Our One Mission, Two Parishes
Theme or Focus for 2024 is:

Reach out in Love and Mercy: Mark 6: 32 - 34

• Year B Sunday Cycle: the Gospel of Mark Year B is not just the ‘Year of Mark’: in some ways it’s also the Year of John. The brevity of Mark’s Gospel allows for excursions into the Gospel of John on numerous occasions throughout the year.
  
  
• Year 2 Weekday Cycle

Background:

• Daily Prayer

It gives me great pleasure to welcome YOU to our Parish Website,

• St. Timothy and his Church
• Saints in Rome & Beyond!: St Timothy
• The Catholic Travel Guide
• Wikipedia
• and our Australian Catholic Bishop's Conference 2021 Parish Social Profile

Saint Timothy’s Final resting place … Termoli Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Termoli, in the province of Campobasso, central Italy. The dedication is to the Purification of the Virgin Mary, but is commonly ascribed to Saints Bassus and Timothy, patrons of the city. It is the seat of the Bishop of Termoli-Larino.

Born at Lystra, Lycaenia, Timothy was the son of a Greek father and Eunice, a converted Jewess. He joined St. Paul when Paul preached at Lystra replacing Barnabas, and became Paul’s close friend and confidant. Paul allowed him to be circumcised to placate the Jews, since he was the son of a Jewess, and he then accompanied Paul on his second missionary journey. When Paul was forced to flee Berea because of the enmity of the Jews there, Timothy remained, but after a time was sent to Thessalonica to report on the condition of the Christians there and to encourage them under persecution, a report that led to Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians when he joined Timothy at Corinth. Timothy and Erastus were sent to Macedonia in 58, went to Corinth to remind the Corinthians of Paul’s teaching, and then accompanied Paul into Macedonia and Achaia. Timothy was probably with Paul when the Apostle was imprisoned at Caesarea and then Rome, and was himself imprisoned but then freed. According to tradition, he went to Ephesus, became its first bishop, and was stoned to death there when he opposed the pagan festival of Katagogian in honor of Diana. Paul wrote two letters to Timothy, one written about 65 from Macedonia and the second from Rome while he was in prison awaiting execution. His feast day is January 26.

Journeying together in daily life ...

25 February 2024

This week we celebrate the Second Sunday of Lent: “We all have dreams for the future, dreams about success and well-being. We all want a better world for our children and grandchildren. Our religious tradition sets before us aspirations that call for personal transformation. However, sometimes when we follow the inspiration of our most devout aspirations, obstacles are thrown in our path preventing us from following our dreams. Still, God does not call us out of our dreams into a vacuum. If we are asked to relinquish a possible future, it is only to be offered God’s future. Our aspirations may be noble, but the possibilities that God offers will outstrip them in excellence. Abraham was promised an heir; he relinquished his hold on his heir, and he was granted heirs beyond counting. Jesus came as a Rabbi; he allowed himself to be handed over to death, and he was revealed as the beloved Son of God.

Those preparing for Baptism might be asked to relinquish the dreams that they previously held in order to embrace the future God has in store for them. We who are already joined to Christ will be asked to recommit ourselves to this transformative experience. Do we have faith, or do we need a glimpse of Christ’s transfiguration in order to believe in his resurrection? Do we have to see and touch Jesus, or are we able to believe because we have heard his message? God’s future in Christ is open to us, but we must accept it in faith, even when we do not fully understand what it means." © Dianne Bergant CSA

& again ...

"The Transfiguration scene midway through Mark’s Gospel is the climactic crossroads where we must choose between staying in Galilee or going with Jesus to death in Jerusalem. In the previous chapter, Peter recognised Jesus’ true mission as Messiah and was quickly reprimanded for thinking that being the Messiah or his disciple saved a person from suffering. Jesus makes it clear. The only way to follow him is through the cross. The only way to save your life is to lose it.

The Transfiguration gives us a glimpse of that eternal life to come. So, wouldn’t it be nice to just put up a few tents and stay a while to enjoy the view on God’s holy mountain? We know the answer. ‘There is no salvation for the soul nor hope for eternal life except in the cross,’ wrote spiritual writer Thomas à Kempis in the 15th century. There is no Transfiguration without the cross; no conversion of heart until you have given up the very thing you cling to – privilege, status, belief in your own rightness. For the cross is that to which you say, I will give you anything but that, Lord. Anything.

Let us come down the mountain and do the hard work of taking up our cross. Transfiguration awaits those who let go of the very thing they cannot lose." © GIA Publications

February 2024

What are the Pope's Intentions for the Month of February?

For the terminally ill:

We pray that those with a terminal illness, and their families, receive the necessary physical and spiritual care and accompaniment.

So we continue ‘Journeying Together In Daily Life - From Structures To Relationships - From Delegation To Involvement’. It is therefore necessary to reawaken in every local reality the awareness that we are the people of God, responsible for incarnating the Gospel in our different contexts and in all daily situations. This involves stepping outside the logic of delegation, which so greatly conditions pastoral action.

Saint Timothy's Catholic Parish acknowledges the Wurundjeri People as the traditional owners of this land.

We also acknowledge the continued deep spiritual attachment and relationship of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples to this country and commit ourselves to the ongoing journey of Reconciliation.