September 1, 2012 Issue 25

Padua News

Padua News Committee Dolores Turcsan Edwina La Rose Lorraine Tellis Kim Barton Godwin Barton Anne Consiglio Doris Bonello If you are interested in being part of the Padua News Com-mittee, please contact any one of the committee members or email: paduanews@yahoo.com.au

Thank you.

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 Parish Priest: Father Fabian Smith Pastoral Associate: Sr. Patricia Stone rsj

This issue of Padua News is also published on the Parish Website http://stanthonysmeltonsouth.wordpress.com/padua-news/

Message from Father Fabian

Message from our Parish Priest

From Engagement to Marriage

I was an assistant priest for four joyful years and then I became parish priest. Now life is very different. How can I compare life as an as-sistant priest to that of a par-ish priest? Perhaps I could compare it to a romantic courtship that ended with marriage. As an assistant priest I had time to do the things I needed to do and time to enjoy the things that I wanted to. As parish priest I find it difficult to do the things I need to do and little time to do that which I want to do. Today is Monday, my day off, I am in the office writing this article. Padua News, our official quarterly newsletter, is put together by a very efficient and dedicated committee who do a lot of work to make this happen. My only task is to write four articles each year for the front page. I am always pushed for time to get my article to the com-mittee; usually I am late by a week. So in January this year, when New Year resolu-tions are generally made, I said to myself that I was go-ing to get all four articles

written up and handed in before the end of January. This article that you are reading was way past its due date. Luckily for me, as par-ish priest, I cannot be voted out. We all have deadlines to meet, bills to pay, people to care for and other work to be done. We seem to have so much to do and such little time. If only we had forty-eight hours in a day things might be different, we may think. Has having more money helped you have a better life? The more you have the more you seem to want. Perhaps the secret is “more is never enough.” If we can make the best use of what we have we will always be happy for it. I believe that the same principle applies to time. Forty-eight hours will only give us more work to do and still less or no time to enjoy life with the people we love. It is sometimes easier for us to think of the things we could do and could have, and let slip the precious things we do have and things we are able to do for the people we love with what we have.

As for me in the past three years I have come to take on more responsibilities and challenges and still trying to get myself organized. I have enjoyed my last seven years as a priest and I have come to rejoice in the past three years here at St Anthony’s as parish priest and still loving it. I look forward with great joy to the nine years ahead. I read recently that the word ‘Grace’ is closely related in meaning to the word ‘Joy’, which itself may be defined as something good that brings delight. In this ‘Year of Grace’ no matter how busy we find ourselves, may we take ‘timeout’ to thank God for the many joys we experience in life – be it in a romantic engagement or in married life. God bless!

Father Fabian Smith Parish Priest

Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore come forward with boldness to the throne of grace that we

may receive mercy and find grace for timely help.

Padua News Issue 25 Page 2

Youth Pilgrimage - Melbourne July 2012

around Australia and were given catecheses by the National Catechists of the Neo-Catechumenal Way in Australia. On Sunday we visited St. Patrick’s Cathedral and had a voca-tional meeting with Bishop Vincent Long. Two young men offered them-selves to enter the seminary and five young women stood up to offer themselves for the convent and as missionaries for evangelisation around the world, including China and India. Many youth also accepted the invitation to pray the Rosary every day for a year in front of the Blessed Sacrament, for the missions around Australia, including missions in Adelaide, Baldives in Western Australia, Redfern in Sydney, Daly River in Northern Territory and Alo-tau in Papua New Guinea. On Sunday we also had the opportu-nity to participate in the 10.30am Mass at St Anthony of Padua. We sang songs and two young people shared their experiences. We are grateful for the generous hospitality we received whilst on our pilgrimage, especially while in Melton. The youth came back very happy after

Continued on next page

ple there and again announced Christ’s love. We arrived at St An-thony of Padua Church in Melton South on Friday evening, where we were welcomed with a dinner cooked by parishioners. Fr. Fabian welcomed us to the parish before dinner. Padua Hall became our accommodation for the next two days. That evening, we prayed the evening prayer in the Church and sang psalms. Earlier in the day we were given a catechesis on the life of St Anthony of Padua and various other saints. After breakfast on Saturday morning we headed for the Marian shrine “Ta Pinu” in Bacchus Marsh. There we processed up the hill whilst singing the Rosary. When we arrived at the shrine we prayed the morning Lauds and were given a chance to pray to Our Lady. Later that morning, we made our way to Woodgrove Shop-ping Centre in Melton and sang songs and danced to share the joy that the Lord had given us. Some young people gave their personal experience and shared how they had met the Lord in their lives. There were a few interested onlookers. Over the next two days, we spent time with the other pilgrims from

In preparation for the World Youth Day in Rio De Janeiro in 2013, three hundred youth took part in a pilgrim-age around Melbourne in early July. The pilgrims, all from the Neo-Catechumenal Way, came from all over the east coast of Australia, in-cluding Brisbane, Sydney, Wollon-gong, Canberra, Adelaide and Mel-bourne. The pilgrims arrived in Mel-bourne from their respective states on Friday evening, July 6, 2012, after two days of travelling and visiting parishes along the way. Sixty five young people from various parts of Melbourne, began their pil-grimage by travelling to Mildura and stopping in Bendigo on the way. There, we visited Sacred Heart Ca-thedral where we prayed the morning Lauds and did a popular mission in the streets; singing, dancing and an-nouncing the Good News of Christ’s love for the people. We stayed a night in Mildura at a Catholic Col-lege, sleeping on classroom floors. We also were able to celebrate a Eucharist there with the pilgrims from Adelaide. The next day we set off back to Mel-bourne. During the journey we stopped in Ballarat and met the peo-

Submitted by: Ben Antony

Padua News Issue 25 Page 3

Youth Pilgrimage - Melbourne July 2012 (Continued) Youth Pilgrimage - Melbourne July 2012 (Continued from previous page)

being in communion with each other for four days of travelling. We saw how the Lord provided for us and how he accompanied us on our jour-ney. We are continuing to pray for the parishes that welcomed us and look forward to joining the Holy Fa-ther in pilgrimage in Rio De Janerio, Brazil next year.

Submitted by: Rachel Zahra

Photos on this page (clockwise): Judith sharing her life; Parish youth interacting with pilgrims; Pilgrims leading the congregration in a beautiful time of worship at the 10.30am Mass on July 8; Volunteers helping with meals for the pilgrims Opposite page: Pilgrims group photo

Padua News Issue 25 Page 4

Debutante Ball - Kristina Scerri & Andre Oqueli

Continued on next page

black coat, grey vest, white t-shirt black shoes and black tie, but no one chose one with a penguin-tail coat! Soon we got given the suits to take home and try and the day before the deb I took mine to the last practise night and put it on. I liked everything but the shoes; they looked like square boxes! Finally came the deb and after a “wonderful” afternoon of chang-ing and getting ready the whole Year 11 group went by limousine to Luxor Hotel arriving at 4pm to go through one really tense ses-sion of thorough practise to get every position and event ironed out and satisfactory for our in-structors. I don’t remember how many times they forced us to re-peat everything from the start when we mucked up. Finally at 7pm when everyone was waiting upstairs in our room and the guests started coming down it was Showtime! We literally had a ball of a time, and guess who came with Kristina’s family? Father Fa-bian himself! A round of applause from the family and our wonder-ful Father for our ball and we took some group photos. All in all we had the best time of our lives. Kristina especially en-joyed the gift I gave her, a beauti-ful bracelet with her name en-graved on it. It wasn’t to say the night came cheap; for Kristina it cost well over $300 and for me

about $200 but it was all worth it. We both had an unforgettable time and I think Kristina en-joyed it the most, she felt like a princess on the night.

Andre Oqueli

together in the school auditorium and afterwards in the double-room space at the back of the school to

start learning how to dance. For someone who had never learnt how to dance I was already thinking of how in the world I was going to learn all four dances and do them well at the deb in front of probably 100 people. Somehow though, after some funny and occasionally embarrassing mo-ments, we learnt how to dance the Samba, Hawaiian and the other two dances (I can’t remember right now). According to the guests who saw us dance on the actual night, we did really well. A few weeks before the deb the boys were measured up and shown the different suits that we could choose by popular vote to wear. Nearly all chose one with a

Hey friends and parishioners at St. Anthony’s. Some of you who go to the 5:30pm and 10:30am Masses have known me for a while from volunteering at Mass and altar serving for Father Fabian. Some of you may know Kristina from Mass and other places. For most of you who don’t know us, my name is Andre Oqueli and my partner’s name is Kristina Scerri. On the Friday night of June 1 of this year we both went as debu-tante and partner to the Melton Christian College Debutante Ball at Luxor Hotel, and had one of the best times of our lives with Kristina in her beautiful white dress and me in my tuxedo suit! We first started thinking about go-ing to the deb at the start of the year and at first we didn’t know who to ask to go with. I hadn’t made up my mind till I thought of Kristina, so I decided to ask her and though when I first asked we were unsure if it was right, she accepted happily and we confirmed with our parents our de-cision. We both put in $100 and soon Kristina and I started prepar-ing and attending the information sessions about the deb at lunchtimes and such. We’d been planning for this special occasion for months, (mostly Kristina really, trying to get the dress and jewellery!), and had so many moments of nervousness and butterflies in our stomachs, but also great times together to learn the three main dances for the night plus the special guest person’s dance. Every Thursday after school, at 6 pm everyone who decided to make their deb came

Kristina & Andre

Neo-Catechumenal Talks

Padua News Issue 25 Page 5

Debutante Ball - Kristina Scerri & Andre Oqueli (continued from previous page)

Next year the initial Catechist group will once again be invited to our Par-ish, to once again share their talks, experiences and learning as they con-tinue to walk the way, with an invita-tion for more parishioners to be in-vited to join the existing group. May God bless you all and strengthen the Parish of St An-thony’s.

Submitted by: Natalie Howard

Each person’s relationship with God has been enriched by these talks in one form or another. To celebrate the conclusion of the sessions, the parishioners were invited to attend a weekend connivance (retreat) at the tranquil Sacred Heart Monastery in Glenroy. A very spiritual and relax-ing experience, time to leave all the hustle and bustle behind and reunite with spiritual prayer. A privileged invitation for St An-thony’s Parish to begin its own group within the parish was extended. Hence the formation of the current Neo Catechumenal group which cur-rently exists within the parish. With God’s guidance and grace this group continues to share the breaking of the word each week, followed by a celebration of a Eucharist Mass on Saturday at 7.30pm celebrated by Father Fabian. All are welcome to attend the Mass.

This year, as part of the Lent prepa-ration program, the parishioners of St Anthony were invited to attend a series of talks given by a Catechist team, to enrich and reconnect us with our faith. This team was made up of a group of seven individuals led by Father Noel Bianco. The sessions commenced on March 26 taking place on a Monday & Wednesday evening of each week and ran for a total period of 6 weeks. The evenings incorporated the breaking of the word of God, scrip-ture readings, reflections on the pres-ence and relevance of God in our everyday lives. The generosity of our Lord’s love for us as individuals ac-cepting us as we are with all our vul-nerabilities, the amazing forgiveness God has for his people. A total of 20 parishioners including myself answered the invitation to receive these life changing talks.

Thank you Father Fabian for coming to our presentation ball, we enjoyed your company! Andre and I had the best time of our lives and we are thankful that we had the opportunity to do it to-gether. We just want to say a spe-cial thank you to our parents on supporting us through what we wanted to do, you have been there through everything. I would also like to thank Andre for his amaz-ing dancing skills and being a wonderful deb partner. Thank you to all who came and supported us!! We greatly appreciate it. We hope you enjoyed reading about our experience at the pres-entation ball.

Kristina Scerri

I remember walking down the stairs and I could not hear anybody screaming my name. All I remem-ber was coming down and being so nervous that I squeezed Andre’s hand, the only time when I relaxed when I heard the MC saying that Andre wanted to become the Prime Minister of Australia and I laughed, we had to walk down the stairs and pretend like we knew what we were doing. The dancing started and we heard from our family and friends that we were the best couple out there. (I don’t know I think they were being a bit biased.) Andre and I had a blast and when Andre saw Father Fa-bian there he had the biggest smile on his face! We took many photos and we both enjoyed ourselves very much!

As Andre has written I felt like a princess, but let me tell my side of the story on the day. I woke up, had my hair and make up done, it was the first time I had ever gotten false eyelashes and they were so weird. Eventually I got used to them and in the limo I remember asking one of my friends whether they were still on. We only got to eat spring rolls and sandwiches and that was to last us the whole night, until 9pm. Andre and I were the fourth couple to walk down the stairs. The guys were ranked

shortest to tallest and of course, Andre is one of the shortest, so on the night Andre and I were the fourth couple to walk out.

The Neocatechumenal Way, also known as the Neocatechumenate, NCW or, colloquially, The Way, is a group within the Catholic Church that focuses on the formation of Christian

adults. It was formed in Madrid in 1964 by Kiko Argüello and Carmen

Hernández and received approval from the Holy See in 2008.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neocatechumenal_Way

Padua News Issue 25 Page 6

St. Anthony’s Volunteer Lunch - Sunday, July 1, 2012

It’s no secret that there are many people amongst our community here at St. Anthony’s who selflessly utilise their time, effort and God-given tal-ents to serve our parish and beyond. What better way to celebrate these volunteers’ dedication than St. An-thony’s Annual Volunteer’s Lunch!!! Although it was a chilly Sunday morning, it was difficult to escape the warmth inside Padua Hall, due to a delightful combination of great food and great company. This year’s lunch had a great turn-out of parish-ioners, with the little ones frolicking away while the adults chatted happily among themselves. The menu of the day consisted of both Indian and Western cuisine. Being of Anglo-Indian descent, I did the illogical thing by going straight for the Western food, much to the dismay of my fellow Indians. (Ha! The ultimate betrayal…) Of course, no-one could deny how delicious the

food was. Even the little ones were enjoying the food! We were even treated with a stellar musical per-formance by Regina Tuala, who was simply angelic as she sang. Well done!!! Then came what I believe is the most important part of the meal - dessert!!! There were a variety of treats on of-fer, so I rushed to the food table and grabbed one of the last pieces of cheesecake. Let’s just say that it did-n’t last very long on my plate… All in all, the lunch was an absolute smash and was enjoyed by all. Many thanks to all those who contributed and made the event possible. And of course, a big thank-you to the many volunteers who keep the parish of St. Anthony’s running like a well-oiled machine!!!

Submitted by: Chantelle Fernandez

Padua News Issue 25 Page 7

Opening and Blessing of new School Library - St Anthony’s Primary school

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 October 1, 2012

Editorial Policy The Padua News is approved by Father Fabian Smith prior to printing. The edi-tors and Father Fabian reserve the right to edit all articles submitted. Articles may be reproduced with permission from the writer and editor.

On Friday, June 22, 2012, Fr Michael Moody from St Dominic’s Parish,

Melton, blessed the new Year 7 classrooms at Catholic Regional College Mel-ton. Judging by the reactions of the students, it was indeed a special occasion.

It was great to hear the pride of the Year 7 students – they have given the new building a sense of ownership through their posters and displays in Home-rooms.

Submitted by: Edwina La Rose

News from CRC Melton - Opening and Blessing of the new Year 7 Classrooms

On Wednesday, June 6, 2012, St Anthony’s school held their official Opening and Blessing of the new school Library building. This new Library building includes a computer laboratory, new kitchen, meeting room, storage and a new teacher resource room. Over 500 people gathered for this special event. After the welcome by the school Principal, our Parish Priest Father Fabian Smith blessed the building. Senator Gavin Marshall [Federal Labor Senator for Vic-toria] gave the official address and opened the new library. Jacinta Wiseman [President of the Parents and Friends Association] re-sponded on behalf of the parents, and James Whitford [Student Representative Council] gave a response on behalf of the students. The Official Opening took place in front of invited guests from the Catholic Education Office [Melbourne], Parish Council representatives, parents, staff and all the students from Prep to Year Six. We were pleased to wel-come back our former Parish Priest Father Martin Flem-ing. It was a wonderful occasion and marked the end of the building program funded by the Commonwealth govern-ment under the ‘Building the Education Revolution’ ini-tiative. The Opening was followed by a light lunch which was enjoyed by all who attended this special event. Our special thanks to the staff and students who perse-vered through the building process, and to our Parish Priest Father Fabian Smith, for his support and encour-agement throughout this process. We are all very proud of our new building. Parishioners are welcome to visit our new Library by contacting the school Office for de-tails.

Submitted by: Damien Schuster

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Issue 25 Page 8 Padua News