Pancakes and ashes and fundraising

Fr Anthony (Thonn) Riossa, Assistant Priest at Holy Spirit Parish, Amaroo visited Mother Teresa Catholic Primary School in Harrison on Tuesday, 2 March for pancakes with the Year One students.

Catholic schools and parishes in the Archdiocese have celebrated Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday this week, signalling the beginning of the season of Lent, an important time in the Church’s liturgical calendar.

Project Compassion, Caritas Australia’s major fundraiser each year, is focused on the almsgiving component of Lent.

Each week, a different story is shared via the Caritas website, which explains the specific way that Caritas works with communities.

The first week’s story tells the story of Anatercia, a 12-year-old girl in Mozambique whose community has suffered food insecurity for decades.

Through Caritas’ work with partners, Anatercia and her community now have an irrigated farm, food all year, and she no longer misses school because she has to fetch water and firewood each day.

What makes Lent real for Australian Catholics is often the charitable giving aspect. For many, faith is inextricably linked with social justice.

Lent allows us to focus on the call to bring about the Kingdom of God in the here and now, through our actions for justice. Some of the most powerful readings in the Gospel are those such as Matthew 25, asking: “When did I see you hungry or thirsty?” Our response to this question is important.

Schools in the Archdiocese have made a special effort to celebrate the beginning of Lent and have been pairing it with fundraising.

Fr Anthony (Thonn) Riossa, Assistant Priest at Holy Spirit Parish, Amaroo visited Mother Teresa Catholic Primary School in Harrison on Tuesday and was treated to pancakes with Year One students.

He was excited to participate in this tradition, as in the Philippines where he is originally from, Shrove Tuesday is different with no pancakes.

Students took pleasure in telling Fr Thonn what they knew about Shrove Tuesday and Lent generally.

At St John Paul II College Nicholls, the school captains, principal, teachers and Year 12 students came in early to cook up a storm having sold about 300 pancakes for Caritas via the Qkr! App. This was done in an attempt to enjoy pancakes in a COVID-safe way. There was then a liturgy celebrated in house groups where students received the ashes.

• To contact Caritas’ new Diocesan Director Beth Doherty about fundraising for Caritas, email  Elisabeth_doherty@hotmail.com or call 0432 608 310. To watch the Archdiocesan launch of Project Compassion, click here