PARISH OFFICE: 158 Katoomba Street, Katoomba 2780

Postal Address: P.O. Box 526, Katoomba NSW 2780

Phone: (02) 4782 2804 Hours: 10am-3pm Tuesday-Friday.

Parish Email address: mmparishubm@gmail.com

Weddings: Please call Parish Office for details. (Baptisms: upon request)

Parish Website at: www.marymackillopupperbluemountains.org.au

Parish School: St Canice’s Primary School, Katoomba Principal: Mr. Mark Geerligs

Phone: (02) 4780 6800 Email: stcanices@parra.catholic.edu.au

USUAL CONFESSION TIMES Monday: Katoomba 9:00am Tuesday: Leura 4:45pm

Wednesday: Wentworth Falls 10:30am

Thursday: Leura 4:45pm.

Friday: Katoomba 12:30pm Saturday: Katoomba 10am Leura 4:30pm Sunday: W. Falls 9am Kat 11am Leura 4:30pm

USUAL WEEKDAY MASS TIMES AND DEVOTIONS

MONDAY: Mass at Katoomba 8:30am.

TUESDAY: Mass at Leura 5.15pm. Exposition 4.45pm.

WEDNESDAY: Mass at Wentworth Falls 10.00am.

THURSDAY: Mass at Leura 5.15pm. Silent Exposition 4.45pm.

FRIDAY: Mass at Katoomba 12 noon.

SATURDAY: Mass at Katoomba 9.30am. Cenacle after.

SUNDAY MASS TIMES: Saturday Evening at Leura 5.00pm

Wentworth Falls Sunday 8.00am Katoomba Sunday 10.00am Leura Sunday 5.00pm

LEURA Reader Sharon Varney

Server Zelko Livaic

Sacristans Pam LeBreton and

Natale Assanti.

WENTWORTH FALLS Reader

8am Reader

Server Sylvester Simon

Sacristans Bev and Halina

KATOOMBA Reader Russel Smith

10am Reader Maria Golez

Server Michael Wood

Sacristans

Annette, Matthew, Natale.

LEURA Reader Julie McGregor

5pm Reader

Server Hugh Jones

Sacristan Pam LeBreton

Counters Counter Michael Wood

Counter Natale Assanti

Counter Russell Smith

Counter Lawrence O’Dell

Counter Ben Howard

Counter

Cleaners (from December 13)

Kat Church & Hall

Annette and Bernard Yen

ROSTERS for December 16 (3rd Sunday of Advent)

COLLECTIONS LAST WEEKEND

First - For the Diocese: Second - For the Parish:

PARISH CHRISTMAS PARTY: Sunday 16th December 11:30am at St. Canice’s Hall. Cost $25 for families, $15 for pensioners and $20 for individuals. If any parishioners who would like to make a main or a sweet dish for the Christmas party, please contact Bar-bara on 4784 2473

PARISH CAROLS NIGHT: Friday 21 December at 6:30pm outside on the front lawn of St Canice’s Church. We are inviting all interested parties re music and/or setup and par-ticipation to please call the parish office on 4782 2804 with your interest and availabil-ity.

PARISH PASTORAL COUNCIL MEETING: This Friday 6:30pm in the presbytery.

PARISH FINANCE COMMITTEE MEETING: has been postponed. Date TBA.

DIAMOND WEDDING ANNIVERSARY: On Thursday 27 December at 2pm a special Mass will be offered to celebrate John and Lorraine Craig’s Diamond Jubilee and the Mass will be offered for all the families of St Mary of the Cross Mackillop parish. Please come. Could you please be seated at 5 minutes to 2pm.

SICK AND HOME-BOUND: If you are aware of people who are bed-ridden and for that reason cannot come to Mass on Sunday and would like to receive Holy Communion, please let us know.

ST. VINCENT DE PAUL SOCIETY: The Katoomba conference will be conducting a Christ-mas appeal at each church after masses on December 15th and 16th. Vinnies thank you for your generous support of its annual appeal. All funds raised are directed to the needs of the disadvantaged members of our Mountain community. This year, in which we find very difficulty conditions in meeting all requests for assistance, we will be seeking donations of non-perishable food items. These donations may be left in the baskets at the back of all parish churches. Again we thank you for your continued gen-erosity.

EPIPHANY PILGRIMAGE: will be in Katoomba hall staying overnight on Sunday the 6th January. If any parishioners would like to meet with them and join them for their even-ing meal they would be most welcome.

SON OF GOD: THE DAILY GOSPEL YEAR C-1: Free e-book (with Church imprimatur) for your computer/tablet/phone. This book offers the Gospel for every day of the new Liturgical Year C-1 beginning with the First Sunday of Advent (Dec 2, 2018). Each daily Gospel has with it a reflection of some 750 words. It may be accessed at the following: www.catholic-thoughts.info/ebook/

PENANCE/RECONCILIATION TIMES: Saturday 22 December 9am Katoomba, Saturday 22 December 4pm Leura and Sunday 23 December 9am Wentworth Falls.

CHRISTMAS MASS TIMES: Christmas Eve Family Mass, Katoomba 6:30pm. Christmas Day: Katoomba Midnight, Wentworth Falls 8am, Katoomba 10am and Leura 11:30am.

PLENARY 2020 FORUM: 10TH FEBRUARY 2019 at 2pm for a forum run by Blue Moun-tains Deanery where you can "Have your say about the future of the Catholic Church in Australia" at Mavis Wood Hall, Mid Mountains Community Centre Lawson. EVERYONE is welcome.

DECEASED and ANNIVERSARIES: TONY LOWE, JOHN THOMAS COSTELLO, MIKE NOLAN, JOHN SCOTT, MAT-THEW DUANE, LUCIA BLANZAN, HECTOR WADDELL, FRANCES CALVERT, KATHLEEN PETERSON, MARIE BREEN, DAVID JOSEPH, STEVE JACKMAN, NEIL NAUGHTON, MARGARET McMILLAN, BOB HAGAR, LYOUBKA AND GEORGE SIMEONOVA, and ALL THE FAITHFUL DEPARTED ESPECIALLY THOSE FOR WHOM YOU RE-QUESTED PRAYERS AND MASSES AND THE FORGOTTEN SOULS IN PURGATORY. SICK LIST: Len Lambert, Florence Gardner, Patrick Nolan, Wanda Heffernan, Diane Wood, Mary Roberts, Jacquelin Singh, John Egan, Kath Paine, June Way, Robert Sullivan, Natale Assanti, Alex Sharah, Susan Keegel, Eugenio Natonton, Emili-ana Santiago, Pat Coyne, Inga Morphett, Amanda Peters, Alison Michaels, Aimee De la Motte, Gloria Treval-lion, Margaret Esgate, Lorraine Russelle, Margaret Murphy, Joan Nolan, Pat Wolthers, Brenda Dore, Tricia Hogan.

EUCHARISTIC ADORATION: Come to Jesus in the Blessed Eucharist. Come to Eucharistic Adoration.

Pope Paul VI says: “The Eucharist is reserved in the churches as in

the spiritual centre of a parish... since beneath the appearance of the

species, Christ is contained, the invisible Head of the Church, the

redeemer of the world, the centre of all hearts by whom all things are

and by whom we exist.”

2 N D S U N D A Y O F A D V E N T Y E A R C 9 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 8

COMMUNION Jerusalem, arise and stand upon the heights, and behold the joy which comes to you from God.

given, but if anyone comes to be baptized while continuing to sin, that person's sins are not forgiven. This is why I urge you not to present yourselves for baptism without thinking very carefully, but to give some evi-dence that you really mean to change your way of living. Spend some time living a good life. Cleanse yourselves from all impurity and avoid every sin. Then, when you yourselves have begun to despise your sins, they will be forgiven you. You will be forgiven your sins if you renounce them. The teaching of the Old Testament is the same. We read in the prophet Isaiah: “A voice cries out in the de-sert: Prepare a way for the Lord. Build him a straight highway.” What way shall we pre-pare for the Lord? A way by land? Could the Word of God travel such a road? Is it not rather a way within ourselves that we have to prepare for the Lord? Is it not a straight and level highway in our hearts that we are to make ready? Surely this is the way by which the Word of God enters, a way that exists in the spaciousness of the human body. The human heart is vast, broad, and capacious, if only it is pure. Would you like to know its length and breadth? See then what a vast amount of divine knowledge it can contain. Solomon says: “He gave me knowledge of all that exists; he taught me about the structure of the universe There-fore, if what contains so much is not small, let a way be prepared in it for the Lord, a straight highway along which the Word and Wisdom of God may advance. Prepare a way for the Lord by living a good life and guard that way by good works. Let the Word of God move in you unhindered and give you a knowledge of his coming and of his myster-ies. To him be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen. (On Luke's Gospel 21)

FIRST READING Baruch 5: 1-9

Jerusalem, take off your dress of sorrow and distress, put on the beauty of the glory of God for ever, wrap the cloak of the in-tegrity of God around you, put the diadem of the glory of the Eternal on your head: since God means to show your splendour to every nation under heaven, since the name God gives you for ever will be, ‘Peace through integrity, and honour through de-votedness’. Arise, Jerusalem, stand on the heights and turn your eyes to the east: see your sons reassembled from west and east at the command of the Holy One, jubilant that God has remembered them. Though they left you on foot, with enemies for an escort, now God brings them back to you like royal princes carried back in glory. For God has decreed the flattening of each high mountain, of the everlasting hills, the filling of the valleys to make the ground level so that Israel can walk in safety under the glory of God. And the forests and every fragrant tree will provide shade for Israel at the command of God; for God will guide Israel in joy by the light of his glory with his mercy and integrity for escort.

RESPONSE The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.

SECOND READING Philippians 1: 4-6, 8-11

Every time I pray for all of you, I pray with joy, remembering how you have helped to spread the Good News from the day you first heard it right up to the present. I am quite certain that the One who began this good work in you will see that it is finished when the Day of Christ Jesus comes. God knows how much I miss you all, loving you as Christ Jesus loves you. My prayer is that your love for each other may increase more and more and never stop improving your knowledge and deepening your perception so that you can always recognise what is best. This will help you to become pure and blameless, and prepare you for the Day of Christ, when you will reach the perfect goodness which Jesus Christ produces in us for the glory and praise of God.

GOSPEL

Luke 3: 1-6

In the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar’s reign, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judaea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of the lands of Itu-raea and Trachonitis, Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the pontificate of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah, in the wilderness. He went through the whole Jordan district proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the sayings of the prophet Isaiah: A voice cries in the wilderness; Prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley will be filled in, every mountain and hill be laid low, winding ways will be straightened and rough roads made smooth. And all man-kind shall see the salvation of God.

COMMENT ON THE GOSPEL Origen (of Alexandria) 183-253 AD

“All mankind shall see the salvation of God.”

“The word of God was addressed to John, son of Zechariah, in the desert, and he went through all the Jordan valley”. Where else could he go but through the Jordan valley. Where there would be wa-ter at hand to baptize those wishing to amend their lives? Now the word Jordan means descent or coming down. Coming down and rushing in full flood is the river of God, the Lord our Saviour, in whom we were baptized. This is the real, life-giving water, and the sins of those baptized in it are forgiven. So come, catechumens, and amend your lives so that you may have your sins forgiven in baptism. In baptism the sins of those who cease to sin are for-

ACCLAMATION Alleluia, Alleluia!. Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths: all people shall see the salvation of God. Alleluia

Prayer for the divine mercy: Eternal Father, I offer you the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of your dearly beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, in atone-ment for our sins and those of the whole world. For the sake of his sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world. Jesus I trust in you.