Banksia Grove Parish Priest Fr Vinh Dong and Deacon Joseph Laundy greet parishioners at the Mass celebrating the feast day of St John Paul II on 22 October, focused on the theme, ‘The future starts today and not tomorrow.’ Photo: Jamie O’Brien.
By Jamie O’Brien
Banksia Grove Parish has last month celebrated the feast day of St John Paul II on 22 October, focused on the theme, ‘The future starts today and not tomorrow.’
Parish Priest Fr Vinh Dong and Deacon Joseph Laundy welcomed more than 350 parishioners for the occasion, which also marked three years since the commencement of the parish, with the proposed new Church building to be named after the former Pontiff and now Saint, who died 2 April 2005.
Banksia Grove is some 27km north of Perth city and is one of the newest and fastest growing parishes of the Archdiocese.
Banksia Grove Parish has last month celebrated the feast day of St John Paul II on 22 October, focused on the theme, ‘The future starts today and not tomorrow.’ Photo: Jamie O’Brien.
The Mass for the feast day was celebrated at St John Paul II Primary School by Fr Vinh, with the homily preached by Deacon Laundy, who spoke about the Gospel reading of the day from Matthew 22 and told of Jesus’ response to the Pharisees who questioned him about the importance of money.
Referring to Jesus’ question about Caesar’s image on the denarius, Deacon Joseph asked “What sort of currency are we using today? Are we dependent on earthly currency, or are we dependant on the spiritual currency as well?”
“In the end the only currency we will have is God’s currency,” which is the only one we will be able to take with us – how much we loved God and how we loved each other,” he said.
“The only currency we will be able to take with us, is how we loved God and how we loved each other,” he said.
Banksia Grove Parish Priest Fr Vinh Dong greets children during the Mass for the feast day of Saint John Paul II, Sunday 22 October. Photo: Jamie O’Brien.
Music for the Mass was co-ordinated by St John Paul II teacher Tim Maxwell and students, and at the conclusion of the Eucharistic celebration, students also performed a liturgical dance, organised by teacher Jessica Schofield.
In thanking the parish community for participating in the festive celebration, Fr Vinh noted the tremendous support of parishioners in raising nearly $1.5million for the new Church building.
“I am most grateful for how so many members of this parish community of Banksia Grove have come together in the spirit of Christ, for his Church,” Fr Vinh said.
“This new parish community has truly shown me how beautiful the work of God can be when we trust him completely,” he said.
Deacon Joseph Laundy during his homily on the feast day of John Paul II at Banksia Grove Parish, Sunday 22 October. Photo: Jamie O’Brien.
A cultural celebration with live music and performances was also held at the conclusion of Mass, followed by a community lunch with food prepared by the various nationalities of the parish.
Deacon Laundy is due to be ordained to the priesthood at St Mary’s Cathedral on Friday 17 November at 7.30pm by Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB.