Father Fabian Smith Parish Priest

Father John-Paul Mount

Assistant Priest

Father Patrick Bradford Assistant Priest

Message from Father Fabian

June 1, 2017 Issue 44

well in the midst of the many challenges we face. In my last 7 years here at St Anthony’s, we have organ-ised many social and spiritual events. I am very disappoint-ed that these events have not been well supported. In a parish where 600 people come to Mass every weekend we had only 10 percent com-ing to social events and only about 5 percent coming to spiritual events! On Anzac Day we had a family retreat in Padua Hall and about a hundred people came, which was good. But only few were from our Parish. At our Baptism Jesus invited us through the Holy Spirit to enter into the life of Trinity. Through the sacraments of Confirmation and Eucharist

Did you know that there are about 300 million alveoli in the adult lung? The alveo-lar sacs consist of many alve-oli and are composed of a single layer of epithelial tis-sue. If these alveoli were pressed flat and spread out they would take up the space of a football field, a total of 57,600 square feet! Our lungs are quite amazing! Like the alveoli in our Lungs our parish is made up of sev-eral families. When each family within our parish functions well then the life of our parish is more active and enabled to carry out the mission Jesus entrusted to us at our Baptism. The purpose of dedicating this year to celebrating Mar-riage and Family in our par-ish is to strengthen relation-

ships between spouses and their families. We have had social events, like the Valen-tines’ day dance and the par-ish social; spiritual events like the St Peter’s Series of DVDs/talks, which showed the significance of his call by Jesus to be the Rock on which Jesus will build his church. Through this series we came to learn how Pe-ter’s leadership and witness strengthened the faith of the other apostles and the peo-ple he ministered to. This was an opportunity for us to learn how significant the call to follow Christ is in today’s world and how parents are called to be the rock of faith in their families and witness of Jesus through their family life to society. Movies on the first Sunday of each month are featured to help inspire us to live our faith

From our Parish Priest…..

Padua News Committee Dolores Turcsan Edwina La Rose Lorraine Tellis

Rebecca Comini Ken Dumandan

Imalsha Silva Kim Barton

Godwin Barton

If you are interested in helping with any of the tasks in the

production of the Padua News, please contact any one of the committee members or email: paduanews@yahoo.com.au

Thank you.

Padua News Padua News is the official quarterly Newsletter of St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church

Cnr Exford & Wilson Roads, Melton South, VIC 3338 Tel: 03 9747 9692; Fax: 03 9746 0422; Email: MeltonSouth@cam.org.au

This issue of Padua News is also published on the Parish Website

Continued on the next page

continued on next page

Padua News Issue 44 Page 2

From our Parish Priest….. (continued from the previous page)

God strengthens us for mission, through the sacraments of Reconcili-ation and Anointing of the Sick we are forgiven and healed, and through the sacraments of Marriage and Priesthood we are sent out on Mis-sion like the apostles. To use the example of the lungs;

when the lungs don’t function effi-ciently then the person’s ability to carry out ordinary activities become very difficult. All these faith-filled and fun-filled events are organized to strengthen family life in our parish and to make our parish more vibrant. Please don’t miss the other opportu-nities that are still to be offered in the

coming months to strengthen and celebrate Marriage and Family in our parish. Please continue to keep all our fami-lies in your prayers.

Many Blessings Fr Fabian Smith

Our Parish gives us so many oppor-tunities to enrich our faith. One such opportunity, of many, that I took advantage of was the Family Retreat held on 25th of April 2017 (Anzac Day) Fr. Rojan George, Director of the newly established Melbourne Vincentian Retreat Centre, conducted this Retreat. Bernie, Ramesh and the choir led us in prayer and worship at the begin-ning of the retreat and during the day at different times. The School Hall was full, with around 160 people in attendance. A bus service from Oak-leigh and Epping, and lunch was pro-vided for the people attending. Fr. Rojan is a very inspiring preacher, and I felt so good to surrender my husband, my daughter, my job, my family, my plans and my life to Jesus. I allowed Jesus to take over the steer-ing wheel and realized that I cannot do it on my own. I decided that day to surrender all to Him.

I found out during the breaks, that the scripture readings meant a lot to many people in the congregation. The one that meant the most to me was “Be joyful always, pray at all times, be thankful in all circumstanc-es” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). It was difficult to understand that we must thank God even when in need and when requesting his help no matter whatever the outcome. We were encouraged to say the pray-er of Heaven “Alleluia” whenever we could, it is a direct connection to Heaven and this is one word that is common in meaning in every lan-guage all around the world. I found this amazing and it has had a pro-found impact on me. On the day, we heard many testimonials of healings from the people attending. Through-out the day we were given the oppor-tunity to attend confession and Fr. Rojan said Mass in the afternoon. He then led us in the Divine Mercy Novena.

I valued the thought that in my mar-riage union, there are 3 people, my God, my husband and myself and that “My God” is the first person. This was a comforting thought. I recommend a Vincentian Retreat to all our parishioners; it did a lot for my faith and makes me feel humble before God. As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. (Joshua 24:15)

Parish Family Retreat - April 25, 2017

Parish Social Night - April 22, 2017

St. Anthony’s social committee host-ed a Parish Social Night on April 22, 2017. I attended and was very happy to see the event being attended by

the youth, children and adults. The food was great - there was a choice of the good old roast chicken and sau-sage cooked by Richard and Rosabella; and Father Fabian and his mum, Doreen cooked up some authentic Indian Masala Dosai and Vadai. After dinner, yummy ice-cream was served, compliments of the Social Committee. John Scerri did a great job as the MC for the night. A ‘pass the ball game’

was organised for the kids and they had a great time. Last but not least we had good music and dancing - even the young ones joined in to dance the Nutbush. It was a very enjoyable night and we look forward to more social nights filled with good company, good food, music and dancing. See you there!

Submitted by: Marthese Mercieca

Submitted by: Liza Fernandez

Padua News

Our 50th Wedding Anniversary - Until Death do us part…..

Issue 44 Page 3

Our lives here in Australia have had its ups and downs but our love and respect for each other has been para-mount in our lives together. Our Faith has improved and the message of Our Lord to love one another as He loves us has helped immensely. Though Gladys and I are different in many ways, our love and respect for each other has helped a lot. The marriage vows we made in 1967 “to love and honour each other until death us do part” has been para-mount in our lives. How many more years we have to give each other a hard time, we don’t know, but we live one day at a time and thank God for His Mercy and Our Lady for her guidance.

On April 1, 2017, Gladys and I cele-brated our 50th Wedding Anniversary, and we were invited to write an article for the Padua News about our life together. In 1956 I finished my final year of study and in 1957 got a job as a Cus-toms Officer in the Indian Customs in Bombay (Mumbai). I boarded with my Aunt in the Railway Colony in Bandra and commuted to work each day to perform my duties as a Customs Of-ficer. One morning I was standing on the balcony of my Aunt and Uncle’s unit and low and behold this gorgeous girl came out of one of the adjacent units and proceeded across the lawn area towards the bus stop. It was love at first sight! I was mesmerized! I whis-tled as loud as I could to attract her attention but to no avail. Eventually, I got to know her through parties and family walks along the beach front but she stayed reserved. In 1959, I proposed to her but was rejected. My world collapsed and in

1960, I resigned from the Customs and migrated to the UK. No matter what, I could not forget Gladys and in 1963, I began corresponding with her by mail and wooing her with po-etry. Somehow she responded and consented to migrate to the UK to suss things out. By the Grace of God she finally con-sented to marry me and we got mar-ried on April 1, 1967. (P.S.: April 1st is the day upon which we are remind-ed what we are on the other 364! ) By 1969 we were both in good jobs but the draw to migrate to Australia finally succeeded and we boarded the P&O Orcades arriving in Melbourne, Australia on the March 8,1970. Ten years after our marriage we were blessed with the birth of our son Mark and enjoyed 23 years as his par-ents. He made a speech at our 25th anniversary and always worked hard at school and his jobs. THE REST IS HISTORY.

Photos: Top left - 50th Anniversary; Right - Mark and guests at the 25th anniversary; Top Right - The radiant Bride and the happy Groom

Submitted by: Gordon Clarke

St Anthony of Padua, Melton South is celebrating and praying very

fervently for Marriage and Family Life, from the Feast of the Holy Family in 2016, to the Feast of the Immaculate Conception in 2017, to strengthen Marriage and Family life in our

Parish. Throughout the year, activities will be organised in conjunction with this celebration - Family Mission, Family Consecration, Family Visitation, Marriage Renewal Courses, Youth

and Children’s Activities and Social Events.

Padua News Issue 44 Page 4

Book Review - The Promise

An example: the question asked by Wolton: “Is there a Christian morality?” Lustiger: “The first rule of Christian morality is to rely entirely on God’s com-mandments. Because he has been created in the image and resemblance of God, man must live as God lives, act as God acts, and the Covenant’s commandments set forth standards for man’s behavior that are commensurate with his divine vocation, which is to become similar to God, united with God, in communion with God. The believer must follow God’s commandments: that is the fundamental, permanent require-ment in our changing and precarious hu-man condition”. Missika: “Is there an absolute morality?” Lustiger: There is: God’s commandments given as words of life and standards of con-duct. They reveal to men just how helpless they are, whereas Jesus fulfills them perfect-ly, to the point of giving his life. And, in so doing, our Lord has made it possible for us to fulfill them through him, with him and in him, thanks to the strength of the Holy Spirit that is given to us. The Christian can be assured that holiness is possible on earth, even if men are sinners, because for-giveness is perpetually being offered by God. “Such an ideal of human life, in commun-ion with Christ by the gift of the Spirit, is specific to Christians and is endowed with a universal significance. Christians must never impose it by force or constraint on those who do not share their convictions, but at the same time they do have the duty to announce to all men the moral principles that dwell in them as a revelation and grace given by God for all humanity.” My friends at the wedding, life-long friends with Lustiger, recalled an example of Lustiger’s direct, strong ways of speaking. After witnessing their vows, Lustiger looked at them and said: “You two know nothing about love”. Colin told of the shock and dismay he experienced at the time. I too was startled at the telling of it. Then Carol added her affirma-tion: “and he was right!”

At a wed-ding I at-tended re-cently, I met up with old friends, Colin and Carol Net-tlebeck, from St Kilda. They had married about 50 years earlier while students at the Sor-bonne, the University of Paris. The chaplain who celebrated their mar-riage, Jean-Marie Lustiger, later be-came Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, Archbishop of Paris. Lustiger’s faith (and life) journey is quite remarkable. Born in Paris in 1926 of Polish Jewish parents, at the age of 10 he read a Protestant Bible right through, and was then convinced that Jesus was the Messiah. This is what he said some 50 years later: “From that time on, the reading of the New Testament took a place in my Jewish consciousness. For me, it dealt with the same spiritual subject, the same benediction, the same stakes: the salvation of men, the love of God, the knowledge of God. I am persuaded that the identification between the suffering Messiah and persecuted Israel was something intuitive and immediate for me. It is true that I had absorbed the paternal and mater-nal accounts of persecutions perpetrated by Christians, but I felt that their stories con-cerned anti-Semites and not the Christians spoken about in the New Testament: Jesus and his Disciples.” In 1937, with Paris fearing war, his father took him to Orleans, placed him with a Catholic family, enlisted with the French army and went south to work. His mother stayed at their apartment in Paris. In Orleans a year later, Lustiger expe-rienced a religious conversion. He was exploring the city and walked casually into the Cathedral. He was immediate-

ly struck by the physical arrange-ments made to celebrate Holy Thurs-day – it seemed very familiar to his Jewish sentiment. He returned the next day only to experience the harsh desolation of Good Friday. At that very moment he decided to seek bap-tism. His parents, aghast, did not pre-vent it. Though so young, he received instruction from the Bishop of Orle-ans. A few years later, after the Nazis had invaded Paris, his mother was be-trayed by neighbours to the Gestapo. She was arrested, sent to Auschwitz and perished. Lustiger later attended the Sorbonne, but in 1946 entered the seminary. After ordination he was appointed to the Sorbonne as chaplain. Not long after, he met the Nettlebecks. One of Lustiger’s books, The Promise is a transcript of a retreat he gave to an enclosed order of contemplative nuns. It deals with St Matthew’s gos-pel and reflects Lustiger’s deep con-sciousness of Catholic and Jewish faith. In it, he offers a unique, almost rabbinical way, of interpreting the Gospel that startles the reader with its clarity and strength of insight. He and Pope John Paul ll were of one mind, it seems, in matters related to the recovery in Catholic conscious-ness of the profound link we have with our Jewish fathers of faith, Abraham and the prophets, and of how Jesus, the Jew, taught. Another book, Chosen by God, Choosing God, sheds more light on Lustiger’s faith and life journey – 400 pages of transcripted conversations held over several months with two journalists, Jean-Louis Missika and Dominique Wolton, Jew and Catholic, skeptic and agnostic. Both test and challenge Lustiger, no holds barred. His replies reflect a deep sense of personal inte-gration and strength in his trust of the divine help given him and all who seek this help in faith. Continued on the next page

Padua News Issue 44 Page 5

Source: Herald Sun

LAUGHTER IS THE BEST MEDICINE!

Found inscribed on a gravestone:

“Remember man as you pass by; as you are now, so once was I. As I am now, you soon will be;

prepare thee man to follow me.”

And someone had scrawled below it:

“To follow you is not my intent, Until I know which way you went!”

Later, during our recent Holy Week, and with these words in mind, I went back to read again Lustiger’s account of the Passion from the Gospel of Matthew in The Promise. I gained more understanding of Lustiger’s

words. His strength seemed to lie within a deep personal awareness he had of the living God, of the Election of Israel, of Catholic faith and of the crucified and risen Messiah.

I was left with the question: can I really know love without also being touched, as he evidently was, by the Crucified and Risen Jesus?

Book Review - The Promise (continued from the previous page)

Submitted by: John Little

“UP FROM THE WATERS

God has claimed you; Up from the waters, child of light.

Praise the One who called and named you. Up from the waters into life.”

With these final words, said at the end of each meeting, we concluded our journey through the six week Lenten Program, “Up From the Wa-ters”. Eleven people gathered on six successive Mondays in two groups, one at 10.00am and the second at 1.30pm, starting on the Monday be-fore Ash Wednesday. Each weekend we read, reflected and shared our thoughts and insights on the coming Sundays Gospel; we viewed, listened, reflected and shared the Program’s reflection “Mirroring

the Gospel” and “Good News Peo-ple” who were fellow Catholics giv-ing testimony to how God works in and transforms their lives. Each week’s closing Prayer contained a ritual that called us to think of the needs of our World as well as our-selves, using ordinary each day things, such as: Stones: representing the things that weigh us down with a prayer e.g. “May the stone of hatred become the bread of love; May the stone of mate-rialism become the bread of living simply; May the stone of fast fixes become the bread of patience. Candle: representing the light of Christ. The candle which has been placed in the bowl of water is lifted and a prayer said, e.g. “May the Light of Christ shine in places of war and destruction; May the Light of Christ shine on the plight of refugees; May the Light of Christ shine on broken relationships.” Cloth: a piece of knotted fabric rep-resenting those things that bind us and from which we need to be freed.

As each person unties the knot chooses a prayer to say e.g. “Christ, you are the Life of the world release us from the bonds of sin. Christ, you are the Life of the world, release us from the bonds of apathy. Christ, you are the Life of the world, release us from the bonds of rigidity.” Tea Lights were also used as well as blessings. During the final ritual we were invited to bless the person sit-ting next to us using the water saying, “ …name… in the power of the Cross may you live more fully and deeply in Christ.” The Book, so well presented, provid-ed us with beautiful paintings and photos to ponder and encouraged us to continue the journey during the week with further suggestions for bringing our reflections into the reali-ty of living our lives. Most important of all, this journey, provided us with a deeper capacity for listening to and appreciating the Gospel read each Sunday and our fellow travellers in Christ.

Lenten Reflection

Submitted by: Sr Therese Dagg

Padua News Issue 44 Page 6

St Anthony of Padua Parish’s Child Safety Policy

At St Anthony’s Parish we hold the care, safety and wellbeing of chil-dren as a central and fundamental responsibility of our parish. Our commitment is drawn from and inherent in the teaching and mission of Jesus Christ, with love, justice and the sanctity of each human per-son at the heart of the gospel (CAM Commitment Statement to Child Safety). . The Church’s social doctrine con-stantly points out the need to re-spect the dignity of children. ‘In the family, which is a community of persons, special attention must be devoted to the children by develop-ing a profound esteem for their per-sonal dignity, and a great respect and generous concern for their rights’ (Apostolic Exhortation, Fa-miliaris Consortio, 26). Indeed it was Jesus who, when his disciples were arguing among themselves about who was the greatest, di-

rected his attention to a little child and said to his disciples, To support this teaching, we have developed, and are committed to, the Child Safety Policy, which ap-plies to all parish personnel, includ-ing parish employees, volunteers, contractors and clergy, demonstrat-ing the strong commitment of St Anthony’s Parish, Melton South to the care, safety and wellbeing of all children in our parish. It provides an outline of the policies, proce-dures and strategies developed to keep children safe from harm, in-cluding all forms of abuse in our parish environment, on site, online and in other locations used by the parish.

Our Parish has appointed a Parish Professional Standards Co-ordinator (Godwin Barton) and three Safety Officers (Aloysious Dacunha, Kari-na Dunne & Lorraine Tellis), to en-sure compliance to the policy. Please do not hesitate to contact any of the above if you need more in-formation or clarification regarding the Child Safety Policy. The above are extracts from the following documents which are available to all parishioners. They are also posted on our Parish web-site and on the Church noticeboard.

St Anthony of Padua, Melton South Child Safety Policy (1/12/2016)

Child Safety Code of Conduct Safeguarding Children and Young People (1/12/2016)

https://stanthonysmeltonsouth.wordpress.com/child-safety/ Submitted by: Godwin Barton

Faith and Devotion - Cultural Corner

Dear Parishioners, As a parishioner of St Anthony's I see many wonder-ful cultures in our parish. I have heard from individual people inter-esting cultural stories of faith and devotion. It is wonderful to think that we are one people of God yet people with different and varied background. So I thought that it would be wonderful to read about individual stories in our quarter-ly newsletter. I have put forward this suggestion to the Padua News Com-mittee to consider. If you don't feel confident in English perhaps your children can write your story. It is the story that matters and not the quality of writing. I will start with a little sto-ry of my background. I was born in former Communist Yugoslavia where at that time prac-tise of faith was forbidden. Our mother, of a Catholic back-ground did teach us the "Angel Guardian Dear". She couldn't teach

us more in case we children talked freely at school, thereby causing problems for our parents. But the idea that there was an angel of a su-perior being called God sent to pro-tect people was deeply appealing and remained a source of comfort. Not far from our home there was a ruin of a church where I would like

to sit and enjoy the atmosphere of the spire, the high ceiling and oval windows, all suggestive of something special, perhaps alluding to the mys-tery suggested by my little prayer. Later when we escaped from our country into Austria, and where we lived for a few years, is where I learned more about our faith. I was overjoyed to learn more about the mystery planted in me by the only little prayer that was a source of com-fort in my early childhood. The prayer remains special to me to-day. I like to think that all people have a spiritual guide, as a gift from our loving God. Earlier I taught the same prayer to our children and later to their children. Who could have thought that the little seed planted so long ago would continue to bear fruit through generations.

Submitted by: Mila Little

Angel of God, my Guardian dear, to whom God’s love commits me here,

ever this day (or night) be at my side,

to light and guard, to rule and guide.

Amen.

‘Whoever welcomes one such child in my name

welcomes me, and who-ever welcomes me wel-comes not me but the

one who sent me’ (Mark 9.37).

Padua News Issue 44 Page 7

World Day of Prayer - Am I Being Unfair to You?

The above question was posed by the People of the Philippines to all Christian Churches gathered in local communities across the world at the World Day of Prayer Celebration on Friday, March 3, 2017. There was much to learn about the people and culture of The Philippines so a Photo Shop Presentation was prepared by Godwin and Kim Bar-ton. This brief overview of Geogra-phy, History, Economy and Popula-tion was shown as people gathered. Father Fabian began proceedings by welcoming all those gathered from the local Christian communities. The Call to Worship was given and while the First Congregational Song was sung a Procession of Filipino people, bringing in their Flag and a Candle. The Candle was then lit before those assembled, symbolising Christ the Light who overcomes darkness and unites us. Ten tea-lights were also lit

reminding us that we each bear the Light of Christ in our hearts. Stories of three Filipino women from the three main islands of Mindanao, Luzon and Visayas. These stories told of suffering caused by extreme and endemic poverty; of unjust farming practices and the hardship and trau-ma caused by the Typhoon Haiyan: very moving stories, made more so because they were read by three Filipino women from our own Parish. After confessing to God our own shortcomings in how we respond to such suffering, we pondered God’s assurance of Jus-tice and Pardon before joining together in recit-ing The Lord’s Prayer. We then prayed prayers of intercession for The Philippines. The Gospel Reading was taken from St Matthew 20:1-16. Jesus’ parable, uses the landowner’s generosity to help us understand what the King-dom of Heaven is like. And having already reflected on the lived experi-ences of the Filipino farmers we re-flected on how we help God’s King-dom come in our lives and communi-ty. A DVD showing WDP Project for 2017 in operation was shown, fol-lowed by an Offering of both per-sonal Prayer and Donation for the work of this Project in The Philip-pines. This collection plus the pro-

ceeds of the Novena Beads sold prior to the event, raised $1970.00 which was transferred to the WDP Account the same day. The Final Rituals were threefold. Firstly, the Church of Christ An-glican Church was commissioned for the 2018 World Day of

Prayer. The Parish Priest, Sister Elise Wa-terhouse, accepted and agreed to host the lo-cal event. Next year’s International Host is Suriname, a small

country which lies on the north coast of South America, above Brazil; Secondly, we were Sent Out by Rev. John (Uniting Church), Rev. Frank (Lutheran) and Sister Elise with a threefold Commission to live justly with hope and love; Thirdly, the Final Blessing was given in Tagalog by Fr Geoffrey (St Cathe-rine’s). The four Congregational Songs sung during the Service were sung with heartfelt joy, accompanied by organ-ist Bill Lucas (St Catherine’s) and trumpeter John Mansfield (Uniting Church). Following an invitation to further fellowship, everyone snaked their way across to the Hall where a sump-tuous Feast, prepared and presented by Sue Alexander and her team, awaited us.

Christian Unity expressed in Prayer and Fellowship, Joy and Peace all gifts of our Gracious God to whom we offer our thanks and praise.

Submitted by: Sr Therese Dagg

 

Padua News Issue 44 Page 8

WARRAWONG WOOLSHED 1200 Exford Road Eynesbury district

Available for hire Unique heritage features and friendly environment - arrange and set up to suit your own needs for up to 120 people for a sit-down meal/family gatherings. For further details, or to arrange a visit and inspection, contact John Little at 0412 078 543

St Anthony’s Bingo St Anthony’s School Hall

CNR Wilson and Exford Road Melton South

(Melways Reference: 342-J-4) Tuesday Night Eyes down - 7.00pm

Come along and have some fun and support your Parish!

Editorial Policy The Padua News is approved by Fr Fabian Smith prior to print-ing. The editors and Fr Fabian reserve the right to edit all articles submitted. Articles may be reproduced with permission from the writer and editor.

Submissions for next newsletter

All Parishioners are welcome to give their suggestions. If you have any article of interest for the next newsletter, please submit them to the Parish Office or email to: paduanews@yahoo.com.au by July 1, 2017

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