Principal Message

Be Kind, Be safe, Be respectful, Be responsible, Be resilient, Be ready

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to term 3. Thank you to all who attended our Special Persons or Grandparent Mass on Friday. It was so wonderful to have so many grandparents participating in all the activities. We do appreciate the effort you all made to come and celebrate with us. Ill say it once again we are so lucky to have such a supportive , engaging community.

A special thank you to Beth from Theircare who provided morning tea ( with the help of students from after school care).

As Christians, we are charged with bringing light, healing, and blessing.

The theme of ‘Mission’ is far richer than the beautifully framed mission statements one sees on the walls or front desks of corporate institutions. Indeed, Pope Francis in his encyclical Evangelii Gaudium – ‘The Joy of the Gospel’ – uses the term to define our identity as Christians. ‘I am a Mission on this earth; that is the reason why I am here in this world . . . this mission of:

-bringing light, blessing, enlivening, raising up, healing, and freeing. Evangelii Gaudium, para 273

MISSIONARY QUALITIES

The act of blessing all manner of persons and things is an ancient practice in the Christian tradition –a practice not just reserved to priests and officials. Parents and teachers are well-positioned to bless those in their care, helping them to appreciate what the Irish call a ‘thin place’, where there is just the thinnest membrane separating the spiritual and material worlds. I was privileged to be part of a healing ceremony for my sister. The act of each of us blessing her was extremely moving for all involved.

When Australian cricketer Matthew Hayden blessed himself after making a century, he was acknowledging God’s partnership with him in achieving this feat. Blessing is about direction-finding, about recognising that God is the source of everything, that he is not just at the beginning and end of our road but in every step along the way.

What richer blessing can we offer our young people than to uncover for them life’s most important values in the journey from God to God.

In the Jewish tradition, parents have always blessed their children. Indeed, every greeting was a form of blessing for the Jews. When we bless someone, we affirm them and put them in touch with their innate goodness. More importantly, we let them know that they are beloved by God, the source of all our gifts.

SOURCE OF LIFE

To bless another is to source life for them – to remind them that life is a journey from God to God. To be blessed is to be oneself a blessing, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said. Blessing another reminds them that they are a blessing, a gift to us. Sometimes we are blessed in ways we can’t imagine. Joan Chittister, with characteristic simplicity, quips: ‘Instead of getting what we want, we get what we need.’ Blessing, nonetheless, is always a sign that grace is everywhere, that life is sacred and good and full of the touch of God. Taken from ‘I am a Mission’ by Chris Gleeson SJ

Keep Smiling

Cathy