R.E. News

Religious Education News - Week 8 Term 1

Reconciliation

• Wednesday 20th May - Sacrament of Reconciliation - 6pm

Confirmation

• Wednesday 6th May - Confirmation Information Night - 6pm
• Saturday 30th May - Confirmation Commitment Mass - 5pm
• Wednesday 5th August- Confirmation Reflection Day
• Thursday 6th August- Confirmation Reconciliation service - 11:40am
• Saturday 15th August- Sacrament of Confirmation – 1pm and 3pm

Eucharist

• Wednesday 22nd July - First Eucharist Parent/Child Information Night at 6pm 
• Saturday 8th August – First Eucharist Commitment Mass – 5pm
• Thursday 22nd October - Reconciliation at 11:40am
• Friday 23rd October -  Eucharist Reflection Day
• Saturday 24th October - Sacrament of First Eucharist mass at 5pm
• Sunday 25th October - Sacrament of First Eucharist mass at 9:30am

Whole School Mass/Events

• Friday 20th March- Year 6 leaders attending the Catholic Ed Week mass at St Patrick’s Cathedral
• Friday 20th March - Harmony Day
• Friday 2nd April - Easter paraliturgy at 12:45pm
• Friday 24th  April - St Mark’s Feast Day mass at 2:10pm and activities 11.40- 1.30
• Friday 15th May - Family Week mass at 2:10pm and activities during the day 
• Friday 29th May - Reconciliation Week liturgy (assembly) and activities in own class
• Friday 26th June - Naidoc Week assembly (1pm)
• Friday 14th August - Feast of the Assumption Mass at 9am
• Friday 6th November - St Francis Blessing of the animals service from 9am to 9:15am
• Tuesday 11th November - Remembrance Day service at 10:55am
• Thursday 10th December   - Year 6 Graduation at 6pm 
• Monday 15th December - End of School Mass at 9am - TBC

Junior Information Nights

• Preps in Pyjamas – Wednesday 10th June at 6pm
• Year 1/2 Good Shepherd Night – Tuesday 11th August (6pm)

Harmony Day

Harmony Day is a special day where we celebrate that everyone belongs at our school. It reminds us that people come from many different cultures, speak different languages, and have different traditions—and that these differences make our community interesting and wonderful. For children, Harmony Day is about being kind, including others, showing respect, and making sure everyone feels safe and welcome. It teaches us that no matter where we come from or what we look like, we all deserve to belong.

Thank you to all the students and staff that dressed up for Harmony Day. It was a wonderful day and the children enjoyed learning about Harmony Day.

Children’s Liturgy

Children's Liturgy at St Mark's Church is up running this term. It will be starting this weekend

The Children's Liturgy provides a great opportunity for primary aged children to engage with the gospel in a way that is accessible and meaningful to them. It runs every Sunday at the St Mark's 9:30am mass during school terms. At the start of mass the Children’s Liturgy adult leaders take the primary school age children into the hall for a small lesson and activity about the gospel of the day. Parents are welcome to join the session if they would like. If any parents are interested in volunteering to help with the Sunday sessions, please email Andrew Davies - andrew@smdingley.catholic.edu.au

MONORANJON from BANGLADESH

Monoranjon, 47, lives in a coastal village in southwest Bangladesh, one of the regions most affected by climate change. He and his family face extreme heat, cyclones, water scarcity, and rising salinity that is destroying crops and livelihoods. As a farmer and father of two, Monoranjon struggled to provide for his family and keep his daughter and son in school. 

“In this dry season no seedlings come out from seeds. Due to heat of the sun and lack of water, plants are dying,” Monoranjon said.

Thanks to support from Caritas Australia and its partner Caritas Bangladesh, Monoranjon joined the Community Managed Sustainable Livelihoods and Resilience Program. He learned climate-resilient farming techniques, including organic vegetable cultivation, livestock vaccination, crab fattening, and salt-tolerant crop production. His income has improved, allowing him to send his children to school and access better nutrition. Monoranjon now teaches others in his village, inspiring change and resilience across the community.

‘Doing this I maintain my livelihood, but we have to work very hard. Seeing me, many people started. This is how they grow vegetables,’ Monoranjon said. 

Monoranjon also works with his community to plant mangrove seedlings on the mudflat coastlines across the delta they live on, to prevent further erosion and flooding of their lands. 

Despite these improvements, the region remains at grave risk. With the looming threat of increased strength and frequency of cyclones, rapid sea level rise, dangerously high temperatures and drought, more people like Monoranjon desperately need an increase in support, so they can continue to provide a future of education for their children, and a way out of poverty.

Along with your generous support, this project is supported by the Australian Government through the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP).

Every summer seems to get a little longer and a little hotter. We have all become conscious of issues surrounding water. Either there seems to be too much, as when we see summer floods or rising sea levels in the Pacific. Other times, there seems to be too little water as when the rivers in our country run low or members of God’s family around the world experience drought. Caritas Australia, through Project Compassion, has been responding to the dire needs of water justice in a range of vulnerable countries.

Today’s readings may well cause us to reflect on the current state of God’s creation. In the book of Exodus, we hear that people are complaining to Moses because they are dying of thirst. In the Gospel, Jesus meets a woman in a Samaritan town. She has come to draw water from the well in the hottest part of the day. In both cases, access to water is precarious. Yet God responds not only to a thirst for water but to a deeper thirst as well. Moses’ people are thirsty for direction, leadership and hope. The woman in John’s Gospel has a thirst for love and acceptance which, Jesus tells her, will come from within if she is able to accept him and his message of life. As the story unfolds, we learn of her loneliness and see her reconnecting with her community.

In reflecting on this story in Listening Together, Cardinal Radcliffe reminds us that Jesus’ first words are abrupt. ‘Give me a drink.’ He considers the times in John’s Gospel when Jesus expresses thirst, including when he is on the cross. Radcliffe concludes that Jesus is thirsty on our behalf. He longs for our freedom. 

Thirst is a great spiritual metaphor, one which Pope Leo XIV has used. But let’s not forget the millions of people for whom physical water is a real challenge. This week, Project Compassion shares with us the story of Monoranjon, a farmer in Bangladesh whose family has been deeply impacted by environmental damage, specifically salination of soil and water. This beautiful story reminds us of the importance of meeting people, as Jesus did, at their place of greatest need.

Our thirst for freedom and justice enables us to Unite Against Poverty.

Project Compassion box 

Each family was sent home a Project Compassion box. During Lent families can put money into the money box. This box can sent sent back to school and the money raised will go to overseas missions to help people in need.