St Brigid's News and Events
Wellbeing News
Medical Management Plans and Allergies
This year we have a significant number of students with severe allergies. Please be mindful when packing lunches that there are students with allergies to nuts and eggs. We will be reminding students that we do not share food at school, please chat with your children at home regarding this as well.
If your child has a Medical Management Plan or an allergy, you would have received forms at the end of last year. If you have not returned these please do so as soon as possible. These forms are an essential part of our processes here at school and help keep your child safe.
Inform and Empower
This year we are looking forward to partnering with Inform and Empower. We started this journey last year with an engaging parent information night. Students will participate in engaging and interactive live-streamed incursions each term. These incursions will focus on age-appropriate content that helps keep students safe online. This program has been sponsored by Bendigo Bank.
RE News
We begin this year by celebrating the Beginning of the Year Mass and the Feast of St Brigid on Friday 31st January at 11.30 am Parish Mass. We warmly invite families to join us. We will be leaving school at 11.00 am to walk to the church.
2025 Jubilee Year: Pilgrims of Hope
Pope Francis has declared a Jubilee Year of Hope in 2025. The Holy Father has called the universal Church to this special time of grace, a time to focus on reconciliation and forgiveness, prayer and reflection, sojourn and pilgrimage. A time to focus on hope.
Jubilees are relatively rare occurrences, so for those of us who might not be familiar with what they are, a jubilee is a special year of grace and conversion, involving prayer, pilgrimage and sacramental repentance, held every 25 years or during other years as called for by the Pope. The most recent (ordinary) jubilee was the Great Jubilee of 2000. Key elements of a jubilee include walking through Holy Doors while on a pilgrimage and the granting of plenary indulgences. Indulgences are a wonderful support on the great pilgrimage towards heaven. They orient hearts towards God and are characterised by a mysterious interior renewal.Pope Francis has declared a Jubilee Year of Hope in 2025.
The motto for this Year of Jubilee is Pilgims of Hope whichis represented in the logo. The logo shows four stylized figures, representing all of humanity, coming from the four corners of the earth. They embrace each other to indicate the solidarity and fraternity which should unite all peoples.
The figure at the front is holding onto the cross. It is not only the sign of the faith which this lead figure embraces, but also of hope, which can never be abandoned, because we are always in need of hope, especially in our moments of greatest need.
There are the rough waves under the figures, symbolising the fact that life’s pilgrimage does not always go smoothly in calm waters. Often the circumstances of daily life and events in the wider world require a greater call to hope. That’s why we should pay special attention to the lower part of the cross which has been elongated and turned into the shape of an anchor which is let down into the waves. The anchor is well known as a symbol of hope. In maritime jargon the ‘anchor of hope’ refers to the reserve anchor used by vessels involved in emergency manoeuvres to stabilise the ship during storms. It is worth noting that the image illustrates the pilgrim’s journey not as an individual undertaking, but rather as something communal, marked by an increasing dynamism leading one ever closer to the cross. The cross in the logo is by no means static, but it is also dynamic. It bends down towards humanity, not leaving human beings alone, but stretching out to them to offer the certainty of its presence and the security of hope. At the bottom of the logo is the motto of the 2025 Jubilee Year: Peregrinantes in Spem (Pilgrims in hope), represented in green letters.
Archdiocese of Melbourne - Pilgrim Places
For locals wanting to participate in next year’s Jubilee and unable to travel to Rome, the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne has revealed the 13 churches and shrines within the Archdiocese that will be designated Pilgrim Places for the purposes of the 2025 Jubilee, with St Patrick’s Cathedral serving as the principal Pilgrim Place.
While there won’t be Holy Doors through which to walk pilgrims will be eligible to receive Jubilee indulgences by visiting a designated Pilgrim Place within the Archdiocese.
This will be the primary way in which the 2025 Jubilee will be observed locally across the Archdiocese of Melbourne, and Catholics across the Archdiocese, as well as further afield, are encouraged to visit and pray at one or more of the local Pilgrim Places during the Jubilee year.
Announcing the Pilgrim Places, Archbishop of Melbourne Peter A Comensoli noted that ‘The Holy Father has called the universal Church to this special time of grace, a time to focus on reconciliation and forgiveness, prayer and reflection, sojourn and pilgrimage. A time to focus on hope. I invite all in the Archdiocese to participate to the fullest in this special time and am delighted to be able to offer ways to do that locally within the Archdiocese of Melbourne.’
The designated pilgrim places are:
· St Patrick’s Cathedral, East Melbourne
· St Mary Star of the Sea (Archdiocese Shrine of the Holy Family), West Melbourne
· St Mary MacKillop, Keilor Downs
· St Luke’s, Lalor
· St Mary Magdalene’s, Trentham
· Polish Marian Shrine, Aberfeldie/Essendon
·St Dominic’s, Camberwell East
· St Francis Xavier, Mansfield
· Sacred Heart, Croydon
· Divine Mercy Shrine, Keysborough
· Our Lady of Lavang, Keysborough
· St Patrick’s, Mentone
· St Macartan’s, Mornington
Details of opening times and offerings at each Pilgrim Place will be announced early in the new year.