Religious Education News 

Welcome back to school for Term 3! This Term the Bishop will confer Confirmation for some of our Year 6 students. Please pray for them!

Dear St Mary’s community,

This Term is an important Term particularly for our Year 6 students who have elected to be confirmed in the Catholic Faith. Confirmation is a Sacrament of Initiation which asks the Holy Spirit to come down and bestow upon the candidates gifts of the Holy Spirit so that they may be witness to the Gospel. 

Grandparents and Special Friends Day

We invite our Grandparents and Special Friends to a very special event! Our Mass next Friday 26 July, 2024 at 9.15am in St Mary’s Church will be held on the feast of Sts Joachim and Anne, patron saints of Grandparents. They are Mary’s parents and our Lord’s grandparents.

We hope to see you and your families there!

Read about Sts Joachim and Anne here.

Pope Francis has long been passionate about the celebration of World Grandparents Day (which this year falls on 28 July). Every year Pope Francis announces a new theme for this special day - urging people to spend more time with the elderly, to prevent loneliness among the elderly and to fill the lives of our grandparents with love and care, even when at times due to age or frailty this becomes more difficult. This year, the theme is; ‘Do not cast me off in my old age.’ which comes from Psalm 71. It is a reminder to us to spend more time with grandparents and elderly persons to hear the rich wisdom they have to offer the world. Read more here.

East Timor Letter Writing Project Thank you to our students and especially our Faith and Social Justice Leaders for organising and sending across many high-quality written pieces to the high students in Timor-Leste. Heather McGrath will deliver these letters when she makes her visit over to the school. When she picked up the letters from us she remarked at how clearly the students wrote, with care for spelling, grammar, punctuation and organising their work into paragraphs. She believes these letters will truly help these young people overseas to improve their English reading and writing skills. 

St Mary’s Liturgy Team As the Liturgy Team continues to develop we are now able to welcome those year 4 students who have made their First Eucharist to participate in the Liturgy Team. The liturgy team contributes to serving at the Mass as candle-bearers, cross-bearers, bell-ringers as well as helping to prepare for liturgies by lighting candles, offertory processions or leading prayers. 

There are many ways to participate in the Mass at St Mary’s School, not exclusive to Catholics! If your child is not Catholic but would like to participate in assisting for Masses/Liturgies they can volunteer to read at Mass, hand out Mass Prayer Cards, and/or help lead the singing in Choir.

The Parts of the Mass As the students have successfully progressed through learning the hymns for Mass it is now time to begin to include the singing of the Parts of the Mass. Last Term students in Year 3/4 began to learn the Agnus Dei and Sanctus parts of the Mass. This Term they will begin to explore the Kyrie and Gospel Acclamation. It is very exciting to see our students learn and develop their prayer life which can be shown through their art, and singing, as well as their written and spoken prayers in class.

Pope Francis Intention for July Please join Pope Francis in praying for the Sick this July: 

For the pastoral care of the sick – Pope's Prayer Intention - July 2024

During the holidays I did some professional study in the Vatican, through which I experienced attending the General Audience with the Pope, learning about the significance of the Vatican Gardens as well as observing the recently appointed Archbishops at Mass who received their blessed palliums at St Peter’s Basilica on the feast of Sts Peter and Paul. You can read more about this event here.

May God bless us all as we carry out our work this Term, 

Jes Mensen

IMPORTANT DATES

Friday 26th July - Grandparents / Special Friends Mass 9.15am

Wednesday 31st July - Confirmation Family Faith Night 6:00pm

Sunday 4th August - Senior School Mass 5:30pm

Thursday 15th August - Feast of the Assumption Whole School Mass 9.15am

Thursday 22nd August - Confirmation Retreat Day

Sunday 25th August - Confirmation Year 6 10.30am

Friday 30th August - Father’s and Special Friends Mass 9.15am