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St. Augustine's School Prayer

Our Father in Heaven,

Look over and bless St. Augustine’s while we are working and playing.

Help us to respect and care for each other as you taught us to.

Give us the opportunity to do our best for you each day.

We look forward to being able to share our lives with our friends and families.

Keep us safe and give us the courage to be

people who want to know you more.

Amen.

I invite all families to pray this prayer at home, maybe one morning each week.

Prayer of the Week

May Lent be for us

A time of learning to see

Where Christ is crucified today,

A time of learning

To recognize the complex roots of injustice,

To recognize the Gethsemanes

In our global community.

May we witness the suffering

Of God’s children

As Mary witnessed

Her beloved son’s suffering.

May Lent be for us

A time of learning to become

An Easter people,

A time of learning

To recognize the deep roots of compassion,

To recognize we too are called

To witness the empty tomb and

To announce

To a world in despair

the Hope of the Resurrection.

Amen.

Prayer for the Year of St. Joseph

To you,

O blessed Joseph,

do we come in our afflictions,

and having implored the help of your most holy Spouse,

we confidently invoke your patronage also.

Through that charity which bound you to the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God and through the paternal love with which you embraced the Child Jesus,

we humbly beg you graciously to regard the inheritance which Jesus Christ has purchased by his Blood,

and with your power and strength to aid us in our necessities.

O most watchful guardian of the Holy Family, defend the chosen children of Jesus Christ;

O most loving father, ward off from us every contagion of error and corrupting influence;

O our most mighty protector, be kind to us and from heaven assist us in our struggle with the power of darkness.

As once you rescued the Child Jesus from deadly peril,

so now protect God’s Holy Church from the snares of the enemy and from all adversity; shield, too, each one of us by your constant protection,

so that, supported by your example and your aid, we may be able to live piously,

to die in holiness, and to obtain eternal happiness in heaven.

Amen.

Scripture of the Week

Jn 3:14-21

Jesus said to Nicodemus:

‘The Son of Man must be lifted up

as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,

so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.

Yes, God loved the world so much

that he gave his only Son,

so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost

but may have eternal life.

For God sent his Son into the world

not to condemn the world,

but so that through him the world might be saved.

No one who believes in him will be condemned;

but whoever refuses to believe is condemned already,

because he has refused to believe

in the name of God’s only Son.

On these grounds is sentence pronounced:

that though the light has come into the world

men have shown they prefer

darkness to the light

because their deeds were evil.

And indeed, everybody who does wrong

hates the light and avoids it,

for fear his actions should be exposed;

but the man who lives by the truth

comes out into the light,

so that it may be plainly seen that what he does is done in God.’

Reflection

By Lisa-Marie Calderone-Stewart

Being God’s handiwork means God took great pride and care in creating us. What are some of your gifts and talents – characteristics that God takes great pride in? Do you feel awkward when you are asked to list your gifts and talents? Why or why not?

We were created in Christ to do good works. What are some good works you have already participated in? What are some needs in your school, in your family, in your neighbourhood, in your country and in your world? What is one good work you can focus on doing in the near future?

God created a path for us beforehand, so that we might walk on it. Do you think God created a very specific path for each individual? Or do you think God created a very general path of goodness so that each individual might find his or her own way to walk? Explain your answer.