The answer is not so straight forward.  Of the Reformation churches, those that split with Rome from the Reformation on – Church of England, Lutheranism, Anabaptists, Calvanists, and the resultant splits within these denominations – there is only one group that has returned and been approved by Rome as being fully Catholic.  That is, of course, the Personal Ordinariates as established under Anglicanorum Coetibus in 2009 by Pope Benedict XVI.  We are the only post reformation church to come back into union with Rome.  As we are historically part of the Latin Rite we were given a home back within the Latin Rite,  As such, we are Latin Rite Catholics with our own history, Missal, and Patrimony.  Methodists, United Methodists, and anyone in the Anglican family of churches if they want to come as a corporate body have to come into the Personal Ordinariates.

Read more Other Ordinariates

Plenary Council Reflection of a Magisterial Catholic

Msgr Harry Entwistle, Ordinary of the Ordinariate of the Southern Cross, has asked us to prayerfully reflect on the question posed by the forthcoming Plenary Council, “What do you think God is asking of us in Australia at this time?”

Prayerful reflection must be central to this listening process otherwise it will be impossible to distinguish truth from opinion. In my own reflections on the current situation I am coming to recognise that the confusion created by treating truth as relative is a key element, not only in why chaos exists, but in plotting the way out of it. As Cardinal Ratzinger said in 2005 before his election as Pope, “We are moving towards a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognise anything as certain and which has at its highest goal one’s own ego and one’s own desires. (Msgr Harry Entwistle, Musings 32 (1))

The Church is infected with this relativism at the moment, and this council, if you have read anything from the other Diocese of Australia, seem to point to a Church that is going to follow social justice, and not the truth of the Gospel, that there is one Lord, one Church, and that we are called to be obedient to the Magisterium.

It is no wonder that we are where we are. Some bishops who do not teach the faith, subjective faith, disobedient priests. Our Lady said it all, “Do what He tells you'”. Instead we pick and choose what part of the Magisterum we like and ignore the rest, we hold on to our sins and change the Word of God to fit our immorality, we praise the Saints but do not listen or take to heart what they have spoken or done. We are a perverse generation of Catholics doomed to hell unless we take to heart what God requires.

In the run-up to the Pleanary Council, Life Site news reports:

Here is some of the responses from one Diocese in Australia, and these reveal a real, and frightening (remember these are Catholics) detachment from the Magisterium of the Catholic Church.  Among the sixteen different categories of responses were the following suggestions, quoted here verbatim:

• The ordination of married priests;
• Women deacons and women chaplains should be considered;
• Focus on developing a more inclusive church. God’s love is inclusive. The church has spent too much time excluding rather than including, eg, women, LGBT people, the divorced, people of other religions … Many people who have drifted away from the church feel intimidated to return by past traditions of the church;
• A more active social justice stance from the church, more dialogue from the pulpit, more promotion of involvement by the laity in social justice matters. Church leaders should […] emphasis on the need to combat climate change as a fundamental social justice issue;
• Leaders of other Christian churches should be invited to provide advice to the Plenary Council, especially on matters of church governance.

The document makes no mention of Jesus Christ, the centrality of the Sacrifice of the Mass in the lives of the faithful, and seems to emphasize an adherence to relativism rather than the Kingdom of God obtained through Christ and his cross.

It is important that we respond and give our response to the Listening Sessions of the Pleanary Council.  You can submit them as an individual.  However, if we do nothing, if we say nothing, then we collude with what is happening.

I have submitted my own response:

• A return to the Magisterium as codified in the Catechism
• Catechesis on the faith.
• A return to tradition
• Bishops who uphold the faith as outlined in the Catechism.
• Faithful and holy priests
• Reverent and holy offerings of the Holy Sacrifice
• A return to our primary mission, the salvation of souls.

Will they listen? Will they change things?  Will it change the outcome of the Plenary Council?  The Church is losing its way, moving from its primary  purpose of the Salvation of all souls, to a social justice model.  It is our duty, a duty of love, to tell all about Christ, to bring all people into the Church, to love all people into the Church, and not at the same time to lessen the Gospel, or to let our own sins, weaknesses, and opinions get in the way.   We are called to be faithful to Christ,His Gospel, His Mission, His Magisterium.  We need to be there, we need to have our say, and we need to remind the Church that God is is in charge.

You can have your say here: https://acu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bf379tGXeK9DkMt

Christmas Greetings and Times

For all of the friends of the Gippsland Ordinariate those who are near, and those who are far away, this year has been rich in blessings of many kinds.

Our missal is now a couple of years old, and it forms and shapes the liturgy so that our focus is on God, not on each other;
We are starting to grow as people get used to our distinctive form of worship;
We are forming friendships, and ties with other Catholic groups who see in us, and our worship, something to treasure;
We are getting known as defenders of the Magisterium as codified in the Catechism of the Catholic Church;

As we are in the final couple of weeks before Christmas I would like to remind Catholics, who perhaps have not been to Church for a while, that one should go to confession before receiving Holy Communion. We, as Catholics, are to be in a state of grace to receive our Lord, and what better time than now to go to confession. As you all know, we are called to be Holy, just as our God is Holy.

For those around Heyfield/Cowwarr mass times for the Ordinariate are:

• Christmas Midnight Mass: Carols 11.30pm Saturday 24th December followed by Mass: Cowwarr: St Brigid’s Catholic Church
• Christmas Day: Mass 10.00am Heyfield: St Michael’s Catholic Church
• Feast of the Holy Innocents: 28th December: Friday:: 7.00pm: Cowwarr
• Feast of the Most Holy Family: 30th December: Sunday: 10.00am: Heyfield
• Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God: 1st January Tuesday: 7.00pm : Cowwarr
• The Epiphany: 6th January 2017, Sunday: 10.00am: Heyfield.

Original Sin – forgotten?

I have been thinking.

I have been thinking that we have forgotten original sin. In the great leap forward of humanity into a culture of death, and those within the Church that follow the world, and not Christ, we have forgotten this:

Catechism of the Catholic Church 402 All men are implicated in Adam’s sin, as St. Paul affirms: “By one man’s disobedience many (that is, all men) were made sinners”: “sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned.”

Original Sin, the reason that Christ came, the reason he died for you and I. Original sin is the constant ability of all humanity to fall short of what God calls us to be. It is the lack of sanctifying grace.

We are not born perfect, nor are we beasts that are defined by our instincts, our greed, our sexuality, nor our abilities. We are given much at our birth including free will.

Free will allows us, to choose heaven, or to choose hell. Free will, the decision to follow Christ, with grace given at baptism, to rise above, to be more, to become whole in Christ. We are not defined by anything the world has to offer. We are defined by what God calls us to be, through his grace, and in the fullness of the Holy Spirit. We are called to be Holy, as God is Holy.