Education in Faith
Ash Wednesday and the Journey of Lent
As you know, Lent is a 40-day season of prayer, fasting, and giving to those in need. It starts on Ash Wednesday and ends at sundown on Holy Thursday. This time helps us prepare to celebrate Jesus' Resurrection at Easter.
We were so fortunate this week to have Father Leenus and Deacon John come and present Mass in our Padua Pavilion. This was marked with the distribution of the ashes, as the words "Repent and Turn to the Gospel" are read aloud.
Another version of this prayer is to say "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return."
This can sound a bit ominous to be honest! However it doesn't need to be, and our students understand this as Ash Wednesday is unpacked in our classrooms. All this truly does is act as a reminder, that we have one life on this Earth. We hope it last a very long time, but the fact remains we are not able to jump in the time machine whenever we feel like it and go back to when we were younger!
This reminder helps us understand that in this one life we are given, we hope to spend it being kind, happy, resilient, thankful and so much more. The ashes help us to get back on track if we have lost sight of this.
As aforementioned, Lent is marked by 40 days of prayer, fasting and giving to those in need.
We hope to action this in our classrooms and our community!
Soon we will send out some more information about our Project Compassion 2025 Drive. Caritas do fantastic work across the globe and we look forward to again supporting them this Lent.
Each of our classrooms will have a Project Compassion box which can be used to collect coins and loose change donations. Please keep an eye out for emails about further fundraising efforts at our school!
We hope that this Lent period is rewarding for everyone, and can be used as a time to pray and reflect. Please find a lovely prayer for Lent below.
Learning to be Pilgrims of Hope
Last Friday on our Curriculum Day we were so fortunate to have a special visitor, Father Elio Capra. Reverend Dr Elio Capra SDB is a lecturer at Catholic Theological College and is a member of the Department of Systematic Theology and the Department of Pastoral and General Studies. He lectures in Liturgy and Sacramental Theology. He is a priest of the Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB).
Father Elio spent a day educating our staff on the different Sacraments of the Catholic Church, but also spoke at length about our 2025 Jubilee.
He spoke about how this Jubilee can be taught to our students, but also reflected in our daily actions. Father Elio is a talented educator so our staff not only learnt a great deal, but left the day feeling inspired to act and pass this message on.
We look forward to continuing to unpacking and celebrating the Jubilee as a community as the year progresses.
May the beginning of Lent be a peaceful and reflective time for everyone.
Take care!
Tim O'Mahoney
Education in Faith Leader