Principal's Message

Dear Parents,

This term we have been focusing on strengthening our school community and hope you have enjoyed our Assemblies, Faith Learning Walks, Father's Day, Book Week, Grandparents Day, Pyjama Day, Sleep Out and all the other events we have held. It has been wonderful to have the whole term here with the community as we grow from strength to strength.

As we come to the end of another busy term, I would like to reflect on our students who made their first Holy Communion. 

It’s a common enough experience in life to have some event or conversation or piece of writing, trigger off a past event in our personal life: “Oh, that reminds me of the time...” or “Well now, I haven’t thought about that for ages.” 

So, perhaps when we are part of a First Communion celebration, whether it be our own child or simply children of the parish, the celebration might send our memory back to the time of our own first personal meeting with Jesus. When children receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist for the first time, they know, through their preparation, that Jesus becomes food for their soul under the appearance of bread and wine. They are encouraged to receive Communion afterwards, as often as they can, in order to remain in close friendship with Jesus. This is because, when we receive Communion, we receive Jesus and all that he stands for: his compassion toward the sick and disadvantaged, his forgiveness of those burdened by guilt, his call on people to share their wealth, his teaching of the true meaning of love. 

The reality for many, who made their First Communion at an early age, is that they did not continue to nurture that friendship with Jesus. However, the friendship is still there but, for any number of reasons, it is no longer a two-way friendship; Jesus is the only one keeping it going. Maybe, as we matured as people, work ambitions or perhaps problems and worries consumed our attention and energy and our Spiritual development got left behind. Maybe anger, hurt or disappointment soured us in someway. Maybe we forgot about prayer, Mass and the Sacraments and thought that we were completely self-sufficient. In the last chapter of Luke’s Gospel is a story of two disciples who were on their way from Jerusalem to a town called Emmaus. As they journeyed, they were joined by another traveller and the conversation turned to the events of the previous Friday when: 

“Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, was betrayed by our chief priest and leaders and handed over to be condemned and crucified.” Luke 24:19,20. 

When, eventually, they arrived at Emmaus, the two disciples invited the other traveller to stay with them. 

“When he was at table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then, their eyes were opened and they recognised him.” (Luke 24:29-31). 

Jesus had been travelling with them but they were so involved in the recent events of their own lives that they did not recognise him. Jesus became real to them through the blessing and breaking of bread, in other words, through the Eucharist. Jesus first gave his body and blood to the disciples during the Last Supper in anticipation of the Resurrection. 

Pope Benedict makes this contribution: “Because Jesus’ gift is rooted in the Resurrection, the celebration of the Sacrament had necessity to be connected with the memorial of the Resurrection. The first encounter with the risen Lord took place on the morning of the first day of the week, the third day after Jesus’ death. The morning of the first day naturally became the time for Christian Worship; Sunday became the ‘Lord’s Day’.” When our children receive their First Communion, we might imagine them as the disciples who walked the road to Emmaus. Imagine them as leading us to recognise Jesus, who has never left the friendship we had with him. In the Mass Jesus, through the priest, will break bread with us in the Eucharist, and offer us the opportunity to renew or further develop our friendship with him.

God Bless and happy holidays;

Leonie Burfield

Principal