REC Update - W10 - T1

St Vincent de Paul Flood Appeal – THANK YOU!
We have now closed our St Vincent de Paul NSW Flood Appeal fundraising page. In total, including the donations made to the website directly ($2274.50) and money raised from the mufti day and photos with Paddy the Leprechaun ($369.50) we have raised $2644. Considering the currentfinancial burdens placed on families caused by the pandemic, huge increases in the cost of groceries and food prices, the fact that so many people still contributed to the NSW Flood Appealis genuinely inspiring. On behalf of the school, I wish to say thank you. We are very grateful!

Holy Week
We are celebrating Holy Week this year with each class (aside from Kindergarten) presenting a short dramatisation of some of the key events of the Lent and Easter period. These will take place during Week 11 and the first day of Term 2, Tuesday April 26. We are happy to inform you that parents are able to join us this year, so if you would like to attend you are more than welcome to do so. We do however strongly encourage you to wear a mask, please sanitise your hands upon entry to the church and please sit on the seats closest to the O’Donnell St side of the church.

Please see the schedule below. If you are joining us, can you please be there 5 minutes prior to the commencement of each dramatisation.

Date/Time: Tuesday April 5 th - 8:55am

Event: Palm Sunday

Class: Year 1 and 2
Date/Time: Wednesday April 6 th - 8:55am

Event: Washing of the feet

Class: Year 3
Date/Time: Thursday April 7 th – 8:55am

Event: The Last Supper

Class: Year 4
Date/Time: Friday April 8 th - 10:15am

Event: The Trial & Crucifixion

Class: Year 5
Date/Time: Tuesday April 26 th - 8:55am

Event: The Resurrection

Class: Year 6

The Emmauns | A Lenten Journey | Week 4
EXPECT TRANSFORMATION
“Sir,” the man replied, & quote ;Leave it one more year and give me time to dig around it and manure it: it may bear fruit next year: if not then you can cut it down.”
Luke 13:8-9

Shirley Smith (known as Mum Shirl) was a social worker and advocate on behalf of Aboriginal Australians who lived and worked in the Catholic parish of Redfern. The Ted Kennedy eulogy unveils a woman with a deep, unique faith “She  welcomed the gospel like a little child. She thirstingly swallowed the Gospel whole, never prepared to  spit out the bits we whites find unsavoury or uncomfortable. …Christian hope for her transcended pessimism and optimism. It called her to expect God to intervene in the face of despair. She woke up every morning expectantly, expecting God to do that. She never had to wait around, because always, always,  some rejected person would come round the corner; who of course was Christ himself.”
Mum Shirl expected God to intervene, not necessarily to change situations or events but to transform herself to then manage challenging situations.
In the Parable of the Barren Fig Tree, the tree depends on the horticultural skill and care of the gardener to improve its flourishing. In our modern world, society is quick to judge and label people based on their ‘output’, society is quick to ‘cut down’ and destroy the weak, damaged and unproductive. Jesus is the gardener who says ‘forget the output’ you are mine, that is enough, let me look after you because if you do, ‘fruit’ or  flourishing will come.  Most of us can recall a time in our school life when a ‘gardener’ and not the ‘vineyard owner’ crossed our path. The ‘gardener’ may have been a teacher who believed in us, listened to us, advocated for us, stood with us and  loved us when others did not - a bullying incident that was ignored by everybody except our ‘gardener’ who noticed and acted for us and enabled us to
continue to ‘bear fruit’. In our Catholic schools, we work every day for ‘thy kingdom come’. We instil in our students this spirit of expectation that as ‘gardeners’ we are transformers who will affect change for the flourishing of all in our communities.  Just as Mum Shirl, sat in the church and expected God to transform her, our students should come to our schools and expect us as ‘gardeners’ to transform them because they are forever fruitful as children of God.  
 

• Identify a 10 minute period every day for the next 7 days for your practice; place it in your diary and commit to it.
• Reflect on a different part of the Gospel reading Lk 8-9 every day.
• Think of one thing each day that you expect to transform in your life example - healthier eating - more daily energy; deliberate quality time with loved ones - improved relationship; daily prayer - more 'steady rewarding flow of day.

Challenge - During this week,our deliberate practice is to expect to be transformed in one area of our relationship with God (eg: we will expect our inconsistent prayer life will be improve with a simple practical schedule of prayer and a 'gardener' to keep us on track).

All the best,
Mr Sam Mattas

Religious Education Co ordinator