The Combined Societies of Mary
Let us enjoy together the Richness and the Beauty of God through Prayer
Above
A 4 minute plus video of the procession during the
recent "Walk With Mary"
that took place on 7th April.
The "walk" had been preceded by Holy Mass at St Patrick's Cathedral with Archbishop Peter A. Comensoli and was and was followed by Evensong at St Paul's Cathedral with Bishop Lindsay Urwin.
Great News
We are able to Recommence our Special occasions of Prayer !!!
The moment we have been waiting for is here. It is a modest but important start and we do hope you can join us.
The First Friday
will be conducted at St Joseph's Elsternwick this First Friday of December:
Friday 4th December 7.00pm
St Joseph's Church 71 Orrong Road Elsternwick
The First Saturday Devotions
will be held on Saturday 5th December.
Please note the change in Time and Venue for December:
St Colman's Church, 10:30am 293 Carlisle Street Balaclava
Feast of the Immaculate Conception
Sunday 6th December
Please phone Joy on 95092207 to register for this event as numbers are restricted. We would love you to be part of this event so please do phone.
Please continue in fervent prayer that other opportunities of prayer may soon present!
Wonderful Books of the Saints Available Online For Free!
This external website Saints Books, has scores of books written by the major Saints throughout history. Here you will find the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola for example, and a dozen books written by St Alphonsus Ligouri, to name just a few. You will find books written by St Julien Eymard and St Boneventure as well. It is overwhelming the scope of books available for download. Perhaps there is a work you have felt inspired to read for sometime. This time of lockdown is a perfect time to catch up on some Catholic treasures and to be spiritual enriched and renewed.
They are all available for free but it would be good to make an offering if you are able so as to help them in this work.
7.00 PM
Adoration and Prayers in honour of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus followed by Holy Mass.
St Joseph's Church
71 Orrong Road
Elsternwick
Saturday 5th December
Mass and Devotions
10.30 AM
Adoration, Prayers as requested by Our Lady of Fatima, Holy Mass.
Confessions Available
St Colman's Church
293 Carlisle Street, Balaclava
Sunday 6th December
Feast of the Immaculate Conception
Please phone Joy on
95092207 to reserve your place
Special Prayers
Please Click Here for
Please Click Here for
Specific Prayers for This time of Pandemic
Pandemic Prayers From Australian
Bishop's Conference
Famous and Powerful Prayer to Our Lady in time of Pandemic,
The Stella Coeli
Please Click here to go to
Special Novena Page
with Video and Audio recordings for each day of the Nine Day Novena and Feast
Do not be concerned if you start late. The Lord is generous and can bless you just the same.
A Two minute video clip of the recent Eucharistic Procession for the Feast of Christ the King
Saturday 24th November, 2018
St Patrick's Cathedral,
Melbourne, Australia
main celebrant:
Most Rev. Bishop Mark Edwards
Congratulation Cardinal Pell: An Innocent Man has been set Free
Link - Andrew Bolt's excellent Summary
"George Pell 'witch hunt' was 'the greatest miscarriage of justice"
February 14, 2016
Let us See This Time as a Time of Grace
Our Lord told Saint Faustina that the soul gives Him the greatest glory when in the midst of their difficulties and sufferings they continue to trust in My Mercy.
There is no doubt that we are currently in a time of great turmoil. Our personal situations may indeed be difficult. Please take on board the following: The greater the difficulties, the greater you can bring Jesus glory by trusting in His Mercy.
Jesus said to St Faustina on one occasion:
My daughter, consider these words: “And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly.” When I started to think about them more deeply, much light streamed into my soul. I learned how much we need perseverance in prayer and that our salvation often depends on such difficult prayer.
Many of us have come to know and love the Divine Mercy devotion and Our Lord's chosen instrument St Faustina. Perhaps it is good for us to reflect that she herself was a product of difficult times. Born in 1903, she was so poor that she could not always attend Sunday Mass. Her other sibblings had to alternate Sundays because they could not all be dressed in a manner suitable for Holy Mass. They did not have shoes, for instance, for all the family. She herself, and her family lived through the terrible time of the First World War, the Spanish flu and the Great Depression.
As many great saints experienced, when difficulties abound, God's grace also abounds.
As we approach the wonderful celebration of Easter and the exception time of God's Mercy that is so closely linked to Easter, we may at this time also learn by Saint Faustina's example.
More and more she offered Herself for poor sinners. She offered Herself to God as a living host imploring God's Mercy upon the world.
It is very important during this time to establish a strong habit of prayer. Many of us are feeling claustrophobic at this time. Perhaps we could all learn from the spirituality of the cloistered sisters and monks. They surrendered themselves completely to a life of isolation and surrendered their freedom willingly to the Lord, knowing that for most of them they would never again step outside of the convent for the rest of their lives.
Yet, when we have visited these cloisters we have come across the most joy filled people we have ever met in our lives: radiant with the love of God.
Perhaps some of us will look back at this time as being the most grace filled time of our lives. But this will not just happen. It will need us to have some prayer structure to our days, to enable God's grace to lift us out of our misery and fill us with his wonderful light.
A problem with being shut in is that with the whole day to ourselves it is easy just to drift from one distraction to the next. That is why it is important to place some structure to the day, and to set aside two or three times in which prayer is the order of the day. Typically this could be in the morning upon rising or after breakfast, 3.00pm in the afternoon for the Divine Mercy, and then perhaps rosaries in the evening.
Of course in between times it is good to read pius books, the lives of the saints, or perhaps to watch a Mass on the television or on the internet.
There are some wonderful resources on the internet and we thought it may be useful to you to provide some links and also some prayers as well that will hopefully assist you in this time of grace.
But we would like to leave you with this thought of St Faustina:
"...if a soul loves God sincerely and is intimately united with Him, then, even though such a soul may be living in the midst of difficult external circumstances, nothing can disturb its interior life; and in the midst of corruption, it can remain pure and unsullied; because the great love of God gives it strength for battle, and God also protects in a special way, even in a miraculous way, a soul that loves Him sincerely."