From Fr Greg's Desk: Sunday 29th May 2022

Hi everyone, and, well ... welcome to winter!!

1st Anniversary of Priestly Ordination of Fr. Dan and Fr. Steve Drum
Congratulations to our two intrepid priests, Frs. Steve and Dan Drum, who are celebrating their first anniversary of ordination this weekend! Both will be heading off to their home town of Temora this weekend because their parents, Nola and John Drum, are also celebrating 50 years of married life together, but the two of them will be back for the Sunday 6 pm Mass. We congratulate them on this major milestone of their priestly and missionary vocations, and wish them all the best as they continue to develop their ministries and build bridges for the Lord with their apostolic enthusiasm!

Confirmations Begin This Weekend
This weekend we begin the first of our Confirmation masses, at which our young confirmation candidates will be receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit to bolster their spiritual lives and lead them to maturity in their faith. Some of them had their retreat day last Thursday, and I've heard the experience was a very positive one. Please keep them all in in your prayers over the next few weeks.

Pentecost Vigil next Sat 4th June, 7.15 pm to 9.30 pm, SCB Church.
As mentioned last week, we will be holding our own celebration of the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost after the 6 pm Mass at SCB Ryde. You will first be able to grab a coffee outside the Church (like we do on Sunday mornings) before heading inside - when the Church doors re-open - for an evening of guided prayer, reflections, music, scriptural readings, and silent prayer in between. Get set to allow the Holy Spirit to take hold in your lives once again with this delightful evening of community worship.

Walk With Christ - Sunday June 19 at 2.30 pm: (Save The Date!)
Its on again this year! Please join in with me at our annual Walk with Christ Eucharistic Procession through the streets of Sydney. This procession will once again be held on the Feast of Corpus Christi beginning 2.30 pm. I invite you to walk under a specially made Ryde Gladesville Catholic Parish banner on the day. We will meet at the corner of Martin Place and Pitt Street in the CBD and then walk in procession with music, prayers, the rosary, etc. to St. Mary’s Cathedral, where we will finish with a short liturgy accompanied by Archbishop Anthony Fisher. This has been cancelled two years in a row due to COVID, so please make sure you don't miss it this year.

SALT Online Refresher Course.

Thanks to all those who have successfully completed their SALT Refresher course. Most of our volunteers who signed up three years ago will have to complete the Refresher course before the end of this year, so we welcome you to 'get in early'' and save us having to chase you up to do so! The Refresher course shouldn't take you any more than 15 minutes to complete, so please help us to comply with everything requested of us by the Office of the Children’s Guardian to keep our children safe, and complete the Salt Refresher course as soon as possible. An 'in-house' course will be organised at a later date in the year for those who have difficulty gaining online access or operating computer terminals.

Next RGCP Parish Pastoral Council: Wed 1st June at 7.30 pm SCB Parish Hall Our next RGCP Parish Pastoral Council will take place on Wed 1st June at 7.30 pm in the SCB Parish Hall. Please be there on time to finish by 9 pm.

Current RGCP Parish Pastoral Council Members
There are currently twelve members on our PPC (including myself), representing a wide range of pastoral areas of the Parish. It is chaired by Fr. Dan Drum with Josephine Colasuonno as Secretary. The other nine members are as follows: Judy Raumer, Philippa Manley, Simon Janda, Pina Bernard, Anna Alessi, SCB, OLQP and HCC Principals: Peter Watkins and Phil Stewart; and the other priests serving the Parish, Fr. Steve Drum and Fr. Daniele Sollazzo.

Parish Pastoral Council Meetings
The twelve of us meet 8 times a year, spread out to cover the major pastoral events of the Parish, at which we review the Parish implementation of our Pastoral Plan in line with the Archdiocesan Mission Plan Go Make Disciples. We engage in informative discussion about developments in pastoral areas, missionary outreach, and other pressing pastoral issues affecting the Parish. I thank them for their dedicated service to the Parish, and welcome you to raise any issues of a pastoral nature with us that you might like to see addressed in coming PPC meetings.

Commiserations to those affected by COVID and the Flu
I hope you are all holding up reasonably well, despite the amount of COVID and flu going around. Our schools have been hard hit by absences, and our teachers and parents are finding the going quite tough. Hopefully, we will soon all have a lot more 'herd immunity' to all of this; but in the meantime, please take good care of yourselves. Our Church needs each and every one of you, even if just to 'fill the pews' on a Sunday morning!

And that's about it for now. God bless you all, and all the best for the coming week, despite the predicted winter chill about to descend on us...

Your brother in Christ's service and in service to you all,

Fr. Greg