St Brigid's Catholic Parish Primary School Gwynneville eNewsletter

From the Religious Education Coordinator's Desk

THE TEACHING OF SACRED SCRIPTURE

As a Catholic learning community, our focus for this year is to develop strategies to engage students in Scripture and for students to be able to gain an in-depth knowledge and understanding, and apply Scripture in a contemporary setting.

WHY SCRIPTURE?

The syllabus that we follow indicates core scripture for each grade level. Each unit that we teach has scripture focussed outcomes.

St Benedict says: “Let us set out with the Gospel as our guide”

Knowing and applying Scripture, allows for the good news that Christ is Alive and active in our world to be known.

Fr Bernard joined us on Wednesday 26 May 2021 to engage us in a Scripture reflection that enabled us to gain a deeper and clearer understanding of the message that God is giving us for our time, here and now.

AT HOME

A great way to spend quality time with your child is to read to your child and what better book than the Bible.

MORE THAN A WORD - RECONCILIATION TAKES ACTION

National Sorry Day 2021 falls this year on Wednesday 26 May and is a day when we pause to remember the Stolen Generations of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

It leads us into the Week of Prayer for Reconciliation and National Reconciliation Week which is held each year between 27 May and 3 June.

The theme for National Reconciliation Week 2021 is More Than a Word. Reconciliation Takes Action.

Reconciliation Week is a time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures and achievements, and to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia.

For the Catholic Church in Australia, this week offers us a time to be fully the Church that God dreams for us - a Church in which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples make their own unique contribution and that contribution is joyfully received by others.

And so we pray ...

Loving God, you call us to work together to be one people.

May we work together to bring hope and healing to all who live here in Australia.

Help us to show compassion and justice to all, especially our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander brothers and sisters, whom we have treated so badly in the past.

May we walk forward in a spirit of healing and reconciliation so that all may live with dignity and respect.

We make our prayer in Jesus’ name.

Amen

REFLECTIONS

Sunday 30 May

The Most Holy Trinity

The feast of the Holy Trinity brings us face to face with the foundation of our faith. The readings for today provide answers to the question: Who is God? They can really only suggest something about the mystery of God, and they can do this only indirectly. They call to mind some of the wonders that God has accomplished for us and in us. It is through reflection on these gracious divine acts that we can get glimpses of God.

The psalm declares that the harmony and interdependence that we see in creation point to a majestic creator responsible for it all. The account of the history of God’s people reveals a God who desires to establish an intimate relationship with them, enters their history as protector and guide, and forgives disloyalty. Finally, Jesus teaches that God sent him into the world to save it, has made us adopted children through the Holy Spirit, and will ultimately clothe us in divine glory. It is from his teaching that we hear that the Son was sent by the Father, the Spirit, which was also his Spirit, proceeded from the Father and from him.

From our own experience, we know that God creates, because we are immersed in creation. We know that God saves, because we have been freed from the bondage of our own demons. Our experience tells us that God is with us, and that God is for us. Everything that we know about God declares that God is passionately in love with us, boundlessly so!

Sunday 6 June

The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

The readings, which reflect some aspect of the feast, feature three prominent themes: the importance of blood in the ratification of the covenant; the atoning actions of Christ; the attitude of thanksgiving.

Most people today would probably be repelled by the ritual use of blood. Yet birth blood is not subject to the same revulsion, nor is blood transfusion frowned upon. Blood is recognised as a life force, and blood relationships are cherished. In a sense this ritual makes us blood sisters and brothers of God and of each other. It seals our fate and it entitles us to the family inheritance.

This feast celebrates the incomparable love of Christ. He offered himself for the expiation of our sins; he spread a banquet table for us at which we are able to eat the bread of companionship and share the blood of the new covenant.

How shall we make a return to the Lord for all the good that we have received? The only appropriate response to God’s graciousness is thanksgiving (eucharistía). We have been chosen; we have been delivered; we have a witness in heaven; and now we have been given the bread of eternal life and the blood of salvation. What return can we give? A life of gratitude lived in the presence of God; a life of union with all those who eat the same bread and drink from the same cup; a life of faithful expectation, waiting for the coming of the reign of God in all its fullness.