Religious Education and Social Justice

Way of the West Asylum Seeker Food Assistance

Thank you to all the families who donated food and essential living items to our appeal for the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre (ASRC). We ended up with an amazing amount of food, toiletries, nappies and cleaning products. Mr Mark Northeast from Way of the West collected all the items on Tuesday to take to the ASRC. He asked us to pass on his thanks on behalf of the centre. About 800 people benefit each week from donations such as ours and they are extremely grateful for the community's support.

By supporting our Social Justice initiatives we are living out the following Catholic Social Teachings:

Caring for the poor is everyone’s responsibility. Preferential care should be shown to poor and vulnerable people, whose needs and rights are given special attention in God’s eyes.

No human being should have their dignity or freedom compromised. Poverty, hunger, oppression and injustice make it impossible to live a life commensurate with this dignity. 

The common good is reached when we work together to improve the wellbeing of people in our society and the wider world.

Catholic Mission Book Project

Last week we sent home a flyer notifying you of our next Social Justice initiative which  is to support Catholic Mission in their project to set up a school library in Yangon Myanmar.

All you need to do is clean out your bookshelves of any children's books that are still in good condition but are no longer being read by your family. We hope to fill two tea chest boxes for this wonderful cause.

So please check your bookshelves and send any suitable books to your child's learning area by this Friday 22nd November.

Thank you for supporting our Social Justice initiatives!

Bianca, Liv, Elle, Anna, Maddie and Sophie

The Social Justice Leaders

Reflection for Acts of Kindness

God shows his love, not with great speeches, but with simple, tender acts of charity, Pope Francis said.

"When Jesus wants to teach us how a Christian should be, he tells us very little," the Pope said, but he shows people by feeding the hungry and welcoming the stranger.

It is not easy to understand, he said, but God expresses his infinite love in small, tender ways.

"How does God show his love? With great things? No, he becomes small with gestures of tenderness, goodness," he said. God stoops low and gets close.

"What does (Jesus) say? He doesn't say, 'I think God is like this. I have understood God's love.' No, no. I made God's love small," the pope said, that is, he expressed God's love concretely on a small scale by feeding someone who was hungry, giving the thirsty something to drink, visiting a prisoner or someone who is ill.

"The works of mercy are precisely the path of love that Jesus teaches us in continuity with this great love of God.”

Therefore, there is no need for grand speeches about love, he said, but there is a need for men and women "who know how to do these little things for Jesus, for the Father."

Works of mercy continues that love, which is made small so it can "reach us and we carry it forward," Pope Francis said.

Prayer for Charity

Thank You Lord for the many graces and blessings you have placed in my life.

I offer You my heart-felt gratitude for Your countless gifts to me each day.

In turn, dear Lord,

help me to be aware of the needs of my least sisters and brothers,

and to respond to those those who are poor and less fortunate with generous expressions of charity, kindness and caring.

On that day Lord, when I finally stand before You to give an account of my life,

I pray I will hear you say, “Come O good and faithful servant to share your Father’s joy, for when you saw me hungry, thirsty, naked, homeless, ill and imprisoned, you offered your gifts in charity and you lovingly did it for me”.

Amen.

Jane Wilkinson

Religious Education Leader