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St Patrick's Parish Cooma Family

Cooma Parish Sunday's at 10am

Sundays 10am 

Weekday Mass at 10am Tuesday, Thursday & Fridays

3rd Friday of the month Nursing Home Masses= 9.30am Yallambee Lodge 11.30am Respect -Sir William Hudson

St Andrew's Nimmitabel

1st 2nd & 4th Sundays Vigil *5pm Liturgy of the Word

3rd & 5th Sundays Vigil (Sat) *5pm Mass

All Saints Numeralla

2nd Sunday on the Month Liturgy 5.00pm Liturgy of the Word with Holy Communion 

4th Sunday of the Month 5.00pm Mass

St Mary's Adaminaby 

tbc

Acknowledgement to Country

'In the spirit of reconciliation St Patrick’s Parish Cooma acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.'

A few words of introduction from Fr Kose. MS

St Columbkille Parish

St Columbkille's, 24 Kosciusko Rd
Jindabyne NSW 2627

Postal Address: PO Box 186 Cooma NSW, 2630

Phone: (02) 8331 7609

email:  cooma@cg.org.au

Suburb/Town:
Berridale, Dalgety, Jindabyne, Moonbah and Thredbo

website:  cg.org.au/Jindabyne

St Mary’s Parish

Queen St
Bombala NSW 2632

Postal Address: PO Box 186 Cooma NSW  2630

Phone: (02) 8331 7609(Cooma priest)

Email: cooma@cg.org.au

website:  cg.org.au/Bombala

Message of His Holiness Pope Francis Lent 2024  in Parish News to the left

Baptism Request

Baptism Request and Consent Form is required for Sacrament of Baptism, a welcome into Parish Family will be celebrated at Mass Sunday during Mass 10am.

Please see Application Forms to download a request Form and phone parish office during work hours to discuss suitable appointment time for your child's welcome into our Parish Family.

Thank you Fr Mark.

2023 CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

LOVE ALWAYS TRIUMPHS

The birth of Jesus, the Light of the World, always triumphs over the darkness.

The hope and light of the First Christmas in the Gospels is proclaimed from the darkness of the night.  There is a star that guides.  There is the joyful light that the shepherds, the Magi, and all creation encounter in the humble stable.

The surrounding “night” is not simply due to the fact of no sun.  It is because there is no Son (of God) in the hearts of some.  There are those who plot the killing of the Christ Child.  Jesus himself is clothed in cloths and placed in a wooden crib – all suggesting a future death on Calvary.  There is no hospitality for the “Prince of Peace” here. 

This pattern continues even today.

There is the continuing darkness of the wars in Ukraine, the Holy Land, Africa and other places.  Let us not forget that war is always a defeat for humanity – here darkness is chosen over the light of love and peace-making.

There is also the challenge in Australia of re-imagining our relationships with our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people after the defeat of the Voice Referendum.

Also, with the upward trend of the cost of living, this Christmas will be tough for so many to provide the necessities of table and shelter for their loved ones.

Yet, in the midst of these many darknesses, dawns the triumph of Divine Love found in the birth of the Son of God – Jesus, love itself.

Let us in silence and adoration invite this Christmas light, that chases away the long darkness of loneliness and isolation, to triumph in our hearts, our families and our communities! 

Let Christmas joy have a practical expression in helping others. Please give generously to the Archbishop’s Christmas Appeal. It will assist greatly places of need throughout the world.

Happy Christmas and New Year to all!

                                                            Archbishop Christopher Prowse

                                                            Catholic Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn

                                                            Christmas 2023

LAUNCH OF THE “YEAR OF THE HOLY SPIRIT” IN THE ARCHDIOCESE OF CANBERRA AND GOULBURN

HOMILY

ANNUAL PILGRIMAGE

ST MARY OF THE CROSS MACKILLOP

EDEN, SATURDAY, 19 AUGUST 2023,

READINGS: 20^TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (Year A)

Isaiah 56/1,6-7; Romans 11/13-15, 29-32; Matthew 15/21-28)

We gather once again for our annual pilgrimage to Eden to walk with our Australian Saint, Mary of the Cross MacKillop. This place was always special to Mary MacKillop. As we know, her saintly mother Flora drowned off this beautiful coast with many others on the SS Ly-ee-moon ferry in 1886 just off Green Cape Lighthouse, Eden.

Jesus uses an expression at the end of his teasing dialogue with the Canaanite woman in today’s Gospel. It could also be used in describing both St Mary MacKillop and her mother, Flora. It is the expression: “Woman, you have great faith”. It is from this faith that the Grace of Jesus was able to heal and give great joy.

Today, I have great joy in liturgically inaugurating “The Year of the Holy Spirit” in the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn. I did so this time last year here at Eden concerning “The Year of Walking Together”.

My hope as your Archbishop is that the Risen Lord Jesus will continue to shower the Holy Spirit upon us afresh in our time and place. May the Lord say to us in mercy: “Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn, you have great faith”. Let us pray for deeper faith by consecrating this upcoming year to the Holy Spirit’s guidance and Mary’s intercession.

Let us not walk too fast for the Holy Spirit. Doing this will only produce mere practical outcomes and resources that are not the fruit of “pondering and treasuring”, like Mary. All our efforts and energies would then produce only a modern form of a “Tower of Babel” in the Archdiocese – impressive structures that produce no conversions to God.

On the other hand, let us not drag our feet behind the movement of the Holy Spirit in our midst. To do so will only produce a pietistic Archdiocese who refuses to evangelise all the Gospel, to all the world, all the time.

Synodal evangelisation requires patience and discernment to the subtle directions of the Holy Spirit in our midst. What might seem to some as a lack of practical progress may not be so. Waiting for the reign/rain of God takes time for us to embrace fully. It took time for the early Church, in their discernment of issues in their time, to declare: “It seemed good to us and the Holy Spirit” (Acts 15/28)

Recently, well known Fr Timothy Radcliffe op, made comments in relation to the upcoming international Synod on Synodality in Rome. These words could equally be applied to our “Year of the Holy Spirit”. He said:

Journalists will be saying: “They’ve been meeting for two weeks and they haven’t made any decisions!” And that’s an entirely mistaken approach because what we should be doing is chatting – talking and listening – and then we will be changed. It will be very slow. All our study and argument and analysis is not about finding what to say, but preparing to receive the gift.

To assist us to receive this transforming current of grace of the Holy Spirit, you have already been given many fine resources and documents. They will explain fully the aims and approaches to our Year. The first action is to create “evangelisation circles” in your communities.

All of us, not just some parishes, or some schools or some communities, are strongly invited to participate. We have struggled to do this in the past. Walking in parallel lines is not enough! We must intersect together to allow the Holy Spirit to weave amongst us and lead us. This attitude is the first impulse for our year together.

In the latter part of 2024, we will all meet and listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying amongst us all.

Mr Huw Warmenhoven will serve us in the leadership of accompaniment in all this. He is available to assist: huw.warmenhoven@cg.org.au

Let us place this next year in our prayers and pastoral actions.

Archbishop Christopher Prowse

Catholic Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn.

19^th August 2023

PASTORAL LETTER - YEAR OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

TIME TO GATHER FOR AN ARCHDIOCESAN ASSEMBLY – WITH A VIEW OF

RE-ESTABLISHING A DIOCESAN PASTORAL COUNCIL

Dear FRIENDS IN CHRIST,

8^th AUGUST 2022 - 8 AUGUST 2023

YEAR OF WALKING TOGETHER.

We are coming towards the end of our Walking Together Year. This time has always had modest expectations. It arose immediately after the Plenary Council of Australia. The focus was on its themes of synodality.  It asked the Archdiocese to scrutinise how she can truly Walk Together in evangelisation.

I have observed that the expression itself is now quite widely used around the Archdiocese. It carries a hope of listening better together. Another hope is the networking of our pastoral activities more acutely towards evangelisation. This latter aim has been difficult to activate. We tend to do what Pope Francis warns us against: “walking together in parallel lines that never meet”.

___________________________________________________________________________________

8^th AUGUST 2023 – 8^TH AUGUST 2024

YEAR OF THE HOLY SPIRIT - “IT SEEMED GOOD TO US AND THE HOLY SPIRIT” (Acts 15/28)

I believe it is now time for us to journey the next steps together in a focussed manner. The next year is to focus on the work of the Holy Spirit in us.

We need to gather for an Archdiocesan Assembly with a view of re-establishing a Diocesan Pastoral Council.

To move towards this end under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, four important focus areas need thorough discussion in our parishes and local communities of faith.

FOCUS ONE: AN ARCHDIOCESAN UNDERSTANDING OF EVANGELISATION.

We need an articulated and shared understanding of evangelisation within the Catholic Tradition. This forms a pastoral/theological foundation for all that follows.

Recently the Australian Bishops have published a short and helpful document articulating just this from a biblical/theological perspective. It is titled: “Evangelisation: Encounter, Discipleship and Mission”. In our listening / sharing circles, we are to deepen our communal understanding of this vision of evangelisation.

FOCUS TWO: EVANGELISATION IN A SYNODAL AND MARIAN WAY.

Following on from this agreed understanding, we then examine how evangelisation is expressed in a synodal and Marian way. This dynamic topic is the source of much present day global discussion within the Catholic Church. Also, past Synods of the Archdiocese still offer us wisdom for the future.

We examine how this arises from our shared Baptism (Confirmation/Eucharist). 

The Holy Spirit is the principal agent of evangelisation. This belief involves examination of the charisms of the Holy Spirit in our lives of faith. What Holy Spirit gifts do we discern in our own lives and the lives of others to project forward the mission of the Church in the world of today?

There are many new and helpful statements on these topics on the national, regional and international levels. We can examine some of these to assist us in our local and communal discernment.

FOCUS THREE: SPECIFIC AREAS OF EVANGELISATION.

Responding with the above foundations, we can then consider a local appropriation to the 8 main Decrees of the 8^th Plenary Council of Australia.

Just recently, a helpful Australian pastoral resource has become available for us to gather in evangelisation circles and consider these Decrees.

FOCUS FOUR: ARCHDIOCESAN ASSEMBLY.

With the above sensibilities in mind and heart, we can gather as an Archdiocese and share the fruits of our listening to the Holy Spirit together. Relying on the movement of the Holy Spirit, we discern, for example, the exact nature of a Diocesan Pastoral Council for our Archdiocese.

Learning from the creative ways we responded electronically to the Covid pandemic, we could utilise the multi-modal ways of gathering not simply physically in one place but in many places simultaneously around our rural diocese.

We need to pose the question also during this assembly regarding the move towards an Archdiocesan Synod in the near future and what form such a formal gathering would take.

I notice that the young adults of our Archdiocese have shown conspicuous leadership in gathering using all the electronic means available. They have developed also creative ways of leading such discussions. Perhaps they could offer some leadership in advancing an Archdiocesan Assembly. Maybe we could gather in the second half of 2024.

________________________________________________________________

I suppose when we place our own present day challenges and hopes in advancing the great mandate of the Lord Jesus to evangelise, we can look contemplatively to the Acts of the Apostles for biblical leadership and pastoral authority. After all their communal discernment of the Holy Spirit in the particular pastoral problems of the apostolic times, they concluded by using a wonderful expression that ought to animate our own humble attempts. Before articulating a specific response to an issue, they exclaimed:

“IT SEEMED GOOD TO US AND THE HOLY SPIRIT” (Acts 15/28)

Let us pray that as we set out on a new journey of evangelisation as an Archdiocese, we can reach this same statement of faith in a synodal and Marian way.

Soon a further document will be sent out with further details and resources listed.