From Fr Greg's Desk: Sunday 19th October, 2025

Hi everyone.
November is only two weeks away, which is normally a fairly busy month for us at the Parish. So here are a few things to keep in mind.

The Weekend of 1 - 2 November is for us both All Saints and All Souls Day
We have an interesting 'liturgical problem' to resolve regarding Saturday 1 and Sunday 2 November. All Saints Day falls on the Saturday and All Souls Day falls on the Sunday, the Sunday being the only 'Holy Day of Obligation. (And in case you are wondering, there are 54 'Holy Days of Obligation' in the Catholic Church - Christmas Day, the Assumption ... and every Sunday throughout the year.)

So, how does the Liturgical Office of the Archdiocese propose that we deal with such a novel arrangement, given that the Saturday night Vigil Mass is normally the same Mass as the Sunday immediately afterwards? This is what we have been advised to do:

All Three 'Scheduled' Saturday Masses on 1 Nov will be for All Saints Day
The Saturday morning Mass (8am at SCB) and the two Saturday Evening Vigil Masses (5pm OLQP and 6pm SCB) will be celebrated in honour of the Feast of All Saints. Please be advised that the readings on the Saturday night Vigil will therefore be different from the ones for Sunday morning. Readers please take note of this when preparing for your Masses that weekend.

The only exception to this will be the Parish Memorial Mass for deceased loved ones at 10.30am OLQP Church on Saturday 1 November. This will be a special memorial Mass, dedicated to the memory of all our deceased loved ones. Envelopes for November Masses will be available and a Memorial Roll will be kept for the names of all those being remembered during the month of November.

All Five 'Scheduled' Sunday Masses on 2 November will be for All Souls Day
So, each and every Mass on Sunday 2 November will be celebrated using the readings from the Feast of All Saints. This includes the 8 and 10am and 6pm Masses at SCB and the 9am and 4pm Italian Mass at OLQP. Again, readers please take note of this so that there be no 'surprises' on the day.

Tue 11 November 2025 7.30pm - Annual Remembrance Mass for Recently Deceased (during 2024 - 2025).
We will once again be celebrating our Memorial Mass for the recently deceased (i.e. those who passed away over the last year or so only) on Tuesday 11 November 2025 at 7.30pm. Please note that this is only for recently deceased loved ones and is meant to be a 'once off' celebration’. A special "Memorial Candle" will be given on the night for those who have died recently to be lit at the beginning of that Mass and then taken home afterwards as a memorial candle. For those wishing to remember deceased loved ones from years prior to that, we ask you come instead to our 'Mass for the Dead' on Saturday 1 November at 10.30am at OLQP Church.

Hopefully that will have cleared things up a little? If you have any further enquiries, call the Office during the week or speak to me about it.

Sr. Josephine Marie, our 'Five Marian Windows' Artist', Coming Here 8 - 9 November
We are excited to have Sr. Josephine Marie, of the Sisters of Mary Morning Star coming to visit us in a few weeks' time. She is coming to talk to us about the ongoing project to create five 'Windows into our Lady's life' at OLQP Church, where the five internal windows at the back of OLQP Church currently are sited. Sr. Josephine Marie has also kindly offered to explain, with a PowerPoint, the work she is doing on the 'windows', which we will have after the 5pm Mass at OLQP on Saturday 8th November. Come along to see and hear how an artist - and Religious Sister at that - creates such an incredible piece of artwork. She also designed the stunning skylight of Campion College Library several years ago. I have seen the most recent drawings of these five windows and they are truly amazing!

Presentation on Christian Art and Iconography - 11.15am Sunday 9 November SCB Parish Hall
Sr. Josephine Marie has also offered to give a presentation on Christian art and Iconography, after the 10am Mass at SCB on Sunday 9th November, in the Parish SCB Hall at Ryde. She is extremely knowledgeable on this topic, having worked as an artist and iconographer even before entering the convent. So you can grab a cup of coffee at our Little Noah's Cafe and settle down in the hall for her presentation.

NCLS Survey Results Now Available
As you may recall, in May this year our Parish participated in the National Church Life Survey (NCLS) with over 1000 parishioners participating in the survey, sharing their experience of faith and community in our parish. In September we had the chance to learn more about the results of the survey with Dr Sam Sterland from NCLS and Daniel Ang, Director of Evangelisation of the Archdiocese of Sydney, providing our Parish with some reflections and context on the survey. In recent weeks, you may also have read the Catholic Weekly article that Daniel wrote about our Parish and the results. You now have the chance to see the full report providing results from the survey on the parish website. Parishioners were very generous in participating in the survey, so we felt it important to share the results. I encourage you to review the survey results, using the links below, for yourselves and learn more about what we all said collectively about our Parish life.

SCB - http://bit.ly/4qfbTCz

OLQP - http://bit.ly/3J2JOxE

And that's about all we have for now. God bless.

Fr Greg