Catholic Identity

Dear Families,

 Let us Pray….     

   Lord,

I know how much you love me.

It’s hard for me to feel it sometimes,

but I know your love is always with me.

Help me to use your love as a way to persevere in my Lenten intentions.

I am weak, but I know with your help,

I can use these small sacrifices in my life to draw closer to you.

                            Amen

We are now heading into the 

FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT                          

Year C | Sunday 3rd April | purple

    "​Let the person among you without  

 sin be the first to throw a stone."

In this week’s story, the religious leaders try to trap Jesus. They bring a woman in front of all the people who has broken one of the religious laws. In those days, someone who broke that law would be stoned to death. The religious leaders ask Jesus what he thinks. Jesus invites anyone who has never sinned to throw the first stone. One by one the people leave, because they had all sinned. Jesus does not condemn the woman but lets her go.

Today's Gospel

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John          8:2-11

Let the person among you without sin be the first to throw a stone.

Jesus spent the night on the Mount of Olives. Then early the next morning he went to the temple.

The people came to him, and he sat down and started teaching them.

The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law of Moses brought in a woman who had been caught in bed with a man who was not her husband. They made her stand in the middle of the crowd. Then they said, "Teacher, this woman was caught sleeping with a man who is not her husband. The Law of Moses teaches that a woman like this should be stoned to death! What do you say?"

They asked Jesus this question, because they wanted to test him and bring some charge against him.

But Jesus simply bent over and started writing on the ground with his finger.

The crowd kept on asking Jesus about the woman. Finally, he stood up and said, "If any of you have never sinned, then go ahead and throw the first stone at her!" Once again he bent over and began writing on the ground. The people left one by one, beginning with the oldest one in the crowd.

Finally, Jesus and the woman were there alone.

Jesus stood up and asked her, "Where is everyone? Isn't there anyone left to accuse you?"

"No, sir," the woman answered. Then Jesus told her, "I am not going to accuse you either.

You may go now, but don't sin anymore."

Reflecting on the Gospel story….                                   

Sometimes it can be tempting to point the finger at someone else who has done the wrong thing and forget about the mistakes and poor choices that we ourselves have made.

Jesus wants us to act with compassion and forgiveness towards others.

How could you show compassion to people in your daily life?

The Catholic Identity team - Ella; Lachlan; Isabel; William; Sophia; and Tori - have continued to work hard assisting classes to continue their Lenten journeys at Sacred Heart.  They will continue to work as we progress through the weeks prior to Easter. This week sees another challenge for students and Friday 1st April is the last fundraiser for Project Compassion - Caritas Ks.  The team spoke about this at assembly last Friday and will prepare and run the event on Friday at 10am.  

Ella told us that in some countries, people have to walk for water and this can take a long time.  Some families don’t even have taps in their houses, or even their villages!  

Imagine that in TATURA!   In our school!  You couldn’t just turn the tap on to have a drink; have a shower or even water the garden.  They sometimes must walk up to 7 kms each day just to find water! 

Lachlan went on to tell us that often the people doing the searching and walking to find water are children.  Imagine doing that, walking a few kilometers every day and having to carry a heavy bucket of water with you! This is not a good situation.  The education of the children who need to fetch the water suffers.  And often, the water collected is unclean, and this can affect the health of the children and their families.

Isabel went on to say that every day, those living in poverty are faced with the challenge of finding clean water.  Tuesday 22nd March was World Water Day for 2022.  

Around Australia lots of people decided to try and save water and so can we.  Each of us can save up 5 litres of water every day by doing three simple three things: 

Take shorter showers

Don’t leave the tap on while you brush your teeth

Use the half flush on the toilet

So let’s try this for this week till April 4th.   Let’s see how much water we can save!  

How much water will you save?  SO, let’s save water and stand in solidarity with those who face water shortages.

We can also show our support for those children that have to walk each day to find water.  We’re all going to see what it is to walk in their shoes, with a bucket of water.

But even more importantly, you’ll be helping to raise money to improve access to clean water for vulnerable families around the world.  Next Friday 1st April at 10am we will all meet on the school oval.  Each grade will experience what walking with a bucket of water for three kilometers (or more) could be like - Caritas Ks!

Finally, William explained how Caritas Ks will work.  Each class will be divided into to team. On the oval as shuttle relay will be set up, one team from each grade will stand at  each end.  We will walk the 20 meters across the oval in a shuttle relay with a bucket of water. We will continue to walk for 15 minutes.  Teachers will keep a tally of how many shuttles their grade does.  Once inside again, grades will need to work out how far they walked with the bucket on water!

We encourage you to bring a gold coin donation toward our last fundraising event for Project Compassion - many thanks for your support.  

The Catholic Identity team will give every student who has walked and tried to save water over the last week a super dooper at first break.  

THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

DATES FOR REMAINDER OF TERM 1

DATES FOR TERM 2

Parish - School Mass - Children   - BIG THANK-YOU TO ALL THOSE FAMILIES AND STAFF THAT SUPPORTED THE SCHOOL AT THIS MASS. 

Sacramental Program 2022

Registrations CLOSE for the 2022 Sacred Heart, Tatura Sacramental Program on Friday 1st April. 

Children who are baptised Catholic and are in grade 3 and above are invited to register for the programs.   Enrolment forms are available on the school newsletter or from the school office.

Each family will be emailed in Week 11 with further information.                                             For further information please contact Debbie Turvey at Sacred Heart school, either by phoning the school (58241841) or email (dturvey@shtatura.catholic.edu.au).

Prayer for this week

Have a great week!

GOD BLESS

Debbie Turvey

RE Leader