Religious Education News 

Sunday 27th February Parish/School Mass 

5:30pm followed by a picnic at Alma Park

Tuesday 1st  March - Shrove Tuesday

Wednesday 2nd March - Ash Wednesday 

Preps, Year 1s, Year 2s, Year 3s and Year 4s will attend Mass at 9:15am. Families are very welcome to join us. 

The Year 5 and 6 students will participate in an Ash Wednesday liturgy whilst on camp. 

Ash Wednesday on the 2nd March begins our 2022 Lenten Season. Ash Wednesday is a time where we reflect upon ourselves and how we are in relationship with God. We can make a promise to God for the next 40 days. At times we turn away from God, but Lent is an opportunity to look within ourselves and decide if there is something we can go without for the 40 days of Lent or is there something we can do for the next 40 days, to support our families and friends and grow in deeper relation with God. 

Understanding the Church's Lenten Tradition

The forty-day Season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and concludes on Holy Thursday evening with the Celebration of the Mass of the Lord’s Supper.

Lent is primarily the Church’s time of preparation for the Easter mystery. We remember and celebrate the crucified and risen Christ who sends the Holy Spirit. Lent is the penitential season of the Church – the time for purifying our lives from sin by prayer, fasting and almsgiving. The colour of Lent is violet, the colour associated with humility. Lent is traditionally the season of preparation for Baptism. In the early Church it was the period when candidates for Christian Initiation fasted and prayed more intensely before their baptism at the Easter Vigil.

The word ‘lent’ originates in the northern hemisphere where it means ‘springtime’. It comes from the Old English word lencten (lengthening of days). Here in the southern hemisphere Lent moves through autumn. This has a unique symbolism for us. At this time of year, in the southern hemisphere, the trees are relinquishing their foliage, thus enabling the light of the sun to shine through them more clearly. Similarly, we are encouraged to let go of our attachments – cleansing our lives by fasting, prayer and almsgiving as we prepare for the light of Christ at Easter.

In many other languages the name for the season is derived from the Latin word quadragesima for ’forty’ (such as the Spanish cuaresma and the Italian quaresima). Lent recalls Jesus’ 40 days of fasting in the wilderness as he prepared to proclaim the Good News. The number 40 is highly significant in the Bible. Long before the time of Jesus, Moses and Elijah had also fasted for 40 days; the great flood lasted 40 days and nights; Israel journeyed through the wilderness for 40 years. In the Bible the number 40 usually means that something very significant is happening. We often refer to Lent as a ‘journey’ of 40 days. The Lenten journey is an inner pilgrimage with Christ. It is marked not so much by external observances as by a deepening of our relationship with God.

This year, Caritas Australia’s Project Compassion theme is ‘For All Future Generations’. It comes from one of the great moments in Scripture: after the flood has receded in the book of Genesis, God puts a rainbow in the sky as a sign that the earth will never again suffer in such a way. God makes a promise with the human family and the whole of creation “for all future generations”. 

This theme challenges us to venture into a new experience of compassion: one full of hope in God’s promise. Throughout Project Compassion 2022, inspiring stories from Mozambique, India, Australia, Democratic Republic ofCongo and Solomon Islands will be shared, highlighting the importance of working hand-in-hand with communities around the world. 

Dear God,

This Lent, we are encouraged to make simple lifestyle changes and act with care for each other and our environment. Our challenge is to respond with love and hope, now and for all future generations.

We ask this in Jesus’ name.

Amen

Cathy Ferrari 

Religious Education Leader