We have entered the month of October, the month of Our Lady's Rosary. We celebrate the day of thanksgiving for God's blessings.

On Thursday, at 8:00 p.m., in the hall of Blessed Ivan Merz on the first floor, our Parish Family Community will hold its regular meeting, which will consist of prayer, sharing experiences, and fellowship.
Everyone is welcome. We especially invite all registered members, newly married couples, and single parents raising their children on their own.

Regular catechism classes are beginning according to the following schedule:

The first meeting for CONFIRMATION CANDIDATES will take place on Tuesday, September 29, or Wednesday, September 30, at 4:00 p.m. in the hall of Blessed Ivan Merz on the first floor of the Pastoral Centre.

The first meeting for seventh-grade students will take place on Thursday, October 1, at 4:00 p.m. in the same hall.

The schedule for sixth-grade students will be announced later.

We invite high school students to join Oaza, a group that leads the music and singing during the 12:15 p.m. Holy Mass. Anyone interested can contact the group leader or Fr. Jozić, either before or after Holy Mass.

Registration has opened for the Spiritual Exercises in Everyday Life, which will be led by Fr. Zdravko Knežević. Information and registration details will soon be posted on the parish notice board.

You are invited to the presentation of the book LESS IS MORE, a collection of lay reflections by Sead Ivan Muhamedagić, which he wrote over several years for the Parish Newsletter. The presentation will take place next Sunday at 4:30 p.m. at the Faculty of Philosophy and Religious Sciences, Jordanovac 110.

Next year, we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of our parish in Palmotićeva Street. We would like to commemorate this milestone with a commemorative monograph. An editorial board has been appointed, with Fr. Ivan Šestak serving as editor-in-chief. We ask all parishioners to contribute by sharing written accounts of important events, photographs, other materials, or any relevant information. You can bring photographs to the parish office or the sacristy.

Since we will be spending at least a few more years in the old Pastoral Centre, some improvements have been made to make our stay there as pleasant as possible.
The Pastoral Centre was repainted in August, and the doors will be replaced on September 3.
If you would like to help us with these expenses, you can leave your donation in the sacristy or parish office, or transfer it to the residence's bank account (HR8423600001101573732), specifying that your donation is intended for painting or replacing the doors of the Pastoral Centre.

Whenever I hear the word wedding, I feel a warm sense of happiness and nostalgia, but also a slight knot in my stomach at the thought of everything we associate with weddings today. We live in a time when planning a wedding celebration has become a full-fledged industry: for months, people choose venues, coordinate decorations, and arrange schedules. In the rush to achieve a dazzling outward appearance, the Sacrament of Matrimony itself is often left in the shadows. We sometimes even catch ourselves thinking that, because of insignificant and superficial “obligations” such as getting our hair and makeup done, we will not have time to attend the church ceremony, so we decide to arrive directly for dinner and dancing, for which we always manage to find time.
This way of thinking and behaving painfully exposes our weaknesses and superficiality, because we do the very same thing with Sunday Holy Mass. Although God invites us to His feast every Sunday, we casually send Him our “excuses” and leave our souls unfed. Just like the guests in this Sunday's Gospel (Matthew 22:1–14), we would rather attend to our fields, shopping, rest, and hobbies. We find entire days and nights for worldly entertainment, yet cannot spare even one hour a week for the Source of Life.
What can we do to become better? First, we must refocus on what truly matters. When preparing for a wedding, the most important adornment should be the bride and groom's purified souls through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, while the main focus should be on the sacred vows of fidelity they make before God and the people gathered there. Second, we must all stop rejecting God's invitations and making excuses for missing Sunday Holy Mass. Then we will more easily understand that the wedding garment Jesus speaks of is not an expensive designer suit, but a heart clothed in love, mercy, and forgiveness, shining most beautifully in the reflection of the brightest heart depicted in the altarpiece of our Basilica. When we step into the church, let us remember that we have been invited to the most important feast. Let us put on our finest spiritual garments and joyfully answer the call of our Host, who awaits us with open arms.

Antonija Blažina