St John Paul II, Catholic Parish

10/06/2026

We’re looking forward to our next Catholic Family Market on Sunday 21 June • 12-3pm at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, 631 High St Prahran, VIC

Join Catholic families from around Melbourne for a fun, relaxing day to come together and connect with others. There’ll be plenty to enjoy, including an animal farm with baby goats 🐐, guinea pigs 🐹 rabbits 🐰 chickens 🐔 and ducklings 🐥 along with a jumping castle 🏰 music 🎶

Mr. Fresh Food Truck 🚚 will be serving up delicious market favourites including burgers 🍔, hot chips 🍟, and refreshing cold drinks 🥤 — perfect for a family lunch while you enjoy the market.

Our volunteer café will also be open on the day, with coffee, slushies, and sweet treats available by donation ☕🍧🍰🍪🥐

We’ll also have a beautiful range of Catholic stallholders offering books, resources, handcrafted accessories, artwork, cards, jewellery, apparel, and gifts 🎁 Check out our stallholders below and in the photos.

👧 Two Lil’ Sweeties
Handmade leatherette hair accessories, personalised key fobs, genuine leather earrings, polymer clay bookmarks and wooden Rosary hangers ✨

👕 Catholic Apparel
A streetwear brand blending contemporary style with Catholic identity ✝️ Hoodies, tees and bold statement pieces. .com.au

💌 Carmel’s Cards
Catholic sacramental cards designed to celebrate the beauty and significance of the sacraments.

🌿 The Makers Garden
All-natural, homemade products including beauty products, beeswax candles, soaps, dishcloths, dishwashing tablets and journals. Also featuring nativity sets, house blessing kits, cards and gift packs 🎁

🕊️ Ponder
Beautifully crafted Catholic prayer card packs designed to help you be still, reflect and pray 🙏

💍 Samanah
Christian handmade jewellery, thoughtfully made and full of meaning.

We hope you can join us! To see all upcoming events go to: www.truthgoodnessbeautyproject.com/events

29/05/2026

Join Catholic young adults from across Melbourne for the next Lumen event. Starting at 6:30pm with Adoration, then food and a talk. Come along for a chance to connect with others and grow in faith.

DETAILS:
Wednesday 10 June, 6:30pm - 9:30pm
Our Lady of Lourdes - 631 High St, Prahran.

02/05/2026

It was an honour hosting Tracey Rowland’s book launch last week at our parish centre. Thank you to the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne for the article, and to Thomas More Centre for facilitating the evening. Read the full article in the link below.

Prominent Catholic theologian Prof Tracy Rowland has launched her latest book, Introducing Communio Theology, which synthesises the ideas of scholars who contributed to the Communio: International Catholic Review journal over the past five decades. Those scholars include 20th-century theologians Henri de Lubac, Hans Urs von Balthasar and Joseph Ratzinger, who became Pope Benedict XVI.

The book is published by Word on Fire Academic, an imprint of Bishop Robert Barron’s Word on Fire Publishing ministry.

Find out more: https://melbournecatholic.org/news/prof-tracy-rowland-introduces-50-years-of-communio-theology-to-a-new-audience

Central Catholic Bookshop Word on Fire Catholic Ministries

01/05/2026

A few moments from our recent concert at St Peter’s, Toorak: https://www.instagram.com/p/DXxr5_6P0hL/

Our sacred music programme invites you into the rich cultural and liturgical life of the Church, offering the opportunity to encounter beauty and experience God’s presence with regular concerts at St Peter's Catholic Church, Toorak. Our next concert will be held on Friday 22 May, 7pm - 9pm.

Admission is by donation, supporting this concert series and helping make the Church’s rich musical tradition accessible to all.
Light refreshments will be served during the evening. To assist with catering, please book your place in advance: Trybooking.com/DRJRP

01/05/2026

Photos from Lumen on Wednesday, an event for Catholic young adults, with Adoration followed by socials and a great talk from Fr James.

The next Lumen event is happening on Wednesday 10 June, 6:30pm at Our Lady of Lourdes.

Click on the link below to check out photos.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DXvm0BqlHe_/?img_index=1

21/04/2026

The St Thomas More Centre presents Tracey Rowland, a leading Catholic theologian, for the launch of her latest book, Introducing Communio Theology.

🗓️ Thursday 23 April 2026
🕰️ 6:30pm–8:30pm
⛪️ St Peter’s Parish Centre, 583 Toorak Road, Toorak, VIC
🎟️ Tickets via TryBooking

Join us for an evening with Tracey Rowland as she explores her latest book, Introducing Communio Theology. An engaging event for anyone interested in theology, Catholic thought, and the enduring questions facing the modern world.

About the author:
Tracey Rowland is an internationally respected Catholic theologian and one of Australia’s leading voices in contemporary Catholic thought. Her work engages major questions of culture, secularism, the theology of Joseph Ratzinger and Pope Benedict XVI, and the renewal of Catholic intellectual life. She is Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame Australia, a member of the International Theological Commission, and the first Australian to receive the Ratzinger Prize for theology.

https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1563068?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZnRzaART-XFleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA8xMjQwMjQ1NzQyODc0MTQAAadVk9je4_xoXQPa7eQoxB7BXR9qlAjtMHf_W3tGjrR93fZdj8_zsSvxxTSlcQ_aem_zZeOj1238bOzw1QlHqkUOA

The Thomas More Centre invites you to attend the book launch for Introducing Communio Theology by Professor Tracey Rowland,

17/04/2026

We’re looking forward to our Catholic Family Market this Sunday 19 April ✨ 12 - 3pm at Our Lady of Lourdes, 631 High St, Prahran, VIC.

There’ll be plenty to enjoy for the whole family, including an animal farm with baby goats 🐐, guinea pigs 🐹 rabbits 🐰 chickens 🐔 and ducklings 🐥 along with a jumping castle 🏰 music 🎶

Hot food options will be available with fish & chips 🍟, calamari, 🍤 tacos 🌮 burgers 🍔 and & drinks🥤

Our volunteer café will also be open on the day, with coffee, slushies, and sweet treats available by donation ☕🍧🍰🍪🥐

We’ll also have a beautiful range of Catholic stallholders offering books, resources, handcrafted accessories, artwork, cards, jewellery, apparel, and gifts 🎁 Check out our stallholders below and in the photos.

🕯️ AFC Candles & Gifts
A range of handcrafted candles, earrings, mugs, keyrings, and religious gifts ✨ Thoughtful, practical, and faith-filled.

👕 Catholic Apparel
A streetwear brand blending contemporary style with Catholic identity ✝️ Hoodies, tees, and bold statement pieces.

💌 Carmel’s Cards
Catholic sacramental cards designed to celebrate the beauty and significance of the sacraments.

🖼️ Metany Icons
Hand painted and printed icons, created with care and inspired by the beauty of sacred art.

🕊️ Ponder
Beautifully crafted Catholic prayer card packs to help you be still, reflect, and pray 🙏

💍 Samanah
Christian handmade jewellery, thoughtfully made and full of meaning.

08/04/2026

Join us for our next Catholic Family Market

📅 Sunday 19 April
📍 Our Lady of Lourdes, Armadale

✨🍭🏰💝🎁🍔🍟🥤🐥🦆🐰

A relaxed day for families and friends from across Melbourne to have fun and spend time together. There’ll be something for everyone, with children’s activities, food, music, an animal petting zoo, and a great mix of stallholders offering faith-filled gifts, resources and handmade items. Free entry.

👉 Share this reel to invite family and friends ↗️📱

02/04/2026

Join us on Holy Saturday night for the Easter Vigil, the most solemn liturgy of the year. Beginning in darkness with the lighting of the Paschal candle, we celebrate the Resurrection of Christ and the victory of light over darkness.

DETAILS:
🗓️ Saturday 4th April.
🕰️ 7:30pm
📍St Peter’s Catholic Church, 581 Toorak Rd, Toorak, VIC

✝️ A Brief Guide from Pope Benedict XVI: Easter Vigil Holy Saturday is the day when the liturgy is hushed, the day of great silence, and Christians are invited to preserve interior recollection, often difficult to encourage in our day, in order to be better prepared for the Easter Vigil. Finally, during the Easter Vigil the veil of sorrow which shrouds the Church because of the death of the Lord will be torn by the victorious cry: Christ is risen and has defeated death for ever! We will then truly be able to understand the mystery of the Cross, “since God also creates wonders even in the impossible, ” an ancient writer says, “so that we may know that he alone can do what he wills. From his death comes our life, from his wounds our healing, from his fall our resurrection, from his descent our uplifting” (Anonymous, Quartodecimano). .

EasterTriduum FromDeathToLife SacredLiturgy CatholicFaith

29/03/2026

Reflection by Scott Hahn

PALM SUNDAY OF THE PASSION OF THE LORD, YEAR A

“All Is Fulfilled”

“All this has come to pass that the writings of the prophets may be fulfilled,” Jesus says in today’s Gospel (see Matthew 26:56).

Indeed, we have reached the climax of the liturgical year, the highest peak of salvation history, when all that has been anticipated and promised is to be fulfilled.

By the close of today’s long Gospel, the work of our redemption will have been accomplished: the new covenant will be written in the blood of His broken body hanging on the Cross at the place called the Skull.

In His Passion, Jesus is “counted among the wicked,” as Isaiah had foretold (see Isaiah 53:12). He is revealed definitively as the Suffering Servant the prophet announced, the long-awaited Messiah whose words of obedience and faith ring out in today’s First Reading and Psalm.

The taunts and torments we hear in these two readings punctuate the Gospel as Jesus is beaten and mocked (see Matthew 27:31), as His hands and feet are pierced, as enemies gamble for His clothes (see Matthew 27:35), and as His enemies dare Him to prove His divinity by saving Himself from suffering (see Matthew 27:39–44).

He remains faithful to God’s will to the end. He does not turn back in His trial. He gives Himself freely to His torturers, confident that, as He speaks in today’s First Reading, “The Lord God is My help . . . I shall not be put to shame.”

Destined to sin and death as children of Adam’s disobedience, we have been set free for holiness and life by Christ’s perfect obedience to the Father’s will (see Romans 5:12–14, 17–19; Ephesians 2:2; 5:6).

This is why God greatly exalted Him. This is why we have salvation in His name. Following His example of humble obedience in the trials and crosses of our lives, we know we will never be forsaken. We know, as the centurion realizes today, that truly this is the Son of God (see Matthew 27:54).

—————-

🖼️ The painting ‘Entrance to Jerusalem’ is by Duccio di Buoninsegna, painted c. 1308–1311 as part of the Maestà altarpiece. (Public domain image, sourced via Wikimedia Commons.)