December 1, 2013 Issue 30

If you are interested to help in any of the tasks in the produc-tion of the Padua News, please contact any one of the commit-tee members or email: paduanews@yahoo.com.au

Thank you. Padua News Committee Dolores Turcsan Doris Bonello Anne Consiglio Colin Consiglio Edwina La Rose Lorraine Tellis Kim Barton Godwin Barton

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

Message from Father Fabian

Message from our Parish Priest

In October last year, I went with a group on pilgrimage to the Holy Land and to Fatima. After Fatima I was going on to London and then to Canada to visit some of my cousins for three weeks and then return home. It so happened that in the third week of my holidays there was an international clergy conference-retreat in Fatima which was hosted by the Alliance of the Two Hearts. I decided to forego one week of my holidays and take up the invitation to at-tend this conference-retreat in Fatima. From not having the oppor-tunity to go to Fatima before October, I had the awesome privilege to visit Fatima twice in three weeks. My first visit, as pilgrim leader, was to care for the spiritual wellbeing of the people who came with me. We prayed

the Rosary and the Sta-tions of the Cross to-gether, cele-brated Holy Mass, prayed for all parish-ioners’ inten-tions and also managed to have had some fun. As priest and pilgrim leader I enjoyed caring for these pil-

grims spiritually. But after exercising my priestly minis-try for three whole weeks it was indeed holy exhaustion. On the last day of the pil-grimage we arrived at Lis-bon airport, checked-in, completed our immigration check and proceeded to the gate where I happily bid farewell to the pilgrims re-turning home and went on to wander around the air-port as my flight to London was two hours later. After wandering for an hour and a half I started to make my way to the departure gate only to discover that it was not only a fair way away but I also had to go through a second immigration check since I was going on to London. I was frantically running to catch my flight. I did get there in the end. My second visit to Fatima, two weeks later to attend the conference retreat, was also a very blessed experi-ence. During this visit it was I who was being cared for spiritually. I prayed together with a hundred and twenty priests, concelebrated Holy Mass, prayed the Rosary, spent time in Adoration and heard many inspiring talks. What was very humbling and most encouraging was to see all the priests going to the Sacrament of Recon-ciliation to ask for mercy and grace to be holy priests. To care and to be cared for

was such an incredible bless-ing. After the conference-retreat had sadly finished we were taken to Lisbon airport; only this time I was at the airport four hours early to get my flight to London. Having arrived at the airport several hours after breakfast I was hungry and decided to go and eat something. After much deliberation with pric-ing on menus I went into a restaurant for lunch. They brought me some side dishes, which I thought were compli-mentary. After much calcula-tion I discovered I had just a little money left over so I decided to have a small glass of port. How expensive could port be in Portugal? Big mis-take! When I got the bill I felt all my insides churn and I nearly fell off my chair. The small port cost 22 Euros, more than the meal itself. So I had to use my credit card which was declined. Thank God I had another card which had some credit on it. What an experience! At least it was good port and I en-joyed it before I got the bill.

Padua News Celebrating 30 years of Parish Life (1983—2013)

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

continued on next page

Padua News Issue 30 Page 2

Message from our Parish Priest (continued from previous page)

After checking-in my luggage I wan-dered around watching flights take-off and land, said some prayers and rested my legs. Then I started to make my way to the gate half hour before departure only to discover that I once again had to go through a second immigration check. This time the queue was very long and so I ex-cused myself to the front and ran breathlessly to the gate where they were boarding the last lot of passen-gers. While I was panting for breath I started to laugh at myself thinking I must be suffering from short term memory loss or maybe it was the 22 Euro port? I don’t know which but I did it again. As we enter this Season of Advent may

we not suffer from short term mem-ory loss of the previous years where we found ourselves so busy driving distances, searching for car parking, wandering around for the best sales, waiting in long queues, maxing credit cards and looking for special deals on BWS, and thereby getting to Christ-mas unprepared. I pray that this Holy Season will be one of great blessing for all of us as we make time to prepare ourselves and our children spiritually, with the aid of the Sacraments of Reconcilia-tion and Holy Eucharist, so that we may once again celebrate with great joy, the birth of our Lord and Saviour. I take this opportunity to wish each of you a very happy and Joyful Christ-mas and a New Year filled with many

opportunities to care and to be cared for; to love and to be loved.

May these opportunities enable us to love Jesus and make him loved!

May God Bless you! Father Fabian Smith Parish Priest

An interview with Amy Rowley - journeying from St Anthony’s to CRC

What years were you at St Anthony’s Primary School? 1982-1988 What are some of your memories of Primary school? I loved the camps, in grade 5 and 6 we went on camp for a week and it was great fun. At Easter we made Easter bonnets, we dressed up for book week, sports carnivals were a highlight and yellow team won when I was yellow captain in Grade 6. We had a fete every year and the school parents/parishioners would bake and knit and sell items to raise money for the school. It was a fantastic school community.

What years were you at Catholic Regional College Melton? 1989-1992 What are some of your memories of Secondary school? Making new friends when we met the students from St. Catherine's, St. Ber-nard's and St. Dominic's. Represent-ing CRC Melton in the inter school sports, both netball and athletics. Be-ing a peer support leader and being part of the school production were defining moments in my time at CRC. How has CRC changed/stayed the same since you were a student? CRC has grown, when I was a student here there were only 3 streams and now we are up to 7! Year 10 was the pivotal year in our CRC Melton lives, where at the end of year 10 lots of us moved onto other schools for VCE. One thing that I think hasn't changed is the school spirit, the extra-curricular activities and the genuine care and compassion from the staff.

What do you do now? I have now returned to CRC as a teacher after teaching at a school in Werribee for 10 years. I teach Visual Communication Design and Wood-work and am the Head of Art. I love being back at CRC because it feels like home, especially because there are quite a few staff that taught me, still teaching there. Submitted by: Amy Rowley, Head of Art, CRC

Then Now

For more information about St Anthony’s Primary School and the Catholic Regional College Melton, please visit their website at:

http://www.sameltonsth.catholic.edu.au/ http://www.crcmelton.com.au/

Christmas is not just a time for festivity and merry making. It is more

than that. It is a time for the contemplation of eternal things. The Christmas spirit is a spirit of giving

and forgiving.

- J. C. Penney ("Christmas Thoughts")

Padua News Issue 30 Page 3

We have followed Anthony’s life over its first two stages: first, as a young monk with the Canons Regular of St Augustine in Lisbon; second, as a Franciscan friar travelling to Mo-rocco, Messina, Assisi and finally to a hermitage near Forli (close to Assisi) to live in great simplicity and poverty, serving the ill and infirm. As we read in our previous install-ment, Anthony’s life changed sud-denly and unexpectedly in Forli when he was asked to preach without no-tice at an ordination. Unprepared and stammering, Anthony soon gained his

poise, stunning his audience with great fluency of speech and power of oratory. His capacity to draw deeply on biblical scholarship and living faith and relationship with the Lord, seem-ingly miraculously in the moment, was the fruit of his early life around the royal court of Lisbon, of his mo-nastic education with the best profes-sors of Europe, of his own searching

and willingness to follow his deepest yearnings and intimations of spirit, and of his new form of poverty and sacrifice as a Franciscan friar. Francis soon heard of this remarka-bly gifted friar and immediately com-missioned him to preach to the whole of Italy. Christendom was at that time struggling in its relationship with the Muslims to the south and, at home, with those who had corrupted it with power, wealth and false doc-trine. The Church was in great need of skilled and capable defenders, and Anthony was recruited to fill the breach, as it were, sent out to preach across Italy and then across the South of France. As a child, I knew of St Anthony’s help to find lost things and guide letters to their destination. I did not know of his many miracles nor of his preaching skills and power of igniting the masses with love for God. Like fire, the force and power of his ora-tory spread fast and took hold of the parched spiritual landscape. Half-empty churches quickly filled and then overflowed as word spread of his coming. Soon the church and the city square were too small; and plat-forms were assembled in the fields to accommodate the thirty thousand or more who would gather to hear him wherever he went. When it was known he was coming to a town, as Alice Curtayne writes in

her biography of St Anthony, the shops would be shuttered and the Law Courts closed, and a bodyguard of young men were likely to be ap-pointed to provide a protective cor-don around his platform. It is re-ported that there was a stillness and attentiveness to the crowd whenever Anthony was preaching. People would assemble the night before to ensure a good place, and lanterns would be seen countryside converg-ing to the field where the sermons would take place. But Anthony’s speeches were not pious admonitions. They were bul-warks against heresy, well crafted explanations that the faithful needed in order to withstand false doctrine being taught from within the Church across Italy and France, such as by the Waldenses, Albigenses and Ca-tharists. Although today we may be unaware of the type and scope of such heresies, in those days they be-came a source of discord amongst people in towns across Europe. Some of us may recall hostilities be-tween Catholics and Protestants, some of which may still prevail to-day. Anthony, it seems, had the power of settling the case and re-solve confusion and controversy. And following his sermons, his time was largely taken up for confession, settling disputes, enforcing local jus-tice, revising local law and closing the affairs of usurers.

Continued on next page

Saint Anthony - our Patron Saint (Part III)

Anthony preaching in public Source: http://www.shrineofstanthony.org/st-anthony-preachingandteaching.htm

We would love to hear from you - What are your memories of St Anthony?

In what way has he influenced your lives? How is his memory held and honored

here in our pews?

Prayer to St. Anthony of Padua O Loving St. Anthony, you were a special witness of God’s

power and love in your day. Hear us now as we seek your pow-erful intercession in our time. We lift up our prayers for all

families. Help them to grow in their faith; may they persevere in unity, love, and peace. Bless our children, protect our young people, and be a companion to those in their senior years. Help them when they are tested by sickness, suffering, loneliness, or whenever they experience loss in their lives. Help all of us in

our daily struggles, giving us hope and peace. Pray for us, St. Anthony, so that we may continue to grow in

God’s love. Intercede for us through Christ our Lord! Amen.

Padua News Issue 30 Page 4

Yet, for all his powers and skills of preaching, there is no existing collec-tion today of his sermons. However, there appears to be no doubt as to their effectiveness in bringing fervor, faith and peace to those who heard them. For ten years Anthony preached and travelled across Italy and the south of France. Towards the end of his short life, Anthony once again was called to solitude. He had sought it before, one might recall, when he transferred from one monastery to another in Lisbon. He experienced it again as a young Franciscan friar. And then, during his years of preaching, he would find occasions to withdraw, in one time in France to a cave. Finally, he spent his last months in a most unusual hermitage, in the branches of a walnut tree in the large estate of a generous patron, Tiso da Campo di Piero, a few miles from Padua. His little tree-house would have been very comfortable in the summer; perhaps less so in the win-ter. But here Anthony wrote and prayed until his illness from dropsy (where excess fluid fills the body, causing it to swell, his movements to be ungainly, his breathing difficult

and excess sweat and moisture to appear over his skin and face) proved fatal. On his death, the citizens of Padua claimed Anthony as their own. Great crowds gathered in the church of St Mary’s where his remains had been deposited and after countless mira-cles became known and attributed to him. Within a year of his death, Pope Gregory IX had canonized him, an unprecedented swiftness at those times – even today, as we await the canonizations of John Paul II and John XXIII. Anthony of Padua belongs to the world and to us at Melton South, where our church has been dedi-cated to his mem-ory.

We have every right to call on him to help us also find (if it has been lost or misplaced) and cherish the pearl of living faith that so possessed his mind and heart. In our next and final reflection on Anthony, we will examine some of the ways in which he has been represented in art and popular imagination.

Submitted by: John Little

Saint Anthony - our Patron Saint (Part III) (continued from previous page)

Today, a quaint chapel stands over the place where St. Anthony’s tree house was located. In this chapel, known as the Shrine of the Walnut Tree there is a beautiful painting by Bonafacio de Pitata (at left). It depicts An-thony preaching from the tree’s branches to the faithful gathered below. Visitors ap-proach this chapel by driving or walking down a lovely lane lined on each side by a long row of walnut trees.

Source: http://www.americancatholic.org/messenger/Jun2008/feature3.asp

Tomato Plants for sale!!!

The Schembri family came up with a brilliant idea to help supplement the fund-raising activities being carried out for the purchase of the Last Sup-per to be placed in front of our Altar.

The sale of the many hundreds of varieties of the tomato plants netted a total of $835.00.

Thank you to the Schembri family.

Submitted by: Kim Barton

Padua News Issue 30 Page 5

30 years in the making - a Presbytery within the Church compounds!

A pictorial progress of the new Presbytery Day 1 Fence Up - The work begins….

And now….not long to go!

Start of foundation

Blessing of the land and placing of holy items in the slab Blessing of the slab

Photos submitted by: Lesley Morffew

The frame goes up

Almost there!

Padua News Issue 30 Page 6

St Anthony’s Dinner Dance

I remember it was a year ago when, for the first time, I attended St An-thony’s dinner dance with a group of friends. We all sat together enjoying the company of each other. This year we welcomed a few new friends to our table, which added to the com-motion we were making – I think our group was the noisiest one that night!

It was a great opportunity to party with friends, es-pecially as it was my Birthday. As it so hap-

pened, this occasion was shared with Emily Bonello who was also celebrat-ing her Birthday with family and friends.

When we arrived, Father Fabian was saying grace before the meal: a buffet dinner. It was delicious, well pre-sented and enjoyed by all, with some people even going back for seconds, including me. There was a good vari-ety of dishes ranging from roast beef, braised chicken, lasagne, lamb curry, biriyani (savoury rice), broad beans, pasta and green salads, roast potato, pumpkin and carrot, and fresh bread.

After a few glasses of wine were consumed, the happy conversations and laughter became a bit louder and

many photographs were taken at the table with lots of funny poses. We were well entertained by the musi-cians, Lester and Floyd, who provided an excellent selection of music with a wide variety of genres – they certainly made a good team. The band also accommodated us by playing a few requests.

Most people couldn’t wait to display their fancy footwork on the dance floor, with others quite happy to sit back and re-

lax, watch all the antics and enjoy the “show”. A selection of sweets, including cheesecake, pavlova, fruit salad with ice-cream, butter cake and lemon tart, were served. Then it was a pleasant surprise to hear my name being called, together with Emily, to come up to the band. Birthday Cakes were pre-sented to us and ‘Happy Birthday’ was sung. It was great to see some of the youth from the parish helping on this occasion by clearing dishes and taking orders for tea and coffee. They were pretty con-fident in serving the tea and coffee to-gether with Father Fabian. They also assisted by washing

up the cutlery, crockery and glass-ware,

On Saturday night, 12th of October, we celebrated our Parish Dinner Dance. To me it was extra special as I celebrated my Birthday with family and friends. A big “Thank You” to Father Fabian for his amazing vege-tarian curry, also to the organizers and let’s not forget the help from the Youth group, they did an amazing job. Once again it was a fun night. Let’s do it more often!

Submitted by: Emily Bonello

Continued on next page

with a few breakages along the way. Raffle tickets were being sold for the huge bottle of champagne and we all claimed we had the winning ticket, but when it was finally drawn, unfor-tunately the prize did not come to our table – better luck next time. Last year, John Scerri conducted a coin competition with a bottle of scotch. He did the same again this year with as much enthusiasm and wit. Many parishioners and guests attempted to win the bottle by throwing a gold coin from a good few metres away and

Padua News Issue 30 Page 7

St Anthony’s Dinner Dance (continued from previous page)

conducted on the night for a Melbourne city hotel accom-modation and meal package, with the successful winners being Susan and Noel Robertson from Bargain Box, who are long-time advertiser of Padua News - Congratulations! Thank the Lord for bringing us all together to have a fundraiser as a parish community and hope to see you again next year.

Benedict Kratochvil The thing I liked most about the eve-ning was the fact that I was able to do something to contribute, although breaking dishes shouldn’t count as a contribution and my heart skipped a beat when I broke the cup. It was quite humbling to see Father Fabian doing physical work (washing dishes, clearing tables, etc.) even though, as Parish Priest, he would have had every reason not to because of all the behind the scenes jobs that a Priest does in the office, etc. So the evening for me was a big les-son on humility and I enjoyed it heaps!

Gavin Maitre Basically the dinner dance was successful because all the youth had a chance to help our Parish Priest. It was good to see the boys and girls get their hands dirty, even Father Fabian. Overall, we had fun and it was a good bonding session with everyone. Garth Fernandez It was a delight to mingle with some of the youth of the parish. We en-joyed serving tea and coffee and clear-ing up the dishes from the table.

Imalsha Silva It was a good experience and I felt happy to help out the church.

hoping it would land as close as pos-sible to it without actually hitting the bottle. All the spectators showed their support by either cheering when it got close, or sighing in dismay when it landed too far away. A silent auction was also Submitted by: Annesley Candappa

A big ‘Thank You’ to Father

Fabian and our Youth - your

efforts allowed us to sit down

and have an enjoyable time!

Parish Dinner Dance I would like to write and thank the St Anthony's Parish So-

cial Committee for the great ef-fort in organising the Annual Dinner Dance. I really enjoyed the night - food, wine and wonderful music. It was not so much "I could have danced all night", but rather "I danced all night"! Thank you too, Fr Fabian. The coffee was extra special.

Anna Samy

Father Fabian and his band of merry helpers at the Dinner Dance!

Augustine Ma’ae I felt proud to help out the church. It was a good bonding session and I had lots of fun with fellow altar serv-ers. Greta Kratochvil I thought it was okay and had fun. Relieved that my brother broke the cup and not me! Faustina Ma’ae I felt confident when helping and had lots of fun.

Compiled by: Lorraine Tellis

WANTED

Advertisers for Padua News Would you like to advertise your business? Do you know someone who runs their own

business?

Wide circulation, including publication on the WEB.

Next issue due in March 2014

Contact Anne on 03 9743 8363 or Email paduanews@yahoo.com.au

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 January 1, 2014

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

Please support our sponsors, without their generous support Padua News

would not be possible. Mention you saw their business in our newsletter and let them know we are

working for them.

Issue 30 Page 8 Padua News