Education in Faith
Advent
Advent
This week, we have started celebrating the season of Advent at SMCM. As a new Church year begins, we are preparing and waiting for the coming of Jesus. We recall the past, celebrate the present, and we look to the future with hope, peace, love and joy.
We prepare to remember and celebrate not only the birth of Jesus but also his presence in our hearts and world.
Advent is a time of waiting.
Waiting for something to happen.
It goes for four weeks leading up to Christmas when Jesus Christ was born.
We light candles.
There are four candles, three purple candles and one pink candle.
The first candle we light up is a purple candle which represents HOPE.
Then you light another purple candle that represents PEACE.
On the third week you light a pink candle which represents JOY and the last one again is purple and represents LOVE.
Christmas is a day that Jesus Christ was born.
We are people of HOPE
This week, our focus centres on the virtue of HOPE.
We can often confuse the word hope for wishful thinking. If we hope something will happen, we have no control over whether or not it will take place.
But the biblical sense of hope is very different. Hope, in the Bible, exists as a secure assurance, a trust placed in a trustworthy God. God has not failed us in the past, and therefore, if he claims he will do something in the future, we can have a hope that he will fulfill that claim.
Hope waits and endures. It isn’t flimsy or merely wishful thinking. It can withstand fire, trials, and despair.
In homegroups, students have been contemplating where they see hope in our world today. Each homegroup is considering where they see signs of hope in their lives and creating prayers of hope.
Mini Vinnies Christmas Appeal
This year we are once again donating gifts to families in need through the Christmas hamper appeal organised by St Vincent De Paul.
These hampers will be delivered to people in the local Epping area, to make their Christmas better! We ask the generous people of SMCM to please donate:
- Christmas gifts such as stationary, board games like uno etc.
- Non-perishable goods that may be used for a Christmas dinner. For example, long lasting canned food, pasta, pasta sauce, drinks, cereal and snacks.
This Advent season we are called to respond to those who are in need of help, by being role models of hope, peace, joy and love, just like Jesus. Please place these items in our homegroup basket over the next two weeks.
Parish Mass
This week we celebrate Parish mass with our Year 1 students. Family and friends are welcome to join us at 12pm in our Sacred Space.
Sarah
Education in Faith Leader