Religious Education
This Friday August 30th @ 5pm, the Grade 6 students will make their Sacrament of Confirmation. We ask that you keep them in your prayers this week.
Father's Day
Thank you to all Fathers and friends who attended our special Father's Day morning breakfast, class visits and mass. A special thank you to our Parents and Friends community that helped organise the morning events. May you all have a happy and blessed Father's Day and hold those Fathers who are sick or passed in our prayers.
Gospel
Jesus teaches that it is that which comes from our hearts that defiles us.
Unpacking the Scriptures
In this Sunday's Gospel of Mark, Jesus speaks to the Pharisees who strictly observe Jewish ritual-purity laws. Jesus reminds them that our attitude towards rules are as important as the actions themselves. We know that rules are important to keep us be healthy and safe. God’s rules help us be the faithful, kind, and honest people that He calls us to be.
Jesus uses the words clean and unclean to describe what holiness means to the Pharisees. We know that holiness is more than eating clean and unclean food as the Pharisees follow, but about our words and actions of love. We become holy when we allow God’s Spirit to transform us. Our actions and following rules should be an expression of our heart towards others and God.
Family Connection
Children have learned the importance of following rules. Like the Pharisees in Mark's Gospel, they often bring to our attention the faults of others. Even parents sometimes get caught off guard by their children’s observations: “Why don’t you have to go to bed at 8:00?” or “But I saw you eat a cupcake before breakfast once.” We create and maintain rules with the intention of helping our children grow to be healthy, safe, kind and mature people. We foster this maturity when we also initiate conversations with our children about the purposes behind family rules and teach them the essential values that rules help us observe.
Pray
Gather together, light a candle and acknowledge that you are in the presence of God in a moment of silence. Read the Gospel Mark 7:1-8,14-15,21-23. Explain how Jesus believes rules are important but he critisizes the Pharisees for focusing on the wrong rules that had nothing to do with how we love one another which was God's greatest commandment. List some of your most important family rules. Together, try to write a single, positive statement that captures the essential value behind your family rules. When we remember the essential element behind our rules, we see that our rules help us be the good people that Jesus wants us to be. Conclude in prayer together that we may always honor God’s Law in our words and deeds as you pray:
Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
God bless,
India Mitchell-Fletcher
Religious Education Leader