Catholic Identity and Mission 

Project Compassion Launch

On Tuesday 21st February, Scott Blencowe and I will be taking our leaders to the Project Compassion Launch by Bishop Greg Bennet at Lavalla Catholic College in Traralgon.

Shrove Tuesday

Shrove Tuesday on Tuesday 21st February – students from Year 12 Youth Ministry along with Mr. Jonathan Bowman will be making and selling pancakes at lunchtime. Students can bring a gold coin along to purchase some pancakes!

What is Shrove Tuesday?

In Australia, the day preceding Ash Wednesday is popularly known as Shrove Tuesday. 

It is also frequently called Pancake Tuesday. But it is the name “Shrove” that shows its religious origins. Shrove is the past tense of the English verb “Shrive” which means to obtain absolution for one’s sins by way of confession and by doing penance.

With Shrove Tuesday taking place before the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday, it was the day when Christians were encouraged to go to confession in preparation for the penitential season that would end 40 days and 40 nights later with Easter Sunday.

Dating back to 1000 AD, over the years Shrove Tuesday not only became a day for Confession but a time for Catholics to feast on eggs, sugar and dairy which are traditionally restricted during the Lenten fast. 

Why do we eat pancakes on Shrove Tuesday?

It was the last chance for a spot of indulgence before 40 days of fasting, and also an opportunity to use up food that couldn't be eaten during Lent. This included eggs, fat and milk, which were made into pancakes and eaten on that day.

Caritas Project Compassion Fundraising

The Year 10-12 Youth Ministry classes will be running a variety of fundraiser stalls during the Lenten period beginning next week. Money raised will go to Caritas Australia. 

The first fundraising activity dedicated to the people of Turkey and Syria will take place this Friday and every Friday in Lent. Zooper Doopers will be sold at the BBQ area for $1 each.

Year 8 Campfire Liturgy

It was my great pleasure to attend the Year 8 Camp at Waratah Bay last Wednesday evening.

Students participated in a Campfire Liturgy.  We prayed prayers of peace for the people of Turkey and Syria, we prayed for the sick, our families and our school community.  The students all participated reverently during the service which was wonderful to be a part of.

I wish to acknowledge the following students who, with short notice, courageously volunteered to read during the liturgy: Julia Lindsay, Ava McCrae, Claudia Donohue, Mikey Farmer, Braiden Woodman, Ned Sheahan, Mattea Riccardi, Louisa Johnston, Alanah Maynard and Eamon Berryman.

It was great to be able to spend time with the Year 8s and the toasted marshmallows were a bonus.

Opening School Mass/Ash Wednesday

Next week we see the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday. This year we are combining Ash Wednesday with our Opening School Mass.

This will take place on Wednesday 22nd February. at 11.30 am in Pioneer Hall.  The Mass will include the distribution of ashes and communion.  Student Leader badges will be given out at the conclusion of Mass. Parents are most welcome to attend!

Lent

In preparation for Lent 2023, Pope Francis has released his annual message, reflecting on St Paul’s epistle to the Galatians: ‘Let us not grow tired of doing good, for in due time we shall reap our harvest, if we do not give up’ (6:9-10).

The following has been taken from an article from the Archdiocese of Melbourne

It is interesting to note that Pope Francis asks us to not grow tired of doing the right thing. This is what our Principal John Freeman asks of our students to ‘do the right thing’.

Sowing for eternal life

‘Lent invites us to conversion,’ Francis wrote, ‘to a change in mindset, so that life’s truth and beauty may be found not so much in possessing as in giving, not so much in accumulating as in sharing and sowing goodness.’

The kind of conversion that Lent calls us to is what we are summoned to every day. Lent ‘is in some way an image’ of life itself. Part of this conversion is the willingness to sow goodness in the life of others; even when we do not see the fruits of what we sow, no act of love, no matter how small, Pope Francis says, will be lost in the eyes of God.

The Word of God ‘broadens and elevates our vision’ so that we are not so concerned with witnessing visible fruits in this life. Instead, ‘the real harvest is eschatological, the harvest of the last, undying day.’

Those who are intimately united to him in love “by dying a death like his” (Romans 6:5) will be united to his resurrection for eternal life …’

The call of conversion is the call to sow for the fruit of eternal life.

‘Let us not grow tired of doing good’

A key appeal that appears throughout the Scriptures, however, is to not grow tired:

The Lenten season calls us to place our faith and hope in the Lord, since only if we fix our gaze on the risen Christ will we be able to respond to the Apostle’s appeal, “Let us never grow tired of doing good.”’

The endurance we are called to is not a matter of human effort alone; it is the result of God’s grace, a grace that strengthens the weak and gives youthfulness to the old. Faith does not release us from the storms of life, but instead allows us to face them in union with Jesus:

… only the paschal mystery of Jesus Christ triumphs over the dark waters of death.’

Pope Francis points to several things we should not grow tired of: prayer, uprooting evil from our lives, asking for forgiveness in the Sacrament of Penance, fighting concupiscence, and doing good in active charity towards our neighbours.

There was one addiction Pope Francis pointed to for us to be aware of: 'digital media'. The Pope encouraged us to use the Lenten season to cultivate more integral forms of human communication, made up of 'authentic encounters' with real people. Digital media, he says, 'impoverishes human relationships.'

‘If we do not give up, we shall reap the harvest’

‘Let us ask God to give us the patient perseverance of the farmer,’ Pope Francis said, ‘and to persevere in doing good, one step at a time.’

In this season of conversion, the soil of our hearts ‘is prepared by fasting, watered by prayer and enriched by charity,’ he said. And though we stumble and fall, ‘let us not hesitate to return to God who is “generous and forgiving” (Isaiah 55:7)’.

May the Virgin Mary, who bore the Saviour in her womb and “pondered all these things in her heart” (Luke 2:19), obtain for us the gift of patience. May she accompany us with her maternal presence, so that this season of conversion may bring forth fruits of eternal salvation.’

Welcome Fr Stanly Devasia 

The parishes of Leongatha/Korumburra and surrounds this week welcome Fr Stanly Devasia, our new Parish Priest. Fr Stanly comes to us from St Agatha’s in Cranbourne.  We will meet him at our Mass next Wednesday where he will con-concelebrate with Fr Darren Howie from the Wonthaggi Parishes.  We look forward to Fr Stanly celebrating our class masses with us beginning on Thursday, March 2nd.

Please see the Parish News in this newsletter for Mass times.

Just as Pope Francis asks, may we never grow tired of doing good.

Year 12's completing their banner!