The Weekly Times - 28th March, 2018

12 THE WEEKLY TIMES Wednesday 28 March, 2018
Father Greg Morgan FMVD at St Charles
Church in Ryde. TWT on-the-spot PHOTO
Holy Spirit Catholic Parish, North Ryde
local parish priest reects on aster
N an exclusie or he eel ies the new parish priest o the deladesille atholic arish Father re oran
F discusses the eanin o aster or a roen world e writes
2018
PALM SUNDAY 25 March
Stations of the Cross at Macquarie Park Cemetery 2.30pm
TUESDAY 27 March
Second Rite of Reconciliation 7.00pm
HOLY THURSDAY 29 March
Mass of the Lord’s Supper 7.30pm
GOOD FRIDAY 30 March
Stations of the Cross 10.00am
Commemoration of the Lord’s Passion 3.00pm
(followed by Divine Mercy Novena)
HOLY SATURDAY 31 March
Easter Vigil 7.00pm
EASTER SUNDAY 1 April
Masses
8.30am, 10.00am & 5.00pm
parish@holyspiritnorthryde.org.au
www.holyspiritnorthryde.org.au
191 Cox’s Road, North Ryde
(02) 9888 2569
There is really nothing like
the Easter season and Holy
Week to get us back on track,
and relaunch ourselves into
the journey of life.
It is kind of like when these
deep space orbiters pass
close by a planet, deliberately
putting themselves into its’
orbit so as to use it to gain
momentum, change direction
and launch out deeper
and deeper into open space,
with added energy and new
direction.
We need Holy Week every
year for that.
As Christians, at times we
tend to lose momentum or
direction during the year, because
the circumstances of
life aet s
We are devastated at things
that happen, like the loss of
a loved one, a change in fortunes
or some other accident
or incident.
Sometimes we lose our
faith in humanity, because
broken people make up a
broken world.
Other times we simply get
caught up in the routines of
life, the work, the getting the
kids out to school, and the
HOLY WEEK & EASTER LITURGIES 2018
HOLY THURSDAY – 29th March
7.30pm Mass of the Lord’s Supper
GOOD FRIDAY – 30th March
9.00am Morning Prayer
11.00am – Stations of the Cross
3.00pm – Commemoration of the Lord’s Passion
EASTER VIGIL – 31st March
9.00am - Morning Prayer
7.30pm – Easter Vigil Mass (NO 6.00pm Saturday Mass)
EASTER SUNDAY – 1st April
9.00am – Mass & 10.30am – Mass
(Please note: NO 6.00pm Easter Sunday Mass)
basic necessities of life prevail
over our deeper needs.
All of us need times for a
periodic reevaluation and revitalization
of our lives.
This Easter is the perfect
time for that.
That is why we have the
symbol of the Easter Egg, of
a new beginning, of a fresh
start. Ah, but how can the
message of this Easter, which
we are told is basically the
same as last year’s, how can
it make an impact on our lives
this time round?
True, the basic message of
Easter hasn’t changed in just
under 2000 years.
But that doesn’t mean that
we have exhausted its meaning.
I, for example, am not
the same person I was last
Easter.
Things have happened to
me this year which hadn’t
happened last year.
I moved to Ryde Gladesville
from Rosebery. I now have a
budding community behind
me to back me up in my work
as pastor.
I am one year older, hopefully
a little wiser, but if not,
still not the same I was the
year before.
So the message of Easter,
and the ‘divine pressing of the
reset button on life’, is all the
more relevant to me.
N N
Holy Week is like a super
summary of some of the most
important issues in life.
We have highs and lows.
We don’t do what we say
we would do, or we say what
we shouldn’t, and we regret it.
We feel guilty about things
that have happened, about
things that we know deep
down we’ve either caused or
contributed to, and which we
can’t seem to shake.
We have the experience of
feeling like something is missin
et an’t pt o fine on
it.
So, how about stopping for
a few days and pondering on
how much our lives are really
worth?
We don’t seem to appreciate
the value of anything unless
there is someone willing
to oe soetin fo it o it
is taken away.
Our homes have appreciated
dramatically in value, even
from 4pm to 7pm on Sunday, April 1
Easter Fair at Eastwood Baptist Church
Come and enjoy the games and activities for
children and adults, stories of hope and an
international dinner celebrating the
diversity in Eastwood!
Contact - 9874 1514 or 0416 634 906
OTHER SERVICES:
Maundy Thursday Service - 8pm-9pm, 29 March
Good Friday Service - 9am-10am, 30 March
Easter Morning Service - 10am-11am, 1 April
though the walls and furnishings
may not have changed.
It isn’t because the materials
used to build them have
become so incredibly valuable;
it is because of what
someone is willing to pay for
them this year compared to
the past.
My life is so precious because
someone was willing to
pay the ultimate price for me
to keep existing forever.
That person is Jesus, and
he gave up his life for me,
so that my life would not be
wasted.
He voluntarily accepted the
Cross for me to be liberated
of my sins.
He lifted the weight of the
things that had mired me,
and had made me unable to
hope.
So I’d like to invite you all
to get down to your local
churches and delve into the
message of Easter for yourselves.
F
The message of Easter is
a good one, and it is timely.
It may not be believable to
some people, but it is one that
deserves to be pondered.
Jesus enters into Jerusalem
on an all-time high, only to
crash out to an all-time low,
with the same people who
praised and exulted him de-
anin is ifiion st
five as late
That could sound a bit like
te eet of a ba aebook
or Twitter posting has today
on the blogosphere tomor-
o bt it is also is a eetion
on te fikleness of o
society, and of how we can be
so easily swayed to believe
the opposite of what we used
to believe, and in such a short
space of time.
There will be great acts of
heroic love alongside the very
worst forms of violence from
humanity.
We will be witnesses to
seless sevie fo te
“washing of the feet” on Holy
Thursday evening, through a
aaton alk of sein
on oo ia i e
call the “Way of the Cross”,
leading to an apparently
senseless loss of life, but still
lived with deep purpose and
meaning by the one who undergoes
it.
We will ponder the innocent
death on a cross of someone
called Jesus, to which we are
spectators, and the parallel
eets of o on pesonal
wrong doings on the lives of
others, in which we are participants.
And yet we will also be forgiven
by the same God who
took on o an es to
overcome the addictive effects
of our sins throughout
that whole event.
Then we enter into a period
of silent waiting, like the seed
which is buried and takes
its time to reach the surface
and grow into the light of day.
That’s Holy Saturday.
inall oes aste nday,
the experience of a new
start after the horrors of the
crosses of life.
It is meant to be a celebration
of the power of love over
evil, of life over death, and not
the other way around.
That is our goal, that is our
final estination
What am I personally looking
forward to this Easter?
To a new appreciation of
the value of my life, of my
worth which can be seen,
not in the money I have in the
bank, or the property I own,
or even the number of ‘likes’
e et on a aebook pae
but in the Cross of the one
who gave his life for me, Jesus
Christ.
Like that spacecraft, swinging
into the orbit of a passing
planet so as to gain momentum
and launch itself out
again into space for the new
year ahead.
o te istian ea eally
starts and ends with Holy
Week, these eight days of
onein i stat s o
all over again. And I look forward
to a resurrection of love
in our lives, and a new determination
to put mercy and
forgiveness at the centre of
all we do, above every other
objective or goal in life.
So have a beautiful Easter.
Get ‘into the orbit’ of the
activities at your local Church
and help them ‘relaunch you’
into the year ahead of you.
You can make a fresh start,
a ‘relaunch’ of the trajectory
of your life, and even make
up for lost or wasted time.
It could actually be even
better than all the Easter
Eggs you’ll devour on Easter
Sunday!