MESSAGE FROM THE PARISH PRIEST

We have no empty tomb or firsthand experiences to speak to us of that cosmic event – Jesus’ resurrection! The potential is there for us to become forgetful. To live – for the most part – as though it had not happened.

Maybe silence bears witness. Do we dare to stop speaking, stop making noises, and just listen? Is it possible that silence itself can speak the words of a firsthand witness? Listen to this poem by one of the Australia’s great poets:

“Silence is the rock where I shall stand.

The silence between this and the next breath,

that might be – is not yet – death;

the silence between lover and lover

that neither flesh nor mind bridge over;

the silence between word and word,

in which the truth waits to be heard;

the silence between world and world

in which the promise first was sealed;

the heart’s silence between beat and beat,

in which myself and silence meet.

“Silence is the rock where I shall stand.

Oh, when I strike it with my hand

may the artesian waters spring

from that dark source I long to find.”

[Judith Wright, Judith Wright: Collected Poems, Harper Collins Australia, Angus & Robinson, 1994, 121.]

Need we be reminded that the pandemic is not over!
St Patrick’s is implementing the current State Government Covid Safety regulations as of Friday 7 March 2021:

• Masks are  mandatory in places of worship
• The QR Code is not compulsory for places of worship. We will introduce the QR Code when it is mandated by the Government.
• When you sign in you must give your first name, your second name and your contact number. We keep this information in the church’s vault for 28 days before we destroy it.
• Congregational singing is not permitted. 
• Our seating capacity is now 185.
• When receiving Holy Communion, approach via the right-hand aisle and return via the other aisle.  There will normally be two people distributing Holy Communion at the sanctuary. Maintain social distancing. In an instruction headed, “Directions for the Archdiocese of Sydney from 18 March 2020 until further notice”, the Archbishop wrote: “In the Ordinary Form of the Latin Rite, the Body of Christ should only be administered in the hand and the chalice should only be received by the celebrant ….” This instruction was reiterated in the Archbishop’s Seventh Pastoral Letter, 2 July 2020: “Receiving Holy Communion by ‘making a throne for the King with our hands’ (St Cyril of Jerusalem) remains normative in Australia in the ordinary form of the Latin Rite ….” St Patrick’s follows the Archbishop’s instruction on the distribution and reception of Holy Communion.
• Please observe all the normal Covid Safety practices: sanitize your hands, keep 1.5 metres between you and the next person, do not mingle unnecessarily.
• We are not out of the wood – remember the common good!

  God Bless us all

Fr Michael Whelan SM
Parish Priest
 ————————————————————————–

St Patrick’s Covid Safety Plan here