Adelaide Hills Parish

04/09/2026

23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time Year a
This Sunday’s readings encourage us to listen to the Lord at all times, and to listen to our neighbour and to our communities too. This will sometimes ask for tough love in our relationships with each other.
In the Gospel, we perhaps see the young Church striving to keep the values of Jesus, putting the demands of mutual love above the necessity for structures. Jesus promises to be with us and is active in our decisions and in everything that we do.
‘Love does no wrong to a neighbour,’ St Paul says. We can remember these words as we celebrate this Season of Creation, and pray to work with others for the good of all.

28/08/2026

28/08/2026

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A
In the Gospel, we see Peter’s struggle to embrace fully the reality of Jesus’s Way. Soon after being named ‘the rock’ on which the Church will be built, Peter is still holding on to the values of the world, and struggling to accept what Jesus tells him about the suffering that lies ahead.

This week we pray for those taking up their cross in the service of Christ and his Church around the world. We ask the Lord to keep them safe ‘in the shadow of his wings’.

20/08/2026

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A
In the Gospel. Jesus chooses Peter, who, despite his human failings, is nevertheless to be a rock and custodian of the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

Let us pray, this week, that we might trust the unfathomable wisdom of God. We ask that this wisdom, though from on high, might even look to each one of us, with our own fragilities – and that we ourselves might be God’s choice to spread the joy of the kingdom here and now.i

14/08/2026

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A
This weekend Gospel presents an uncharacteristically abrupt Jesus initially rejecting the pleas of a desperate Canaanite woman. And yet it is this woman’s determined faith and sense of humour that challenges Jesus to step beyond the boundaries of his initial mission, thus revealing the truth that his salvation and healing is for all people – no exceptions.

Let us pray that we will be able to recognise and have the courage to respond to faith expressed in surprising places. We ask too that we will each play our part in revealing God’s love to the world.

07/08/2026

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A
In the readings this week, we witness the full range of the earth’s natural order: the mountains, the wind, the sea, an earthquake and fire. Through all the upheaval and suffering that life may bring, we are reminded of God’s ever-loving presence.
The Gospel retells another dramatic encounter with the earth’s elements: this time the disciples are caught aboard their boat in a storm. Consumed by fear, it takes some time for them to recognise Jesus and accept his saving help.
May we be confident of the enduring presence of our Lord as we navigate our own stormy waters. We need only reach out to him

31/07/2026

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A
Jesus still shows compassion for the crowds who follow him. He ensures that they can be fed, transforming the little that the disciples bring him into great abundance. This blessing and sharing of the loaves and fish by Jesus prefigures the meal we share in the Eucharist.
Aware that nothing we do or think can make God love us less or more, we pray this week for all who do not know or accept Jesus as their Lord. We also keep in our prayers those who are in desperate need of food, whether physical or spiritual.

24/07/2026

Grandparents and Elderly Sunday
On Sunday, we celebrate the sixth World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly. In his message for the day, which this year coincides with the Feast of St Joachim and Anne, Pope Leo XIV said: ‘The celebration of the World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly is an opportunity to rediscover that the Church is called to be a mother to all and that at any age it is always possible to recognise ourselves as sons and daughters of God. May this day, therefore, be an inspiration for everyone, especially the young, to revive the beautiful custom of visiting their grandparents, the elderly members of the family and even those who have no one to visit them.’

We pray for all our grandparents, the elderly and those who play a mentoring role in our lives. May they know how much they are loved and appreciated.

24/07/2026

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A
The Gospel also talks about choosing what is most important. Jesus tells two parables describing the value of the kingdom of heaven. We hear how coming across treasure brings someone great joy, while finding the one pearl of great price impels a merchant to buy and keep it.
This week, we pray to live each day with the wisdom to know what truly matters, and to let go of anything that holds us back. ‘Lord, help us to share the joy of following you, wherever and however we can.’

17/07/2026

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A
The Gospel presents us with three parables; all concerned with growth. The main one, about the weeds growing amidst the wheat, can be applied to our own lives, to the world around us and to the Church. God is patient, slow to judge. We can count on his mercy.
This week, may we ask the Lord to help us to be less judgmental and to look on others with kindness, as we would wish them to treat us.