Our Lady of Pentecost - Holy Week and Easter Schedule

Project Compassion

Project Compassion is Caritas Australia's annual Lenten fundraising and awareness-raising appeal. Millions of Australians come together in solidarity with the world's poor to help end poverty, promote justice and uphold dignity. The theme for this year’s appeal is Unite Against Poverty!

This year the RE Student Leaders have again decided that they want to give you all a chance to see your teachers dunked with icy cold water. The challenge is to show some initiative and organise a fundraiser to raise as much money as you can for Project Compassion. You can do this by yourself, with your family or a group of friends. It might be as simple as asking family and friends for donations or a much bigger idea - whatever you like.

Last year, they set each class a target of $20 per student and if your class reached the target - you were able to dunk your teacher or teachers. This year, they have decided to encourage the whole school to work together. Therefore, for every $300 we raise as a school, another teacher will get dunked. So when we raise $300, the first teacher is added to the dunk list, when we get to $600 the next teacher goes on the list and so on. At Monday's Assembly, we randomly picked names out of a tub and the order of dunking is as follows:

$300	Ms Mackay	$1,800	Mr Byrne
$600	Mrs Hautot	$2,100	Mrs Hollow
$900	Mr Gulavin	$2,400	Mrs Jackson
$1,200	Mrs Gorgeous Golds	$2,700	Mrs Gill
$1,500	Mr Dame	$3,000	Mrs Mitchell
$3,300		Mrs Hansen

We have created a website where you can go to make a donation and also see how close we are to dunking the next teacher. If you get cash donations, you might be able to give the cash to your parents and they donate that amount online. The link to donate is below and we have also put posters with a qr code up around the school. The last date to donate money will be just after Easter Sunday on Thursday 24th April. This is the first week of Term 2.

In solidarity, with people like Toefuata’iga from Samoa (whose Project Compassion video we watched at Monday's assembly), on Thursday 24th April all students at OHR will undertake the Big Water Walk with their buddies. This involves walking around our school while carrying large buckets of water - just like the people of Samoa sometimes need to do.

Finally, the money raised will be combined with the money in the Project Compassion boxes as well as what has been raised from selling zooper doopers on Tuesday and Thursdays. Thank you and don’t forget, we all need to “Unite Against Poverty this Lent”

Whole School Masses

Thank you to everybody who helped with our End of Term Mass on Wednesday.

We will be celebrating Mass to start Term 2 on Wednesday 23rd April at 2.00pm in the OHR Church. Everybody is most welcome.

Family Led Sunday Mass

During 2025 the Parish, in conjunction with the Parish Primary Schools, has planned Family led weekend Masses. These Masses will be celebrated once a term and be followed by hospitality. They will be a great opportunity for children and their families to be involved in a Mass within the parish community.

Family Masses will provide an opportunity for families to come together and to support each other in faith. They can particularly be important for families who are presenting their children for Sacraments throughout the year. There may be opportunities to reconnect with our own faith as adults. There may be opportunities to engage with parish life and learn more about the faith, for those who are not so familiar with our local worshiping community. All families are welcome at these family Masses no matter what your religious background or affiliation.

Family Masses have been scheduled for the following dates this year:

Saturday 15 March at 6.00 pm (OHR Church)

Special invitation to Year 3 & Year 5 students and families

Sunday, 18 May at 5.00 pm (OLGC Church)

Special invitation to Year 4 students and families (includes First Eucharist Commitment)

Sunday, 17 August at 5.00 pm (OLGC Church)

Special invitation to Year 6 students and families (includes Confirmation Commitment)

Saturday, 15 November at 6.00pm (OHR Church)

Prep, Year 1 & Year 2 and new families for 2026 are particularly invited to this Mass

RE Learning in 5/6CM

In 5/6CM we have been learning about Luke’s Gospel. We have learnt about who Luke was and his intended audience when writing the Gospel stories. Some of the ways Luke describes Jesus is as a friend, martyr, teacher, sufferer and crucially a powerful and important figure.

As we have traced the events of Jesus’ suffering and crucifixion in Luke’s Gospel, we have made connections to our learning in Literacy, where we have been learning about scripts and scriptwriting. In groups, we have written our own scripts, according to how a script should be written, of one of the scenes of Jesus’ final days. In doing this we have considered props and stage directions necessary to portray our scene. Each group then worked hard to learn their lines and the staging of their scene.

We hope everybody enjoyed watching the Passion Plays this morning. The final scene - The Resurrection, will be presented to the whole school at 3.00pm in the Hall on the first day of Term 2 (Tuesday 22nd April) - everybody is most welcome.

Sunday Gospel

The liturgy of the Catholic Church provides a framework for reflection which is used by Catholics throughout the world. Each week in the Newsletter, you will find the Sunday Gospel as well as some discussion questions to have with your child/ren.

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John

Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At daybreak he appeared in the Temple again; and as all the people came to him, he sat down and began to teach them.

The scribes and Pharisees brought a woman along who had been caught committing adultery; and making her stand there in full view of everybody, they said to Jesus, ‘Master, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery, and Moses has ordered us in the Law to condemn women like this to death by stoning. What have you to say?’ They asked him this as a test, looking for something to use against him. But Jesus bent down and started writing on the ground with his finger. As they persisted with their question, he looked up and said, ‘If there is one of you who has not sinned, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.’ Then he bent down and wrote on the ground again. When they heard this they went away one by one, beginning with the eldest, until Jesus was left alone with the woman, who remained standing there. He looked up and said, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ ‘No one, sir,’ she replied. ‘Neither do I condemn you,’ said Jesus ‘go away, and don’t sin any more.’

Discussion Questions

1. Can you think of times when someone has been in trouble for something they may not have done?

2. What happens when people accuse others who have done nothing wrong?

3. Jesus reminds us that we all are in need of forgiveness and asks us to sin no more. How can we be more concerned about our own sins than other people’s sins?

4. How can we show God’s forgiveness to others?

Nick Byrne

RE Leader

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