Director of Faith and Mission
✝️Catholic Education Week: 16-23 March 2025
This week, we celebrated Catholic Education Week .
Catholic Education Week is an opportunity for all Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Melbourne to celebrate their Catholic identity, the pivotal role they play within their local community and the strength of the sector.
The theme for 2025 is ‘Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you’ (Isa 60: 1), based on The Year of Jubilee theme set by Pope Francis.
Catholic education is committed to delivering enriching and high-quality learning experiences, guided by the teaching of Jesus Christ.
At this week’s staff meeting, staff reflected on their role at a Catholic school. Here are some of their responses:
- I encourage time and place to reflect the Christ-like qualities of love and compassion. What does it look like in the classroom? The yard? In the community? At home? Christ’s love is everywhere. We are all a part of that and I want our students to experience it.
- As a Catholic Educator I support and encourage my students to try and do ‘Jesus would expect me to do’ and treat each other with respect and kindness. I make sure I prioritise Faith Education and daily Prayer and show how I value this as a role model. I support the Sacramental Program and take an active role in its implementation as a stepping stone to Faith Development.
- As a Catholic school educator, I strive to nurture the minds, hearts, and souls of my students by fostering academic excellence, moral integrity, and a deep-rooted faith in God.
- I have a responsibility to my students to be a pillar of support, to show them compassion and kindness, and guide them to make positive choice.
- I believe that education should be backed by strong values, including faith, hope and compassion.
- I endeavour to reveal the wonders of the world around us so that students can marvel at and respect God’s creation, so that they might fight to preserve it and share it with others.
- I strive to model what it looks like to be a caring, compassionate and good person to my students. It is my hope that they will follow my example and become people who can change their immediate surroundings for the better of our world, where ever they go.
✝️ LENT – CARITAS FUNDRAISING As we enter the season of Lent, we are reminded of its significance in our faith journey. Lent is a time of reflection, prayer, and preparation leading up to Easter. It invites us to deepen our relationship with God through acts of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. It is a season of spiritual renewal and growth, where we strive to emulate Christ’s sacrifice and embrace a spirit of repentance. Let us use this sacred time to draw closer to God and to each other as a community.
A big thankyou to the VCEVM Year 11 students, who organised and sold icecreams as a fundraiser for Caritas, Project Compassion. The students especially enjoyed the peppermint and choc chip ice cream, which kept with the green theme for St Patrick’s Day.
We will hopefully have another fundraiser in the last week of term. Keep your eyes out for it in the Family Primary emails and Facebook.
✝️ SACRAMENT OF RECONCILIATION – 14th May, 2025
Next week our Year 3 students will begin their faith journey towards receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation. With the guidance of their teachers and the support of parents, they will learn about the significance of seeking forgiveness, making good choices and experiencing God’s endless love. Through discussions, reflective activities, and lessons, they will deepen their understanding of this important sacrament.
Parents and teachers play a vital role in preparing the children for this special occasion. A key part of this preparation is the Sacramental Meeting on Wednesday, 30th April at 6:30 pm in the College Library, where parents and candidates will come together to explore the meaning of the sacrament and deepen their understanding of their faith.
We look forward to this special time in our students’ faith journey and invite our community to keep them in their prayers.
Rochelle Gough
rochelle.gough@smseymour.catholic.edu.au