On Monday evening, many of the Year 5 and 6 students and their parents were quite engaged in our Spirit-Filled Faith Night presented by Father Elio Capra. Beneath the numerous jokes and interesting dialogue was the underling message that we have all been gifted by the Spirit at our baptism, and it is our mission to use these spirit-filled gifts to bring the love and mercy of God to the world.

We were reminded that at Confirmation the bishop 'seals' us with the Holy Spirit once again, and the gifts of Wisdon, Knowledge, Fortitude, Piety, Fear of the Lord, Counsel and Understanding are strengthened in us.

On Wednesday, the Year 6 students travelled by train to the city to participate in their Confirmation Reflection Day. There we visited the Mary MacKillop Heritage Centre, the East Melbourne Synagogue and were given a tour of St Patrick's Cathedral by our very own Signoro Antonio, before celebrating mass together at the Cathedral.

It was a very intersesting day with lots of new learnings and the visit to the Synagogue was definitely a highlight.

As mentioned in a previous newsletter, 4 of our Year 3 students were certainly using their "spirit-filled" gifts to help the homeless by collecting donations of warm beanies, scarves and gloves. Our very generous school managed to collect a car boot full of donations which were distributed by St Vinnie's at their Dandenong Soup Van Run. Here is a letter we received in appreciation:

I would like to thank the families from St Louis de Montfort’s School for their very generous donations of beanies and scarves for St Vincent de Paul. There were over 60 beanies plus many scarves and other items. Well done. It was a great initiative by the students and a great add on to the already very generous donations of food items we received from the school families for our Sacred Heart Mass Appeal. The food items have helped restock our pantry and will be distributed as hampers when we visit to assist families in need in this area. St Vincent de Paul’s Aspendale Conference is very grateful.

I attended the Soup Van in Dandenong this week and took all the donated beanies and scarves, as well as some donated blankets, with me. Some were distributed that night and the rest will go out on the Soup Van over the next few weeks. They were very gratefully received by the people who come to the Soup Van for assistance. It meant that they were able to not only obtain some soup and warm food, they also went away with something that will help keep them warmer for much longer.

Thank you very much.

I have attached a couple of photos of the volunteers loading some of the beanies, scarves and blankets in the Soup Van for the nightly delivery run.

Susan

Susan Dornom | State Soup Van President | St Vincent de Paul Society Victoria Inc.

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