A Year of Blessings

Our 2022 School Theme has been, 'Blessed are you'. Throughout the year we have celebrated our blessings, reflected on the many gifts God has given us in our lives and hopefully we have shared our blessings with each other, our families and our community.

Throughout the year our Office Foyer and classrooms have focused on and been decorated with our blessings and the good things in our lives  - the things we are looking forward to, the people we are thankful for and the blessings from God.

As our year draws to a close and Christmas comes ever closer, it truly is a time to reflect on the blessings of 2022. As Brendan said at Graduation on Wednesday night, this is the first full school year for our Year 6s since they were in Year 3. This year our students and families have been blessed by the ordinariness of simply coming to school and being with friends and classmates. Our School Prayer asks Jesus to be part of our future, our life story, our dreams and our school. Each time we pray this prayer we are asking Jesus to be a part of our ordinary lives, not just at the special or sad times.

I offer this Christmas prayer to help us reflect on how ordinary Christmas Day is, yet like so many parts of our lives, how amazingly wonderful it is.

I would like to thank the parents and children from the COHR Community who have journeyed my ordinary life with me this year, and shared a laugh, a smile, a good wish, a prayer or a sadness. I am blessed to be a part of this special community and I am truly looking forward to celebrating another 'ordinary' extraordinary year with you all in 2023.

Take care

Take time to pause,

Jo Cowan

jcowan@cohroakeast.catholic.edu.au

God of Goodness,

We give you praise for the ordinariness of Christmas -

that the day comes the same as any other day.

We give you praise that there is no sign in the heavens, 

and no bright star but the light of your presence 

in the ordinary birth of the child.

We give you praise that unobtrusively 

you are in the center of human affairs, 

involved in the struggle of life, 

and sharing human experience.

We give you praise that out of compassion 

you take our part, 

and open to us a new way of life. 

We pray that this day 

we shall be able to see its true glory.

- Caryl Micklem, Contemporary Prayers for Public Worship