Nazareth Catholic Parish

Grovedale, Torquay and Anglesea

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Enjoy Life with our Kids

A growing feature of the Sunday Eucharist is the withdrawal of children to celebrate their own liturgy of the Word. The usual Sunday process of three readings, interspersed with psalm, silence and acclamation, and enfleshed by homily and prayer of the Faithful, requires a level of concentration of which most children are not capable. Simplifying this part of the celebration, while maintaining its liturgical character, satisfies the needs of the young so that they, too, can celebrate the Eucharist with ‘full, conscious and active participation’ which is ‘their right and duty by virtue of their baptism’. (CSL #14)   
 
Fr Linh invites children, from preps through to Year 6, to come up to the altar before the Liturgy of the Word begins. He sends them out with a blessing, to spend time with the readings at their own level.  Each Sunday’s Liturgy of the Word is enriched and modified to make it important and relevant to the lives and experiences of young people and children.  
 
Thay are brought back into the church before the beginning of the Eucharistic Prayer, and are then invited up to stand around the altar as we pray the Lord's Prayer.  
 

Spend Lent with the saints


Here are forty holy men and women to accompany you during Lent. Let their lives inspire you to courage, service, surrender, and fidelity. They will help you, as you journey with your family and faith community, to grow with them in faith, hope, and love.

Taking your children to Mass isn't always easy but it's worth it!

Beth Meleski wrote this very encouraging article back in 2016 in the America Magazine. 
 
As parents we struggle to firstly get to Mass with the children, and once there, with all their activity we wonder at the sense of being there at all.
 
But Beth takes a delightful view of the noise and antics of young children and states:  "Over the years, and still today, we choose, time and again, to brave the wrath of children awakened too early on a weekend morning, in order that we might continue to attend Mass as a family. We prioritize religious education over sports, dance rehearsals and social events. We find ways, in our increasingly secular world, to work our faith into our lives; sharing parables and the stories of the saints as bedtime stories and stopping for evening prayers each night, a practice that reconnects us after a long day of going our separate ways. We rely on our “village” to help us set examples in words and deeds."
 
Read the full article here.