St Pius X College Newsletter

From the Principal     

  • Prayer:  Palm Sunday
  • College Easter Liturgy
  • Project Compassion
  • Vale Br Don Connell​
  • Pope Francis' Palm Sunday Messages​
  • Year 12 Semester 1 Exams
  • Gifted and Talented Creative Writing Day
  • P&F Cocktail Party
  • NSTA Tennis Championships
  • Happy Easter to All

Prayer 

Last Sunday was Palm Sunday and began Holy Week and our journey to Easter.  Below is a prayer I found on the website https://www.ibelieve.com/faith/8-prayers-to-pray-each-day-of-holy-week.html

I hope you find this helpful.

Palm Sunday Prayer

Matthew 21:1-11; Psa 118:1-2; Psa 118:19-29

Lord God,

I give you thanks, for you are good, and your mercy is endless.

 

Here I stand, at the start of this holy week,

 

This week in which your church remembers Jesus’ passion and death,

 

And I am distracted by many things.

 

Turn my eyes now to the One who comes in your name

 

The one who opens the gates of righteousness

 

The one who answers when we call.

 

I bless you, Lord, for shining your light upon me,

 

And for sending your son to us, in human frailty.

 

To walk the road we walk.

 

Open my eyes that I may see him coming,

 

And may praise him with a pure heart.

 

And may walk in the way of his suffering,

 

And share also in his resurrection.

 

Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

 

one God for ever and ever.

 

 

I encourage all families to join together for the services in our Parish Churches this weekend. Our Parish Priest, Fr Jim McKeon, has sent through the link for the services at Our Lady of Dolours Parish Chatswood.  They can be found at http://www.chatswoodparish.org.au/news-and-events/fx-news-articles.cfm?id=125&loadref=114   Everyone is welcome.

There are a number of our students participating the enactment of the Passion Play this Friday at Our Lady of Dolours at 10.00am:  Lachlan Donlevy, Sam Schyvens, James Bleasdale (Year 11) and Adam Hawthorne (Year 10).  All welcome.

We wish them well for this important time in our Church.

College Easter Liturgy

This Thursday the College will hold Easter liturgies as outlined below.  Parents are welcome to attend.

  • Years 5 to 8 in Per 3 (11.03am - 11.56am)
  • Years 9 to 12 in Per 5 (1.29pm - 2.22pm)

Vale Br Don Connell

We keep in our prayers Br Don Connell who passed away gently yesterday at Charing Field Nursing Home Waverley.  Br Connell was the Head of the St Pius X College Junior School from 1984-1995. His great passion was in Drama and Music. He led the production of many Musicals and concerts and was much loved by the community.  I have passed on our condolences to the Brothers. 

May perpetual light shine upon him may he rest in peace.

Pope Francis' Palm Sunday Messages

You may like to know that the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference is using the images of our SPX/Mercy College Australian Catholic Youth Festival drama initiative to distribute Pope Francis’ words from his Palm Sunday World Youth Day Sermon.  Pretty amazing!

Please see the images and messages below:

Project Compassion

Throughout Lent in all Australian Catholic parishes and schools, the annual Project Compassion collection has been a central part of our Lenten journey. I take this opportunity to thank all students and their families for their contribution to this collection. With just Thursday’s collection to be included in the total, the College has raised $10,959.00.  These funds will go to Caritas to assist the Missions, with a focus this year on Youth.

Year 12 Semester 1 Exams

We wish our Year 12 students our prayers and support for their Semester 1 exams which commence immediately after Easter.

Gifted and Talented Creative Writing Day

Mrs Anne McCallum, former President of GATSTA, ran a wonderful “Reading to Write” all day session on Creative Writing.    Students undertook a detailed deconstruction and analysis of a short story and summarised responses in groups, exploring specific short stories for the key elements of structure, characterisation, setting, theme, subject, tone, mood, pace, word choice, sentence structure/rhythm and literary devices.

The boys developed an understanding of how the crisis in a story is created and practiced writing to emulate the short story experts. 

Thank you to GATSTA for providing another wonderful speaker free of charge and thank you to Mercy College and Rosebank College for engaging so enthusiastically with the St Pius X students.

 

More detail and student feedback will follow in next week’s Woodchatta.

P&F Cocktail Party Friday 6th April from 7.30pm

Venue:  College Gym Chatswood Campus

Sequins and Bling!

The Annual St Pius X College Cocktail Party is on again.  It is always a fun night and a great way to meet new people whether at the bar or on the dance floor.

Put the date in your diary, purchase your tickets, choose your sequins and bling and book your Uber!

Cost is $40 per head which includes cocktail food, beer, wine, sparkling and soft drinks. Purchase your tickets via Trybooking by clicking here and see the flyer below for details. 

Cocktail_Party_2018_Bling.pdf

NSTA Tennis Championships

Congratulations to all our representatives in NSTA Tennis this past season. The Championship held last Saturday was a great event with many of our teams competing. Please see the Senior Sports page for a wrap of this excellent morning of competition.

 

HAPPY EASTER TO ALL

 

Mr John Couani - Principal