7th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Thoughts for the week

Continuing extracts from Pope Francis’ Exhortation 

THE JOY OF THE GOSPEL

                       

 

No to an economy of exclusion (cont.)

“…Can we continue to stand by when food is thrown away while people are starving? This is a case of inequality.

Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless. As a consequence, masses of people find themselves excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape.

Human beings are themselves considered consumer goods to be used and then discarded. We have created a “throw away” culture which is now spreading. It is no longer simply about exploitation and oppression, but something new.

Exclusion ultimately has to do with what it means to be a part of the society in which we live; those excluded are no longer society’s underside or its fringes or its disenfranchised – they are no longer even a part of it. The excluded are not the “exploited” but the outcast, the “leftovers”.

54. In this context, some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world.

This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralised workings of the prevailing economic system.

Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting. To sustain a lifestyle which excludes others, or to sustain enthusiasm for that selfish ideal, a globalization of indifference has developed.

Almost without being aware of it, we end up being incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor, weeping for other people’s pain, and feeling a need to help them, as though all this were someone else’s responsibility and not our own. The culture of prosperity deadens us; we are thrilled if the market offers us something new to purchase. In the meantime all those lives stunted for lack of opportunity seem a mere spectacle; they fail to move us.

No to the new idolatry of money

55. One cause of this situation is found in our relationship with money, since we calmly accept its dominion over ourselves and our societies. The current financial crisis can make us overlook the fact that it originated in a profound human crisis: the denial of the primacy of the human person! We have created new idols. The worship of the ancient golden calf (cf. Ex 32:1-35) has returned… (cont. next week).

 

Parish Events 23^th Feb. – 01^st March 2014

Saturday 22^nd 

6.30pm Mass (Joan Fitzgerald, Eileen

Schneider)

Sunday 23^rd  7^th Sunday in Ordinary time

9.00m Mass (pro populo – for all parishioners)

Monday 24^th

No Mass

Tuesday 25^th

9.00am Mass (Robert Burke, Albert Carey, Pat Loorham)

5.30pm Finance Committee Meeting

7.30pm CARE Committee Meeting

Wednesday 26^th    

9.00am Mass (Marj Regan, Monica Buggy, Irene ‘Sis’ Cavanagh)

11.00am Holy Communion to Homes

Thursday 27^th 

9.30am Meeting CWL in Parish Centre             

11.30am Novena

12.00 Mass (Wilma Talbot, Frances Hanrahan)

Friday 28^th  

9.00am Mass (Moroney & Ansing Fms; Fr H Scholtens)

11.00am Holy Communions to Homes

Saturday 1^st 

8.45am Rosary & Mass (Gentiles, Cariaso & Almenario Fms)

6.30pmVigil Mass (Marj Strachan, Ken Hughes)

Sunday 2^nd  8^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

9.00am Mass (pro populo)

Remember in Prayer

Recently Deceased: John Skehan

 John Hanrahan, Fr Ralph Fitzgerald,

Nicole Collins, Mary Sterrett, Marj Fern,

Sr Anne (Monica) Gale,

 Leonie Macpherson, Mick Fitzgerald,

Suzanne Knight, Patricia Seymour,

Frances Hanrahan, Alan Whitty

Roster 1^st – 2^nd Feb. 

Gifts:

6.30pm  P Culhane M Macqueen

9.00am R Whitmore

Lectors

6.30pm S Drum C Knight

9.00am E Christy B Christy

Special Ministers:

6.30pm T Drum J Lowden

9.00am K Roberts P Lemmon

Altar M Macqueen

Welcomers:

6.30pm D O’Halloran B Knight

9.00am M Tomlinson

Altar Servers:

6.30pm W Seymour H Langford

9.00am Ryan Heagney

Collection:

6.30pm Des Doyle

9.00am B O’Shea

Counters:  R Packer I Brooks

 

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International Speaker on Medjugorje

Wayne Weible at St Patrick’s Hall,

Smollet St, Albury

Sunday 9^th March from 11.00am – 6pm

Enquires:- Maree 0474124094

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WORLD DAY OF PRAYER 

Fri 7th March 10.00am at St Andrews church, Corowa.

Australian World Day of Prayer Website – click here:

http://www.worlddayofprayeraustralia.org/

When you reach the site, click on the YouTube item to view a beautiful presentation about Egypt’s need for literacy.

Then click on the ABOUT heading and go down the drop-down menu to “Egypt 2014” to learn about the very interesting background to this year’s theme of ‘Streams in the Desert’.

Let us pray for Egypt and peace world-wide.

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