St Brigid's Catholic Parish Primary School Gwynneville eNewsletter

From the Religious Education Coordinator's Desk

ATTENTION YEAR 3 PARENTS- SACRAMENTAL PROGRAM HOLY COMMUNION

As you are aware the recent COVID outbreak is rapidly changing on a daily basis. COVID Restrictions are also changing at a rapid rate.

The message from Cathy Zamroz (Lumen Christi Parish Office) is, that in light of these health alerts and restrictions and keeping your health and that of your families in mind, we have decided to postpone the First Communion Parent Meetings next week.

This also means that there will be changes in dates for the First Communion Programme for 2021.

The First Communion Programme dates that have emailed to you will no longer go ahead.

The First Communion programme will be pushed back to commence in October. The new dates will be emailed to you.

FAITH IN ACTION

Following recent conversations with Vinnies, there seems to be an increased need for warm garments this winter, in particular beanies, scarves and blankets.

The Catholic Education Diocese of Wollongong has been challenged to knit or crochet these garments, and because my skills in this area are ‘primitive’, I am extending the challenge to any of you that may be able to help me out. All you need to do is knit or crochet a beanie, scarf or blanket OR donate new woolly items and send it in to St Brigid’s. We will make sure that it is passed on to the organisers of the Vinnies Van to be given to those most in need.

All donations need to be in by Term 3 Week 3 Friday 30 July 2021.

VINNIES VAN FUNDRAISER

Again, St Brigid’s demonstrated its compassion and service to those in need through the generous donations of toiletry items, for the Vinnies Van. Kelly is always so grateful that our school community values the work that is done by the volunteers on the Vinnies Van, and contributes to the items that are very much needed on a daily basis.

The photo only shows a small sample of the items that were donated by our caring community.

NAIDOC WEEK

The NAIDOC 2021 theme – Heal Country! – calls for all of us to continue to seek greater protections for our lands, our waters, our sacred sites and our cultural heritage from exploitation, desecration, and destruction.

Country that is more than a place and inherent to our identity.

Country that we speak about like a person, sustaining our lives in every aspect - spiritually, physically, emotionally, socially, and culturally.

NAIDOC 2021 invites the nation to embrace First Nations’ cultural knowledge and understanding of Country as part of Australia's national heritage and equally respect the culture and values of Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders as they do the cultures and values of all Australians.

For generations we have been calling for stronger measures to recognise, protect, and maintain all aspects of our culture and heritage.

We are still waiting for those robust protections.

This year’s theme also seeks substantive institutional, structural, and collaborative reform – something generations of our Elders and communities have been advocating, marching and fighting for.

Healing Country means finally resolving many of the outstanding injustices which impact on the lives of our people.

It is about hearing and actioning the aspirations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples which are the culmination of generations of consultation and discussions among our nations on a range of issues and grievances.

After 250 years, our children and our future generations deserve better.

We cannot afford to let pass the very real opportunity that now presents itself for reform based on a fundamental change in the relationship Australia has with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Heal Country, heal our nation.

NAIDOC Week is an opportunity for all Australians to come together to celebrate the rich history, diverse cultures and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the oldest continuing cultures on the planet.

REFLECTIONS

Sunday 27 June

Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

God's graciousness toward us should prompt us to be generous toward others. What we receive as life-enhancing gifts, we must share with those in need, those to whom life has not been kind. As we have been favoured by the healing touch of God, so we must extend that same loving touch to others. The love of Christ impels us to be openhanded as we approach those in need. Following Jesus' lead, we must not only give to them, we must also allow them to take from us. At times this will require that we share material resources; at other times it might mean that our energy will be drained in our service of them. In all of this, Jesus has set the example for us to follow.

Sunday 4 July

Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

True believers recognise and admit their human frailty. They also know that genuine weakness does not impede the saving action of God. In fact, God seems to prefer to act where pride and self-satisfaction do not prevail, for such attitudes are obstacles to personal transformation. However, when we open ourselves in humility and honest piety, the power of God can flood our minds and our hearts and shine forth from us to all around. When this happens, there will be no doubt in any mind as to the origin of this wondrous reality. It will be very clear that though it comes through us, it comes from God. The receptivity of Paul in this matter is in sharp contrast to the rebellion of the people at the time of Ezekiel and the resistance of those who thought that they knew Jesus so well.

Sunday 11 July

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

God chooses ordinary people and confers on them an extraordinary responsibility. Amos was a shepherd and a dresser of sycamores. Most of the apostles were fishermen. Paul was a tentmaker. Christians today are mechanics and clerks, teachers and engineers, doctors and housekeepers. These are all people following ordinary trades or professions, but what they do in them is truly remarkable. They touch minds and hearts and souls, and they heal them. They instruct and comfort people, and they help to drive out the demons that possess them. They participate in very ordinary ways in the extraordinary establishment of the reign of God.

Jesus chose disciples and sent them out to continue the work that he had begun, to preach his gospel and, through healings and exorcisms, to conquer the forces of evil that threatened that reign. And now we have been called; in him we have been chosen, in all of our brokenness and vulnerability. The task to which we have been called is awe-inspiring; and every spiritual blessing in the heavens has been bestowed upon us so that we will be able to accomplish it. If we allow Christ's saving power to take possession of us, we too will further his prophetic ministry. We will bring the saving grace of God to the world that is terrified and that writhes in pain; we will bring it to those places where healing is needed and where demons still hold sway. We will bring all things under the headship of Christ.

Sunday 18 July

Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jesus sent the disciples out on a mission, and they returned. People followed them, because they wanted to hear what Jesus and the disciples had to say; they wanted to be released from the sickness and the demons that possessed them.

There are so many searching people in the world today, people hungering for instruction, good people looking for direction. They may be parents who are sick with grief over the future of a troubled child; a man stripped of his dignity through unemployment; a woman facing a pregnancy alone; elderly people feeling the surge of life leave their declining bodies; people who are angry and confused because they believe that the church is no longer dependable. They are people who are looking for answers and for meaning. They are like sheep without a shepherd, and Jesus looks to us to shepherd them.

In the midst of this confusion, there are reliable shepherds who walk with us in the dark valleys. They are willing to share the dangers through which we pass, even at the risk of their own safety. They do not pit one segment of the community or one theological perspective against another, scattering the sheep and driving them away. Instead, they work to dismantle the walls that divide us. They speak the word that gathers us together. They reconcile us with God and with each other. They may not give us easy answers, but their primary concern is to lead us to Jesus, the one who is our peace.

Sunday 25 July

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today we are reminded of God’s providence. We live in a world that feeds us and shelters us and supplies us with everything that we need to grow and to thrive, and all of this comes to us from the hand of God. It is usually when we are in desperate straits that we become painfully conscious of our dependence on God, but this dependence is always there. God does not merely intervene when we are helpless; God's providence operates in our lives at all times.

Living in a society that promotes individualism, we sometimes undervalue the communal dimension of life. God certainly cares passionately for each of us (not even a sparrow falls without God knowing it), but God's concern is for the whole people. We are first and foremost members of a people. We would never have seen the light of day, we would not endure or develop, without others. As unique as we may be, we are a unique expression of a communal reality. God created a race; God formed a people; Jesus died for the world. By the grace of God, we belong to the community.

As members of the people of God, we are called to a way of life that is noble, not selfish. We are to live with each other in humility and gentleness, with patience. We are to bear with one another in love. Through baptism we all live by the same Spirit of Jesus; we are all united through the bond of God's love. The bread that we receive from the hand of God is the bread of full life, life in all its dimensions, life in Christ.