Religious Dimensions

Caitlan Taig

First Eucharist

We congratulate our Grade 3 students, and some of our Grade 4 students, for making their Sacrament of First Eucharist these past two weekends. This is such a special time as the children come to the table of the Lord for the first time. 

On Thursday 1 September we celebrated as a year level by attending Mass together and then having a special shared lunch/party. Thank you to all of our families for bringing in a plate of food to share. 

Prep Prayer Services

Throughout this term, each Prep class will have the opportunity to participate in a class prayer service in the classrooms. The students will work with the teachers in the lead up to their prayer service to practice prayers, songs and reflect on the theme 'The World Around Us'. These prayer services are a wonderful opportunity for our families to come and share in and experience at OLA. All families are welcome.

 

This week, PFL led a prayer service in their classroom for their teachers and families. We congratulate these students on the reverent and enthusiastic singing, reading and dancing. What a joyous occasion!

 

We look forward to PKM’s prayer service on Thursday 15 September 9am. 

Confirmation 

Parent/Child Workshop

On Thursday 1 September we had our Grade 6 Confirmation Parent/Child Workshop. This is the first event to start off our preparations for the Sacrament of Confirmation. Thank you to all the families who came along and participated in the activities. 

 

A new resource for families

The home remains the prime location within which faith can be formed and nurtured. 

Journeying Together has been created by the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne (CAM) specifically to serve our domestic Church by offering parents an accessible way of participating in their children’s spiritual formation and faith journey. The easy-to-use resource facilitates an at-home experience of God-talk and is designed not to replace, but to complement children’s sacramental preparation in a Catholic primary school or parish catechetical setting.

 

Journeying Together covers the sacraments most commonly celebrated with primary-school-aged children (Baptism, Reconciliation, Eucharist, Confirmation). 

 

This resource will complement your child’s sacrament preparation at their Catholic primary school or in a parish catechetical setting.

 

Each sacrament module includes four sessions. Each session includes an invitation to explore and integrate the family’s lived experience with concepts from Scripture, the Church and the sacraments, along with opportunities to pray together.

 

For parents wanting to explore this resource at home, please head to https://sacraments.melbournecatholic.org/ 

 

Caitlan Taig

Religious Education Leader

Social Justice Excursion

On Friday 19 August, we were invited to St. Macartans’ Primary School in Mornington. We met with other Year 6 Leaders from schools in the peninsula region. When we first arrived, we were taken on a tour of the school. We saw all the classes working. They had a big oval, a natural stream in the playground and a Sustainability Centre. There was a vegetable garden, a chicken coop and a greenhouse in the centre. The Grade 3/4s were cooking pizza in the pizza oven which we later had for lunch. After the tour, we came together in their school hall, where we had lunch and shared all our fundraising ideas.  Each school presented what they did to fundraise for St. Joseph’s in Woodburn. This school in NSW was badly affected by the floods earlier in the year and we felt it was really important to help the community as they lost everything. On our Feast Day we had a casual clothes day and gold coin donation. Normally we fundraise for our school Fete but we decided to do something different. Other schools did things like crazy hair day, the longest coin line, a competition on which class could raise the most money, and at one school the teachers had to dress up each month and donate. We are very proud of our school’s efforts. Thank you for your generous donations. We raised $337. We are also looking forward to hearing about St. Joseph's rebuild and sharing it with you. 

 

The Social Justice Leaders

Xander, Lana, Eleni, Evelyn, Tiarnan, Alyssa, Suyen and Jai

 

The following clip shows the damage done and how our money raised helps St Joseph’s rebuild their school.

 

https://youtu.be/BJmK6v1DL6M

Michela Vella 

MJR Leader