By Diane Grant.

Mother, grandmother and great grandmother, Eileen McDonald recently celebrated her 90th birthday recently.  A Nagambie parishioner for most of her life, she's seen a lot of change in the region over the years.

Catholic health and aged-care operators are calling on government to create clear lines of communication to avoid the confusion that beset the sectors at the height of the COVID pandemic, a review into operations has found.  Multiple data requests, junior staff in the bureaucracy as contacts and a surge workforce that was untrained and unprepared to work with COVID-affected patients were also some of the challenges facing the operators, according to the report, Lessons Learnt from COVID-19.

The Gianna Centre is a caring family support, education, and referral service for men, women and young people dealing predominantly with pregnancy, parenting, relationships, fertility, loss and grief, and related issues. The Gianna Centre provides a welcoming, friendly and confidential environment, writes Catherine Holmes.

On 17 March The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference and Australian Catholic University’s public policy think tank, the PM Glynn Institute, hosted an online roundtable to consider the Catholic policy response to COVID-19. Leaders from a range of ministries and fields, from within and beyond the Church attended the event. A discussion paper will be published after Easter summarising the key topics and themes addressed during the roundtable.

On Holy Tuesday, Bishop Shane Mackinlay gathered with Bishop Tomlinson emeritus and priests and people of the Sandhurst Diocese to celebrate the Mass of the Holy Oils or ‘Chrism Mass’;a celebration of our entire Sandhurst Christian community and a manifestation of our unity through baptism. Bishop Shane blessed the oil of catechumens, the oil of the sick, and consecrated the chrism, since these oils are used in every parish of our diocese, the Bishop is linked to the sacramental ministry of the priests in every parish.

If you would like to learn more about different aspects of Holy Week, including its history and significance, or would like to delve more deeply into prayer and reflection, you will find something to suit you in the very long list of resources provided by Lyn Breen.

Project Compassion Week 1 and Week 5 stories have featured Jamila and Halima, refugee women who fled from violence in Myanmar to the protection of Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh. You may have seen media coverage of the extensive fires which swept through an area of the camp on 22 March.

By Kerry Stone

Last Friday, St Mary’s Parish Echuca provided an amazing example of a community ‘BEING MORE’ with their all-day Caritas Ks event in the centre of town. The Parish community, as well as St Mary’s Primary School and St Joseph’s Secondary College, all put their compassion into action by walking in solidarity with those who have to travel many kilometres each day for water, firewood, to get to school/market/clinic. Fr Pompeyo, shown here, led by example!

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.

By Brenda Pye 

Parishioners at St Mary’s Mooroopna celebrated the 85th anniversary of heir Church building on 23 February, 2021. Parishioners were deeply moved by the Mass. 

This year, Caritas has been offering an exciting new component to Project Compassion: Virtual Immersions —the chance to interact online with Caritas international program staff. Wangaratta Social Justice Team held such an event where attendees were able to pray, reflect, learn and discuss with a focus on the story of Oliva in Tanzania. Kerry Stone shares her experience of the evening.

As we go further on our Lenten journey towards Easter, Lyn Breen suggests we revisit Pope Francis' words at the 2021 Ash Wednesday Mass at Saint Peter's Basilica.  

"Our return journey to God is possible only because he first journeyed to us. Otherwise, it would be impossible ...

"Be reconciled to God" ... Be reconciled: the journey is not based on our own strength.

No one can be reconciled to God on his or her own." 

On Monday 1 March, over fifty people gathered for Spirituality in the Pub (SIP) at the Terminus Hotel in Shepparton to ponder the question, “Why Go Back To Mass?” Gest speakers Cathy Jenkins and Alma Limbrick both assured us they didn’t have the answer, but their thoughts certainly inspired us to ‘good’ conversation as is the aim of SIP. Goulburn Valley SIP convenor, Jen Frisardi shares her recollections of the speakers.

The Mass of the Holy Oils (or Chrism Mass) celebrated during Holy Week has a long and complex history. The oils blessed and consecrated during the liturgy are associated with ancient rituals of anointing used across various religious traditions as symbols of identification, strengthening, healing and sanctification. 

Paul Taylor provides an overview of the historical background, theological themes and pastoral consdierations associated with the Chrism Mass.

Shepparton Catholic, Jobelle Collier, 30, has fulfilled a childhood dream of competing in The Amazing Race Australia with her father, Rani Alegre. Seminarian Jackson Saunders asks Jobelle (aka Erika) about the experience and the role her faith played as she competed in 'The Amazing Race'.

On International Women’s Day, Caritas Australia joins development and aid organisations all over the world in demonstrating support for gender equality and celebrating the achievements of women worldwide.