Religious Education
Marylene Douglas
All students attending St Louis de Montfort's Aspendale have the right to feel safe. The care, safety and wellbeing of children and young people is a fundamental responsibility of all within our school.
The second Sunday of Advent sees us lighting the candle of Peace and Preparation.
John the Baptist is a key figure in this week's gospel, not only for His place as baptizer of Christ, but also because he brought the blessed news of Christ’s coming, announcing the Messiah and preparing the way for Him. This message communicates to us all that, while there is a lot of negative news emphasized, we know the greatest news of all. The Gospel is, by definition, Good News, and we should share it with those around us!
John came to announce the hopeful good news of a coming rescuer-Jesus Christ. He came to point the way to Christ. So we, too, eagerly await Jesus, and point others to Him. Pope Francis says something that echoes John’s approach. He encourages us as follows: ‘Your life ought to be a prophetic stimulus to others to leave a mark on this world.’ What Pope Francis means is that we are all meant to be voices in the wildernesses of our time.
During Advent, therefore, we are all called to be welcoming voices singing a prophetic tune.
As Pope Francis has often encouraged us, we should be good stewards for all creation. Christians should take the lead in caring for the earth and the poor who inhabit it. Similarly, the Pope has encouraged us to be people of good wiil, learning to walk and talk together in harmony as the People of God.
Here at St Louis', we aspire to follow in Jesus' footsteps by bringing the Good News to those less fortunate. In my absence my office was transformed into a storage room for the many, many generous donations our wonderful families supplied for the homeless. Mia, Hannah, Ava, Emmeline and myself spent all of Wednesday morning dividing the multitude of donations between over 55 backpacks.
Your generous donations will certainly bring some happiness to the homeless of Melbourne this Christmas. On behalf of the Faith and Social Justice Team, we can't thank-you enough for your kind generosity in supporting this initiative and helping us bring the Face of God to those in need.
