7.00 p.m. – 8.00 p.m. Tuesday 30 March 2021

"John presents a completely different interpretation of the death of Jesus on the Cross."  Dr Mary Coloe pbvm, an academic an author with a particular focus on the Gospel of John,  This is a very special free online event during Holy Week.

“What will you do with your one wild and precious life?”

These words, from the poem ‘The Summer Day’ by Mary Oliver, provided the focus for the 2021 Rite of Christian Initiation (RCIA) Reflection Day, held at St Augustine’s Church Kyabram on Sunday 21 February, 2021.

The Way of the Cross, Bendigo’s own Passion Play, has been postponed for yet another year. The ecumenical, live, open-air, theatrical re-telling of the trial, death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ was to take place in View Street on Good Friday this year as part of the 2021 Bendigo Easter Festival.

The Way of the Cross Committee members reiterate that the production is only postponed and that they will press on to produce this important witness of Christian faith in 2022.

On 24 March a special Mass was celebrated by the Bishops of Victoria to bless CatholicCare Victoria, and entrust staff and partners with the new organisation’s mission to strengthen families and communities.   

CatholicCare Victoria is the result of a merger of CatholicCare Melbourne/Gippsland, CatholicCare Sandhurst and Centacare Ballarat.  The new organisation is poised to be a leading provider of a broad range of social services throughout the state.  

The momentous stories of Holy Week and Easter are so familiar, that we may sometimes miss important details -- aspects with potential significance for our own life journeys.  Lyn Breen suggests we choose one or two people from the Easter story, read about them and imagine the 'story behind the stories’.  What could happen if you walk beside them or in their shoes, or see with their eyes? 

On Laetare Sunday,14 March, over ninety people from across the Sandhurst Diocese and beyond joined together to officially farewell the Poor Clare Colettines. After 55 years the Monastery of the Holy Ghost in Kennington will close. The remaining Poor Clares, Mother Anthony, Sister Christopher and Sister Clare will leave Bendigo to join other Communities.

Australians will purchase over $200 million in chocolate this Easter. Some of this chocolate is tainted by slavery and comes at the cost of a child’s health, education and sometimes his or her freedom. Much of our chocolate is made using cocoa beans harvested by children, many of these children are forced into labour. We can help change this.

For many years now, Palm Sunday has come to be a day of solidarity with the marginalised and excluded – a day for joining with those who have the courage to speak out about injustice, and who speak truth to power, no matter the cost.

This year, Rev. Deacon Adi Indra is continuing with his Canon Law studies, at an unfamiliar university with an unfamiliar cohort.  On being tasked with group work, and considering a colleague's  comment that  "group work is good for humility", Deacon Adi started to explore how humility is a means for us to realise our dependence on the greatness of God, and on each other; and that we cannot go on our Lenten journey alone.

By Jackson Saunders

St Kilian’s parishioner, Sr Kathleen Slattery rsm, has celebrated her 90th birthday with a luncheon at the Windermere Hotel in Kangaroo Flat. The celebration was full of recognition for her many years of work in education and other ministries in the Sandhurst Diocese and beyond.