Catholic Charities - Last Term we ran a “Show your Sporting Colours’ and cake stall fundraiser for the Catholic Charities. Our Yr 5/6 unit ran the event and raised $560.00. This is a fantastic effort from our families, Yr 5/6 unit.
Family Mass - Please put this day in your diaries
On Sunday 10th November @ 5:30pm our Year 5/6 students along with the All Saints 5/6 students will coordinate the Youth Mass. This Mass will be a great opportunity for our senior students to meet and begin to develop relationships with students who will join them at Cardijn College.
Change to Program: SACRAMENTAL PROGRAM – The Sacramental Program will now begin early in Term 1 with the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
I ask that any families from Yr 3 and up interested in participating in the program to please send me an email to jmarsh@stjohns.catholic.edu.au. I am hoping to have a brief meeting in week 6 regarding the program.
Gospel Reading for this Sunday
Luke 18:9-14
Jesus tells the parable of the proud Pharisee who prayed from his self-importance and the tax collector who prayed humbly.
The second parable that Jesus tells in Luke 18 addresses attitude in prayer. In contrasting the prayer of the Pharisee with the prayer of the tax collector, Jesus teaches his disciples to pray in humility before God. Jesus again surprises his listeners by showing the tax collector as the example of faith, rather than the Pharisee. Remember that Pharisees were members of a sect of Judaism active in Jesus' time. They taught an oral interpretation of the Law of Moses as the basis for Jewish piety. If anyone would be a model for prayer, a Pharisee was a likely candidate. In contrast, Jesus offers the tax collector as a model for prayer. Tax collectors were collaborators with the Roman authorities in a system that allowed the tax collectors to line their own pockets by charging in excess of the defined taxes. Yet, in this parable, Jesus offers the humility of the tax collector as a model for the prayer of a disciple. The parable reminds us that when we pray, we must remember our need for God in our lives. If we are too full of ourselves, there is too little room for God's grace to work in us.
Family Connection
In the family, one sometimes observes a level of competition between children for parent attention, for acknowledgement of their abilities. Somehow, children seem to internalize that the attention given to one member of the family diminishes the attention given to another. In this way, children can often sound like the Pharisee in Jesus' parable. Parents who provide continual reminders to their children that they are loved for who they are, not for what they do, help children develop a healthy spirituality.
As a family, talk about what it means to compare oneself to another. Discuss whether it is helpful to compare oneself to another. In what ways might this be positive? (when it motivates one to use one's talents) In what circumstances might this be unhelpful? (when it proves discouraging, when it prevents one from valuing the abilities of another)
Class Masses – Thursday 9:15am in the Chapel – All Welcome
Term 4 2019
Week 3 – Yr 5/6 Sampson/Button
Week 4 – Yr 1 Egidio/Maillard and 1/2 Lowey and 1/2 Martin/Osborn
Week 5 – Yr 3/4 Wheatland/Marcelline and Clark
Week 6 – Reception Mashford/Button and Whiffen
Week 7 – Yr 5/6 Pittard and Sampson/Button
Week 8 – SRC reps and House Leaders
Graduation Mass – Wednesday 11th December @ St Luke’s Church. 7pm - 8:45pm
Week 9 - No Class Mass
Have a great Term 4
Justin Marsh
Acting Religious Education Coordinator (REC)