Catholic Identity

Dear Families,

Let us Pray….               

Lord, 

As we come back together, we place ourselves before You. 

Help us to value and appreciate those around us.

Help us to be present to each other; allow us to grow closer as a group and nurture the bonds of our Sacred Heart community.

Fill us with your grace, Lord God, as we make decisions that might affect the students, staff and community of Sacred Heart School. 

Bless our families, friends, and colleagues with the gifts of kindness, patience, love, and respect. Give us the grace to share these gifts.                                

Empower us to move forward from these days of uncertainty.

Lord, we bring before you these prayers and the prayers that we hold silently in our hearts. We ask all of this in Jesus’ name. 

Amen.

THIRTY-FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME 

Year C Sunday 30 October

"The Son of Man came to seek out and save what was lost."

Preparing to hear God's word

If Jesus were to visit Sacred Heart to what lengths would you go to see him?   

The Gospel Story

This is the story of a man who was keen to see Jesus but he couldn't. Why not? Firstly because he was too short to see over the crowds and secondly because no one would make room for him. He was a tax-collector, so nobody liked him. Zacchaeus was so determined to see Jesus that he climbed a tree which wasn’t very dignified for a wealthy man! Jesus not only stopped but went to eat with Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus had a change of heart after being with Jesus and paid back all the money he had taken from people – four times over!

The Gospel

A reading from the holy gospel according to Luke 19:1-10

The Son of Man came to seek out and save what was lost.

Jesus was going through Jericho, where a man named Zacchaeus lived. He was in charge of collecting taxes and was very rich.

Jesus was heading his way, and Zacchaeus wanted to see what he was like. But Zacchaeus was a short man and could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree.

When Jesus got there, he looked up and said,

"Zacchaeus, hurry down! I want to stay with you today."

Zacchaeus hurried down and gladly welcomed Jesus.

Everyone who saw this started grumbling,

"This man Zacchaeus is a sinner! And Jesus is going home to eat with him."

Later that day Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord,

"I will give half of my property to the poor. And I will now pay back four times as much

to everyone I have ever cheated."

Jesus said to Zacchaeus,

"Today you and your family have been saved, because you are a true son of Abraham.

The Son of Man came to look for and to save people who are lost."

The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

​​​​​

​Reflecting on the Gospel

Jesus knew that Zacchaeus had some goodness in him and he reached out to that inner goodness. How quick we can be to judge and condemn. How ready are we to look for the goodness in others even though it may not be obvious? Invite the children to think of anyone they may have misjudged and to contemplate their readiness to seek the goodness in others.

Introducing our Children to the Gift of Pray...........

Prayer, even in its simplest form, embodies the power of grace—our ever-present connection to God. As adults, we need to appreciate the immense blessing of lifting our hearts and minds to our Heavenly Father in prayer. Daily prayer is how we respond to God’s invitation to a deeper relationship that nurtures our spiritual well-being.  As a community of faith, we find great joy in sharing our spiritual blessings. This includes introducing children to the gift of prayer.

As Jesus traveled on his journeys, he often paused to pray to his heavenly Father. Jesus’s own disciples were inspired by watching Him pray and asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. When children see us pray, they, like Jesus’s disciples, are also inspired to know how to grow closer to God in prayer. Each of us are called to hand on the gift of faith to children and to teach them the different forms and expressions of prayer – including spontaneous prayer, liturgical prayer, and reflective prayer – that will empower them to build a lifelong dialogue and relationship with our Heavenly Father.

Spontaneous Prayer

While praying with traditional prayers is common for Catholics, this is not the only way we can pray. 

St. Ignatius taught that prayer should resemble one friend speaking to another.

We call that spontaneous prayer. One of the easiest ways to equip children with the confidence to pray spontaneously, either alone or in a group setting, is to teach them four guiding words: you, who, do, and through.

• As always, our prayer should begin with the Sign of the Cross
• You: prayer begins by addressing a Person, namely, God! God has many titles and we can begin our prayer by addressing God with words such as “Heavenly Father…” or “Almighty God…” or “Loving God.”.
• Who:   We pray to God who has done many wonderful things for us. In prayer, we recall some of these great deeds and thank God for them.
• Do: ultimately, we pray to God because we are asking God to DO something for us or for others, namely, show us his mercy and love.
• Through:   We make all of our prayer to the Father through his Son, Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

 ( Loyola Press -  Joe Paprocki, D.Min.)

DATES FOR TERM  4

Praying the Rosary for Children

How’s your family going praying the Rosary?                                                                                  

A lot of Grandparents or Parents may have grown up with their family saying the Rosary after or before meals each day.                                                                                       

Today, our Parish prays the Rosary together before week day Masses with Fr John.  

The Rosary of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary.                                                

Where does the word come from?                                                                              

It comes from a Latin word Rosaria, which means a crown of roses or a garden of roses. It grew up in the second millennium of Christianity, particularly in Western Christianity around the 14th century. It's attributed to Saint Dominic.

The Rosary is a sequence of prayers. St John Paul II said, it's a compendium of the Gospel and it's intended to help us grow in our faith as we come to understand more and more about the life, the death, the resurrection and the Ascension of Jesus Christ, and about the Church and who we are in the Lord.

That's why the way to view the Rosary is as a time of meditation. We meditate on the great mysteries of the faith.

With the first rosary, the monks of the early church had a corded band. They would simply say the name of Jesus over and over and over again. "Lord Jesus, son of God have mercy on me."

But this Rosary asks Our Lady to pray for us, and it has deep historic roots in Christianity, dating back to the early centuries of the Church. The Church has always believed in the communion of saints. What that means is that those who are marked with the sign of faith and go home to the Lord are still joined to us. They pray for us; they pray with us. As the author of the Letter of the Hebrew said, "They're that great cloud of witnesses."

Here are five reasons to pray the Rosary with our children:

1. The rosary is simple. The short, repetitive prayers of the rosary make it a perfect devotion for families. It can be prayed by anyone, anywhere. The prayers are easily memorized and recited, and even young children can be encouraged to lead a decade.
2. The rosary is tactile. A rosary comes with an almost built-in “fidget spinner” for young ones. Holding a rosary in their hands, they can keep track of how much is completed and how much remains. 
3. The rosary brings peace. St. Pius X is credited with saying, “If you wish peace to reign in your homes, recite the family rosary.” For families, moments of quiet can be hard to come by. 
4. The rosary tells a story. The mysteries of the rosary make the story of salvation come alive. Every member of the family, no matter how small, can understand to some extent the events and relationships illustrated.
5. The rosary mirrors the rhythms of daily family life. Mirroring the mysteries, our lives are composed of moments of joy and suffering and moments of hope and illumination. By grappling with the mysteries of the life of Jesus, in union with Mary who pondered them all in her heart, we are better able to cope with the ups and downs in our own families.

Have you and your family prayed the Rosary this week?  Why not have a go?

All Saints Day

We celebrate All Saints’ Day on November 1, the day after Halloween or All Hallows’ Eve.

On this day we honor not only the saints we know by name in Heaven, but also any saints whose names we don’t know! This is the time of year when the living honor all the dead: the saints already in Heaven and all the holy souls on their way to Heaven.

There are so many saints in Heaven who don’t have an official feast day, but are still special nonetheless! All Saints’ Day is a day dedicated to them.

“All you holy men and women pray for us!”

We believe in the Communion of Saints. We proclaim this when we pray the Creed each Sunday at Mass. The Communion of Saints refers to the family of God.

Our belief in the Communion of Saints proclaims our belief that death does not separate us from those who have died.

All Souls Day

All Souls’ Day is on November 2nd.  It is a day to commemorate and pray for the souls of baptised Christians who have died.   It is also called “The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed”, “Feast of All Souls”, or “Day of the Dead”.  On this day we commemorate all of the faithful departed — our friends, relatives, parishioners and community members. We remember and pray for the souls of the people, and we also pray that we may one day join Christ and all of the saints in heaven.

Prayer for this week

GOD BLESS.

Debbie Turvey

RE Leader