From Fr Greg's Desk: Sunday 9th August, 2026

Hi everyone!
It has been very cold of late, and a lot of our parishioners are down with colds and flu, so I pray that those of you that are sick at present, from whatever cause, may soon be back on your feet, and living life to the full.

Solemnities of St. Mary Mackillop (8 August) and the Assumption (15 August)
As I mentioned last week, being our very own 'one and only' Australian Saint, we will be celebrating the Solemnity of St. Mary of the Cross MacKillop this Saturday 8th of August. Because of that, all of our Saturday Masses this weekend at both SCB and OLQP Churches (as indeed throughout the whole Archdiocese of Sydney) will be for St. Mary Mackillop (including the usual 5 & 6 pm Vigil Masses). However, please note that all our Sunday Masses this weekend will be for the usual Sunday Mass (19th of Ordinary Time).

For the Feast of the Assumption (15th August), we will be having a special Vigil Mass on Friday 14th August at 6 pm at SCB Church, in addition to the 8 am, and 5pm / 6 pm Vigil Masses on Saturday 15 August. All these Masses will be devoted to the Feast of the Assumption, which is itself a Holy Day of Obligation.

The Masses for Sunday 16th August will all be for the usual Sunday Mass (20th of Ordinary Time). I know this may be a bit confusing, but we are all actually obliged to attend Mass both Saturday and Sunday next weekend (or the Friday Vigil and Sunday) as the Solemnity of the Assumption of Our Lady is one of only two special Holy Days of Obligation in the Australian Roman Catholic Church.

That means that the bulletins on Saturday Evening will have different readings to the bulletins on Sunday, both this week and the next. So please be aware that those who receive the bulletin each week via email, will be sent a bulletin on Friday for the Saturday Masses, and another on Saturday for the Sunday Masses. The contents inside will all be the same each time, only the front page will reflect the reading for each particular day.

Hence for next weekend, we look forward to seeing you both Saturday and Sunday for Mass, and it would be nice to see you both Saturday and Sunday this weekend as well if you please. In any case, your Priests will certainly be at Mass all four days to serve your Good Selves.

So I hope that helps, even though I am sure I will be explaining this to many people over the next fortnight or so.

Volunteers' Ranks Are Building at the Parish
Thanks for the response given last week to a number of appeals we made for help over the last few weeks. We now have two extra helpers with our Catechists, which is really great, and also a few other 'exotic food choices' for our "RGCP International Feast Day" on Sunday November 8, which is really good. We have also had a few new volunteers join the ranks of musicians and cantors for our weekend Masses, and one doing the Acolytes course here at the Parish in a couple of weeks time. With the loss of Ivan Petch, who passed away a few weeks ago, this will be of great benefit to us all.

SOS For More 'Church Linen Washing' Volunteers
We are looking for extra personnel to wash the Church linen at SCB Ryde (corporals, purifiers and towelettes) each week, as we have lost a couple of people of late and would be keen to add a few more onto the roster. The work involves picking up the 'used' ones from the Sacristy on a Tuesday morning, washing and ironing them, and then dropping them off to us by Friday of the same week you are 'rostered on'. Any takers? Please contact Judy Raumer at the Parish Office (9807 2966) to find out more.

Verbum Dei Silent Retreat Booked Out for 21 -23 August!!
For those of you that might still be considering going to our Verbum Dei Silent Retreat for the weekend of the 21 - 23 August, I am both delighted and sorry to say that it is now completely 'booked out'. We now have all 30 places filled, but you could still let us know if you would like to be on a 'waiting list' in case some unexpected situation arises for one of the participants and they need to cancel. Fr. Dan and Fr. Daniele will be leading the retreat. Please pray for all of them, that as the theme of the weekend reads, they "Enter into the joy of their Master" (Matthew 25, 21)

And that's about it for the time being. May the Good Lord keep blessing you all during these rather cold August nights, and may we together be the 'Face of Christ' to everyone living in and around our homes and families.

Fr. Greg