From Fr Greg's Pew: 30th August

From Fr Greg’s Pew

Hi everyone!

Our Lady Queen of Peace Repaired and Repainted

If you have passed by Our Lady Queen of Peace Gladesville lately, you will have noticed that the statue of Our Lady at the front is undergoing a colourful transformation. Thanks to the artistic talent of our own beloved Fr. Alfredo, and some serious maintenance work (flaking, cracking and missing pieces) done by our maintenance man, Keith Stanshall, she is coming back to life! 

Whilst this is still a work in progress, I thought I would give you a 'sneak peek' at how she is being re-vested of late in all her regalia. We hope to have her fully decked out by the end of next week, weather permitting. Huge thank you to Fr. Alfredo for braving the cold and the elements, to freshen her up a bit (despite not being fitted out as his native Our Lady of Guadalupe!)

Confessional revamps

In other news on the property front, the confessional rooms at both Our Lady Queen of Peace Gladesville and St. Charles Borromeo Ryde have undergone reconstruction work recently, to comply with new Archdiocesan regulations concerning confessionals in the wake of the Royal Commission. I have been incredibly impressed with the work our carpenter Vittorio has done, perfectly matching the original features at both confessionals and with such good taste. 

Green Fingers to the rescue

Huge 'thank you' to last Saturday's bunch of volunteers with our Green Fingers gardening programme. A lot of weeds were ‘exhumed’ from cemetery areas and surrounds through a lot of hard work from our 'undertakers'. We are calling on all volunteers for another big effort in two weekends time (Sat 12th September), to finish off weeding the lawns, paths and agapantha beds before spring takes hold. The next 'work of love' will be returfing some sections of lawns that are looking a bit rough. More about that later...

10 am Family Friendly Mass at SCB

I just wanted to clarify that, though we began the COVID 19 lockdown in March asking that young families not frequent the 10 am Mass, please be advised that this is not now the case! All families are not only very welcome but particularly invited to attend our 10 am Sunday Mass, which continues to be live streamed. We are intending to re-introduce the Kid’s Liturgy soon.

Father’s Day Masses

Know that our annual ‘Father of the Year’ prize will be awarded at each of the Masses next weekend. Due to COVID 19 concerns, we understand that some of our more elderly fathers may not be in attendance, so this year even their children and grandchildren may participate on their behalf by receiving a ticket at the door of each Church. So, get your bookings in early to ensure your place for next week’s Father's Day masses, as places will most likely be hotly contested!

Instruction from Pope Francis

Finally, the next small section of the Instruction from Pope Francis for “pastoral conversion” of our Parish has been published on page 7. More about that in my commentary next week.

And that’s it for now! Enjoy the beautiful weather while it lasts, even if it is if a little on the chilly side!

Your brother, in Christ’s eternal service,

Fr Greg