Parish of Baulkham Hills St Michael’s Church

1 Parish of Baulkham Hills St michael s Church First Sunday of Advent - 28th November 2021 COVID UPDATE FRIDAY 26 NOVEMBER 2021 A COVID SAFE Parish Dear Parishioners, We are still working under the 2 sq metre rule, but it is now expected that on December 15, if not earlier, this rule will disappear and masks will also no longer be mandatory in places of worship. However the QR registration requirement will still apply. St michael s Mass Mon Fri Sat morning Sat Vigil Sun , , and 6pm OLOL Mass Wed-Fri Sat Vigil (livestreamed) Sun Reconciliation @ St michael s Sat morning & - Reconciliation @ OLOL Sat afternoon from to FR CHINONYE TO GO EARLIER THAN ANTICIPATED AND FR JESSIE CELEBRATES While we had hoped Fr Chinonye would be with us until Christmas before moving to Blacktown, Bishop Vincent has now asked him to become the Administrator of St Padre Pio Parish , Glenmore Park while the Parish Priest, Fr Suresh Kumar, takes some annual and long service leave in India.

2 Fr Chinonye will move to Glenmore Park on Wednesday 1 December and his last Mass here will be Sunday morning at Our Lady of Lourdes. We are sorry to see him go so quickly, and wish him God s blessings in this well-deserved appointment. Meanwhile, Fr Jessie celebrates the 3rd anniversary of his priestly ordination on 30 November. His classmates also ordained on that day in 2018 are Fr Galbert Albino (currently at Rooty hill ), Fr Chris del Rosario (Parramatta) and Jack Green (overseas study in Oxford). Ad multos annos many more years, Jessie!!!! BISHOP S CHRISTMAS APPEAL FOR CATHOLIC CARE HOUSES TO HOMES No mother or child should be homeless and without support at Christmas. CatholicCare s Houses to Homes provides hope for vulnerable women and children facing abuse and hardship.

3 Your kind donation today will help change the lives of homeless young women, who like Mary, seek a safe haven to raise their newborn child. Please give generously via the Bishop s Christmas Appeal giving envelopes or online at Thank you for your heartfelt prayers and support. RULES For places of worship, all can attend regardless of vaccination status. However special rules apply for weddings or funerals. These will have capped numbers if there are people who are not fully vaccinated in attendance even when held inside a place of worship. The following will apply: Weddings: If all attending are fully vaccinated: Weddings in the Church are permitted capped only by the 2sqm rule. If there are attendees who are not fully vaccinated: 5 guests can attend. This does not include the couple getting married, the priest celebrating the wedding, two witnesses and a camera operator recording the ceremony.

4 This means a total of 11 people can be present. Funerals: If all attending are fully vaccinated: Funerals in the Church are permitted capped only by the 2sqm rule. If there are attendees who are not fully vaccinated: a 10-person limit will apply if people who are not fully vaccinated are in attendance. This does not include the priest and funeral company representatives. A person is considered fully vaccinated if they have had two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, or has a medical contraindication certificate, or a medical contraindication recorded on the Australian Immunisation Register. NOVEMBER MASSES FOR THE DECEASED Please see the note within the bulletin. Envelopes will be available in the Churches. LIVESTREAMING Mass will continue to be live streamed on Saturday evening at 6pm from Our Lady of Lourdes, and available for viewing afterwards via the link.

5 We are also using FACEBOOK links via the Parish of Baulkham Hills FACEBOOK page. Thank you to Jim and Brian for your help with this every week. The link for Saturday evening s Mass for the First Sunday of Advent (Year C readings) is As always it is livestreamed at 6pm AEDT (summer) time, and then available on YouTube. Also it is now available via Parish of Baulkham Hills Facebook page. Please note that it is our intention to continue live-streaming the Saturday Mass for the foreseeable future, even when Churches re-open. ST PAUL, HIS LIFE AND TEACHING This week we continue Pope Benedict s catechesis on the life of St Paul and his teaching, which was given in 2008. This week s focus is on The Doctrine of Justification: from Works to Faith. PRAYERS PLEASE In your mercy please pray for those who have died recently including Lorraine Teasdel, Frank Malkoun, Carolyn Wall, Annita D Alessio and our COVID casualties in NSW and throughout the world, and those whose anniversaries occur around this time Jim Gaudry, Leo Meauro, Olga Peters and Aurora Santos.

6 MAILING LIST A reminder that if you would like to be part of a Parish email list for updates plus copies of the bulletin, and are not currently receiving any emails from the Parish , please send an email to please also indicate if you are regularly a worshipper at Our Lady of Lourdes or St michael s. In these difficult times, if you need pastoral support or hear of anyone in need of assistance from a priest, the Parish Office or Vinnies, please do not hesitate to contact us. Fr Wim SUPPORT DONATIONS Whilst our churches are now open. I would like to thank those who have made contributions to our Parish and priests at this time. If you would like to continue to contribute online, to assist proper recording for the second collection, please include your envelope number if you have one.

7 For EFT to the First Collection - supporting the priests BSB 067 950 Account No 000004265 Account Name Diocesan Clergy Reference 6001 your name For EFT to the second (envelope and loose) Collection for support of the Parish , BSB 067 950 Account No 000000214 Account Name St michael s Baulkham Hills Reference Envelope Number or Your Name If you wish to pay by credit card, please use this link BISHOP S CHRISTMAS APPEAL 2021 WEEKEND 27/28 NOVEMBER Dear Parishioners Our Parish is proud to support Parramatta Catholic Foundation s Bishop s Christmas Appeal. Funds raised through Parramatta Catholic Foundation will enable CatholicCare s Houses to Homes to support vulnerable young pregnant women who are facing hardship, abuse and homelessness so that they and their children can face the future with hope, safety and security.

8 We invite you in this Year of the Family, to show your Christian kindness to vulnerable women and their children in need, by supporting the Bishop s Christmas Appeal. Your gift to Parramatta Catholic Foundation will help pregnant and at-risk young mothers bring their babies into the world in a safe, nurturing and emotionally secure environment, setting them up for the very best start to their family life. Your gift to Parramatta Catholic Foundation will help pregnant and at-risk young mothers bring their babies into the world in a safe, nurturing and emotionally secure environment, setting them up for the very best start to their family life. No mother or child should be homeless and without support at Christmas. CatholicCare s Houses to Homes provides hope for vulnerable women and children facing abuse and hardship. Your kind donation today will help change the lives of homeless young women, who like Mary, seek a safe haven to raise their newborn child.

9 Please give generously via the Bishop s Christmas Appeal giving envelopes or online at Thank you for your heartfelt prayers and support. ST PAUL, HIS LIFE AND HIS TEACHING (Pope Benedict given in 2008, the year of St Paul) Saint Paul (13) - The Doctrine of Justification: from Works to Faith. Dear Brothers and Sisters, On the journey we are making under St Paul's guidance, let us now reflect on a topic at the centre of the controversies of the century of the Reformation: the question of justification. How does man become just in God's eyes? When Paul met the Risen One on the road to Damascus he was an accomplished man; irreproachable according to the justice deriving from the Law (cf. Phil 3: 6), Paul surpassed many of his contemporaries in the observance of the Mosaic Law and zealously upheld the traditions of his fathers (cf.)

10 Gal 1: 14). The illumination of Damascus radically changed his life; he began to consider all merits acquired in an impeccable religious career as "refuse", in comparison with the sublimity of knowing Jesus Christ (cf. Phil 3: 8). The Letter to the Philippians offers us a moving testimony of Paul's transition from a justice founded on the Law and acquired by his observance of the required actions, to a justice based on faith in Christ. He had understood that what until then had seemed to him to be a gain, before God was, in fact, a loss; and thus he had decided to stake his whole existence on Jesus Christ (cf. Phil 3: 7). The treasure hidden in the field and the precious pearl for whose purchase all was to be invested were no longer in function of the Law, but Jesus Christ, his Lord. The relationship between Paul and the Risen One became so deep as to induce him to maintain that Christ was no longer solely his life but also his very living, to the point that to be able to reach him death became a gain (cf.