From Fr Greg's Desk: Sunday 6th November 2022

Hi everyone!
RGCP Parish Feast Day 2022 This Sunday 6th November 11.30am to 2.30 pm at SCB.
Well, this Sunday it is 'on for young and old'! Come along to St. Charles Borromeo at Ryde and be a part of the fun. Gates open after the 10 am Mass, and there will be some tables and chairs available. If you'd like to bring your own you can do that as well. International food laid on, and a chance to meet and greet people from your Parish that you have not met before. Yes, we are going to need some volunteers to pull out the chairs from the hall and set up tables, as well as clean and pack up afterwards. If you can give us a hand, that would be appreciated. Why not invite someone along who you know has not come for a long time?

First Holy Communions happening over the next month.
We welcome many families of our young ones who will be receiving Jesus for the first time in Holy Communion over the next three weekends. In all, I will be celebrating seven First Holy Communion masses over the next three weekends. This gives the families of the 140 first communicants a bit of “breathing space” which allows them to invite everyone they want to be part of this important event in the lives of their children.

A huge thank you to all who helped to make the retreat and formation days possible for them, and who have offered to help out with them welcoming, AV and other volunteer roles on those days.

Memorial Mass at SCB Ryde Tuesday 8th November.
We have received a lot of requests to have a candle for loved ones who passed away more than three years ago. Since the Memorial Mass this year has been opened up to people who have lost loved ones since COVID began in March 2020, and have not had much of an opportunity to remember them in prior years, we will have to limit the special candles we will be lighting just to the ones who passed away in these last three years.

However, we do have our November Remembrance Book in each of our Churches for you to place the names of all your other deceased members of your families, and have them present during the month of November.

Portions of the book will be read out at Masses during the month of November.

Gardens at SCB Ryde
As you can see, the '50 cent piece' shaped gardens around the two large trees in the front lawn at SCB Church Ryde are on their way to bursting into colour with the irrigation put in this week and the flowers, hopefully, by next weekend. A huge thank you to the Morris family for fielding so many young men (and woman) to get the top soil and garden mix into place. As you can see, we are spreading topsoil over the lawns to fill the divits, so if you can refrain from walking on those sections, it would be very much appreciated by your Parish Priest!

We still need to spread a few more truckloads of top soil onto the other sections, but we hope to have that all in place over the next few weeks and the lawns ready in time for Christmas.

Booklets have arrived for Advent prayer groups.
We received a large parcel of Advent booklets for prayer groups during the Advent season and in preparation for this beautiful time of Christmas. These have been produced by the Archdiocesan Evangelisation centre and are available free of charge from the Parish Office. If you would like to be a part of these Advent gatherings, contact the office and let us know.

Neville will be hosting a gathering in the Parish Hall at SCB Ryde on Tuesday mornings from 10.30 am onwards. For more information please contact the office on office@rgcp.org.au or ring them during office hours at 9807 2966.

Christmas Rosters coming out... Calling all helpers!
Christmas is just around the corner, and we will be looking for help to man the many Christmas Masses this year. You can see the times and places in the info box on page 7. As usual, many visitors and sporadic attendees will be coming, so we want to be as welcoming a community as possible. Please keep in mind that these occasions do not just happen ... they are planned for and need lots of help. Please organise yourselves to go to one, and be at another to help us out.

More about how you can help us out in future bulletins.

New Pedestrian Crossing Between Church and Parish Office at SCB.

In order to protect our young children crossing over the road between the Church and the Parish Office, we have painted a “Zebra Crossing” on the road.

Please check for anyone crossing there as you pass over it!!

Your brother, in Christ’s service,

Fr Greg