Principal's Message

Dear Parents and Carers

Friday 1 November is All Saints' Day. The Solemnity of All Saints is when the Church honors all saints, known and unknown, called the communion of saints.

We celebrate not only the extraordinary saints we know well but also the extraordinary in the everyday human women and men throughout history, who in the image and likeness of God, were called and gifted by God’s grace.

"For centuries the church has confronted the human community with role models of greatness. We call them saints when what we really often mean to say is 'icon,' 'star,' 'hero,' ones so possessed by an internal vision of divine goodness that they give us a glimpse of the face of God in the center of the human. They give us a taste of the possibilities of greatness in ourselves." (Sr Joan Chittister)

The term 'Saint' can apply to each of us as we strive and stumble to imitate Jesus Christ in our lives. Sometimes we do it better than at other times. Nelson Mandela put it nicely when he said, “I am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.”

Our children’s lives are full of idols and stars brought to them by popular culture. Many of them do wonderful things for others and some not. This can be confusing for children and can present them with values that conflict with the ones you hope they will grasp through a Catholic education. Joan Chittister says, “We could use a saint or two, perhaps, to raise our sights again to the heights of human possibility and the depths of human soul. It might not even hurt to pass one or two of them on to children who are otherwise left with little to choose from as personal idols than what Hollywood, TV, and the music industry have already given them, of course.

I invite you to talk to your children about a saint and also a person they know who makes visible the extraordinary in their everyday lives, someone gifted by God’s grace.

Fr James Martin sj is the best-selling author of My Life with the Saints,

and in the following clip  Fr. James describes the connections between the Saints and All Saints Day, including the canonization process, patron saints and highlights of various individual saints. https://www.youtube.com/watchtime_continue=29&v=JJsokZ6Y2x8

I invite all families to join Year 4 and Year 6 at Mass on Friday to celebrate All Saints Day at 9:20 am.

For all things at St Joseph’s, give thanks!

Jen Charadia

Principal