Dear friends in Christ

In the Gospel of this Sunday’s Mass, Jesus challenges us with the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard—the challenge is: do we fulfil what is asked of us; do we live the virtues of obedience according to our state in life? Throughout His life, Our Saviour underwent many trials and in them all He was obedient to the Will of God the Father. St Thomas Aquinas said that a very good sign of obedience is our willingness to obey others. Pride inclines us to do our own will and to seek what exalts us, not to wish to be directed by others, but to direct them. Obedience is opposed to this pride. The only Son of the Father came down from Heaven to save us, to cure our pride, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death on the Cross. Jesus wants to teach us this path of self-denial and to help us see that it is an act of love to subject ourselves to the good will of others.

By a long tradition, dating from the 1570’s, the first Sunday of October has been observed as Rosary Sunday. This was established by Pope Saint Pius V in thanksgiving for the victory at the Battle of Lepanto. As then, so now, we have the most powerful weapon of the Rosary to bring about peace in our world. Let us take-up these spiritual weapons powerfully especially in this month—Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, pray for us!

I give thanks to God this weekend for the twenty years that I have been able to serve as your Parish Priest. Please do join me after 11.30am Mass this Sunday in the Gilbert Room of the Parish Centre, to mark this milestone. I ask God to continue to bless you all as I make thanksgiving to God for all that I have been able to both offer and receive in those years. God bless you!

Msgr Kevin Hale