Back To Work

The Christmas decorations are coming down and the post Christmas sales have lost their sparkle, which means life is slowly regaining its normal rhythm. From Monday our Parish Office reopens. Please note the new office hours – Monday to Friday 8:30am to 4:30pm.

Hola – Calling all Spanish Speakers 

Every Wednesday at 6:00pm all Spanish speakers are invited to gather in the Stella Maris function room for prayer and hospitality. The evening is coordinated by the Latin American Prayer Group. Please let your Spanish speaking friends know about the gathering.

Liturgy

Members of the Liturgy Committee are invited to the next meeting at the Stella Maris meeting room on Saturday morning at 10:00am on 4 February. At this meeting we will review our Lenten liturgies and Easter ceremonies. We also want to plan our liturgy workshops for the coming year.

New to the Neighbourhood?

We live in an extremely mobile society and especially here on the Sunshine Coast, where people are always coming and going. If you are new to our Parish, or if you are reconnecting with the Church, we would love to welcome you more formally to our Parish Family. At the entrance to our churches are “welcome packs”, or feel free to complete the I’m New form online. We will get in touch with you when the forms are returned. Once again, Welcome!

Get Tangled in our Web

The best way to keep up-to-date with news, information, and upcoming events, including mass and prayer times in our parish family, is to visit the latest parish news on our new parish website. Here you can find mass times and other key events planned across the parish in The Week Ahead.

Subscribe to our weekly E-newsletter to get these updates in your inbox weekly, or download the weekly parish bulletin.

Speak like an Italian!!!

It is never too late to learn a language. Have you ever wanted to learn Italian, or have you learnt Italian years ago and would like to refresh your memory? Early next year we will be starting an Italian group and it is open to everyone from learners to those who want a refresher course. These Italian classes will be led by a qualified Italian teacher. It will be a great way to exercise the mind and have a bit of fun as we learn a new language – watch the newsletter early in the New Year for more details.

Gluten-Free Hosts

Gluten-free hosts are available. To arrange, simply contact the sacristan or coordinator before Mass.  The priest will always distribute the gluten free host at communion.

Infant Baptism

The next Baptismal Preparation meeting will be on Thursday 2 February at 6.00pm, at Stella Maris Church.  At this short meeting we explain the significance of the symbols used in the sacrament, answer any questions and complete relevant paperwork.  For more information please contact the Parish Office after the 9 January.

Requiem Mass for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI

Funeral Mass for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. Source: Vatican

In his homily at the Requiem Mass for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Pope Francis commends his predecessor into the loving hands of God the Father, and prays that his joy may now be complete as he contemplates the Lord face to face.

“Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Pope Francis recalled those final words spoken by the Lord, as proclaimed in the Gospel reading at the Requiem Mass for the late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on Thursday morning in St. Peter’s Square.

Pope Francis said Jesus’ final words summed up the Lord’s entire life, “a ceaseless self-entrustment into the hands of His Father” and recalled Benedict XVI also entrusting Himself into the hands of His brothers and sisters, offering the ultimate sacrifice of life in loving and serving others. The Pope said Jesus’ invitation to entrust our spirit in the hands of the Father is a programme of life inspiring and shaping the heart of every pastor, so that he may be “attuned in grateful devotion, in service to the Lord and to His people, a service born of thanksgiving for a completely gracious gift.”

He said this shows the great “closeness of God,” who entrusts Himself into the “frail hands of his disciples,” so they can care for His people in loving service and sacrifice. Continuing to describe the characteristics of a pastor who strives to follow the Lord, the Pope noted that “prayerful devotion” is required, one that is “silently shaped and refined amid the challenges and resistance that every pastor must face.” Pope Francis added that they should seek to embody that trust, which is “born of prayer and adoration, capable of discerning what is expected of a pastor and shaping his heart and his decisions in accord with God’s good time.”

He noted the importance of this aspect of mutual, prayerful support, in entrusting one another to the Lord, as the Church remembers Benedict XVI.

“God’s faithful people, gathered here,” said Pope Francis, “now accompanies and entrusts to Him the life of the one who was their pastor… We want to do this with the same wisdom, tenderness and devotion that he bestowed upon us over the years. Together, we want to say: “Father, into your hands we commend his spirit.”

“Benedict, faithful friend of the Bridegroom, may your joy be complete as you hear his voice, now and forever!”

Read Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s official biography via Vatican News here. Thanks to Vatican News, where this article originally appeared.