Principal's Message

Dear Parents,

Towards the end of the tenth century, Vladimir, the Prince of Kiev, sent envoys to various Christian centres to study their form of worship. Upon their return, the Russian envoys reported their presence at the celebration of the Eucharist in the Great Church of Holy Wisdom in Constantinople: “We knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth. We cannot describe it to you; we only know that God dwells there among the people and that their Service surpasses the worship of all other places.” No doubt the Great Church was a building of some magnificence and the Service of the Eucharist would have had cultural rituals that would have created a sense of the holy which so impressed the envoys. Not so long ago in our culture, Sunday was a holy day. “Holy” originally meant different and Sundays were certainly different. There were Sunday clothes, Sunday shoes and Sunday manners; our streets were quiet, there was no sport played, most shops were closed and no one hung washing on the line. Nowadays, it is difficult to find this sense of difference or holiness and life goes on much the same as on any other day. It takes a special effort from us as Christians to make Sunday “different” and no better way could we find than to attend the “Service of the Eucharist”, to go to Mass as a family. We need to keep in mind that the Mass is not simply a gathering of like-minded people. It is a presentation and re-enactment of the sacrifice of Christ. Through priests everywhere, Jesus is saying these same words, “This is My Body”, “This is My Blood”. This is Me. I am really here sharing My life with you. When we come to Mass, we come to a sacred time in a sacred place with sacred things. To gain any benefit from the experience we have to work at it. We have to be active, use our imaginations, really pray the words of the Mass not simply say them; if we imagine the closeness of God, we will feel His closeness. When we come to receive the Eucharist, we need to tell ourselves that this truly is the Body and Blood of Christ and we are privileged to be able to partake. We need to let the presence of Christ fill our whole being. When Jesus meets us in the Eucharist, He doesn’t speak to us from the outside; He unites Himself to each of us. He is in each of us; we are united to Him and open to Him to change our hearts, to make them more loving as He is totally loving. It is not as isolated people that we come to Mass rather we come as members of a Community of Faith. The Eucharist is truly the centre of the life of our Church and the principal means of spiritual development, both for us as individual Christians and for the Church as a whole. This is why, when our children receive their First Holy Communion, it is such an important occasion; they join the mystical communion of all the people of their Faith Community and God. The faith we hand to our children will be their strength through life. Teachers and priests cannot plant faith in the hearts of our children. Unless our children sense our faith, they will not absorb faith in their own lives. Our own faith needs constant nourishment and the Eucharist is the principal source for this. We could do well to take on board the observations made more than a thousand years ago, “... we only know that God dwells there among the people ...”.

God, our Father, guide us to be significant faith people in the lives of our children. May they come to know You better through our lives. May we lead them to union with You in the Eucharist. Amen.

God Bless

Leonie Burfield

Principal