Religious Education with Mrs. Therese Skelly
LOVING and LEARNING our way through LENT
People often don’t look forward to Lent. Many Catholics would have childhood memories of giving up lollies or sitting through weekly Stations of the Cross. Words like “sacrifice,” “discipline,” and “self-denial” are often used in ways that suggest that Lent is something to be endured rather than a time of grace, peace and spiritual growth. But the Scripture readings of Lent continually refer to it as a joyful season.
Christians think of Lent as a yearly second chance…six weeks to take a long, loving look at their lives to see if their values and priorities are in line with what God wants for them (in line with Jesus’ teachings on love, compassion, justice, respect, forgiveness). Everyone wanders from God’s path, and Lent becomes that second chance, or do-over, to “return to the welcoming arms of our loving God.”
Lent is a meaningful time of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving for Catholics, their loved ones, and their communities. Your children, as part of our Catholic School Community, are focusing on Lent as a journey to become more like Jesus, and closer to God through prayer, self-reflection and actively embracing our school values of compassion, justice, respect, service and excellence.
St Patrick’s Day –Friday March 17 – GREEN clothes and food Day
Next Friday 17 March is St Patrick’s feast day. He is the patron saint of Ireland and one of the world's most popular saints. He taught people about God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit (the Trinity - three persons of God) using a shamrock - 3 leaf clover). He is an important saint in Crookwell as many ancestors are from Irish decent.
Next Friday, students may wear GREEN clothing to school (they could even wear their green sports shorts and a green top). Please send in a gold coin donation to support Project Compassion.
CAKE STALL – Year 6 will be providing some edible GREEN goodies at break time. All items will be 50 cents to support Project Compassion.
SERVING THE POOR through PROJECT COMPASSION
(Catholic Agency for International aid and developement)
Please support Project Compassion (Caritas Australia) this Lent. A Just Future for all starts with your support! Our students are researching the needs of the less fortunate through the CARITAS website and PROJECT COMPASSION activities. They are showing a keen awareness of the need for compassion and justice in our world and our responsibility to do what we can to bring about justice for all. Our classroom Project Compassion boxes are filling up quickly.
We must give in order to receive, so this Lent, let’s be generous with our time, our love, our forgiveness, our belongings.