Year 6 Sacrament of Confirmation
Year 6 Confirmation Reflection Day
On the 6th of August at 9:15 am, the Year 6’s went on an excursion by bus to Holy Cross Centre in Templestowe. Holy Cross is a retreat centre where we went to learn more about our Confirmation journey and how we can grow closer to God.
The Year 6's did a variety of activities that took 45 minutes each including a guided meditation, learning a parable called 'The Parable of the Sower' which talks about seeds growing. If you leave it in the wrong environment, it doesn't grow and these seeds represent us because we try to grow in faith but in a wrong environment we don't grow in faith like hard situations, friends changing your mind and more things stopping you from growing. Another activity we had was that we visited the Chapel, a beautiful place, and the last activity was that we learned about the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit and we heard about and looked at scenarios and say what gift of the Holy Spirit was. After all the activities, we had a liturgy which the RE leader Ms Lamanna and the RE captains read a scripture about each gifts of the Holy Spirit and how we can grow closer to God
which was a nice way to end the day.
Minjung and Pio
RE/Social Justice Leaders
On the 6th of August, the entire Year 6 cohort went on a reflection day excursion to the Holy Cross Centre in Templestowe.
We started the day at school. At 9:00 am, we started with a prayer and a presentation led by Ms Lamanna. The presentation discussed the day’s itinerary and then at 9:15 am we got on the buses class by class.
Then after a fun bus ride, we arrived at Holy Cross Centre at 9:45 am. When we got there, we quickly gathered in our rotational groups and went straight to our activities. Our group was group one. The first activity we did was a parable reflection with Miss Lema. The parable was the Parable of the Sower, the story was about a sower (a person who plants seeds). It taught us about the environments in which the seeds were planted. The first place where the seeds were sowed was the path, the second set of seeds were planted in the rocky ground, the third set in the thorns and the last in the good soil. We related these situations to real life, the path represented people hearing the message and ignoring it. The rocky ground represented people hearing the message but letting it go during hard times. The thorns represented people knowing the message but greed and money prevented it. But with the good soil it represented the people that received the message and deeply connected with God. After that we did an extended guided meditation with Ms McPhee. After the meditation, we did a reflection of how the meditation made us feel. Then we had a 20 minute snack break where we ate snack. Afterwards, we learned about the gifts of the Holy Spirit with Miss Beech.
The 7 gifts are..
Wisdom - Knowing what is truly important.
Understanding - Seeing situations through God's eyes.
Counsel - Making good decisions.
Fortitude - Being brave enough to do what is right.
Knowledge - Growing closer to God by learning.
Piety - Wanting a Close relation with God.
Wonder and awe - Recognising God’s greatness.
Then, we related the gifts to real life situations.
After learning about the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, we went to the chapel with Miss Lamanna and talked about the topic; Shine the light and talked about how we can shine, how we can help others shine, etc. After discussing those questions we drew a flame and answered questions in it.
Soon enough lunch break came around. We got to play around in the yard. After lunch, we had a liturgy where the Religious Leaders along with Miss Lamanna read about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. After the liturgy, we got on the buses and finally went back to school. Holy Cross Centre was a great experience and we learned a lot throughout the day.
Natasha and Sean
RE/Social Justice Leaders
Medal Masses
On the 8th and 9th of August there were medal Masses for the Year 6 students who were making their Confirmation. The Mass times were, Saturday 5pm, Sunday, 8:30am and 11:30am. Each Year 6 student attended one of the Masses. We all came to church and participated in Mass like normal, we listened to the Gospel about Peter seeing Jesus on the sea, Peter said, "Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water" out of a desire to join Him. Then we listened to Father Andrew's homily, the homily was about stepping out of your comfort zone and exploring new things and possibilities. Then we had Communion. After Communion, we had the final blessing and then Father Andrew called all the Confirmation candidates up to the altar to receive their medals and a blessing. The medals were small doves that we will put on our Confirmation stoles. Afterwards, Mass ended and we all headed back home. We are looking forward to the Sacrament next week.
Sean and Natasha
RE/Social Justice Leaders