Religious Education 

Sacraments

It was great having the Confirmation Commitment masses on the weekend at the parish church. We are all very excited to support the students who have decided to confirm their faith through Confirmation. I will work with Year 6 teachers to support the process through the school-based Religious Education curriculum.

Planning with Teachers

Last night I met with all of the teachers in the school and presented some professional learning on Luke’s Gospel and planning for Term 2. I am very excited for our Term 2 scripture topic, focus statement and provocation image. I will talk more to it next term as to not ruin anything for the students. I spoke to the School Board this term about the Religious Education curriculum we follow in DOSCEL, which is available for anyone to view. We are lucky to have this provided to us to aid classroom teachers in providing the highest quality religious education possible for our students, who deserve it. I will continue to work with teachers in more depth next term and as the year progresses.

Sunday Scripture Spotlight

School Operations

The holidays aren’t necessarily a quiet time at the school as this is when contractors are booked in for maintenance. Over the holidays, we will be having:

• Some internal walls in every Siena classroom painted a more neutral colour, reducing visual stimuli and allowing students to concentrate on the TV when needed
• All of the storm water pits and drains will be cleaned in preparation for winter. This is a big job due to the size of our school
• Quotes will be done on some gardening and opening up some areas for students
• Our cleaners have been provided a list of items that they will do in depth over the break alongside their normal maintenance cleaning

It’s always a busy time but we hope to have the school looking even better than when students leave at the end of the term

Sunday Scripture Spotlight

This Sunday’s scripture is from John 20:1-9. Below is the translation from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition, as found on Bible Gateway.

The Resurrection of Jesus

20 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” 3 Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. 4 The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7 and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9 for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.

Gospel Reflection

The joy of Easter, Pope Francis reminds us, is a call ‘to experience the risen Christ and to share the experience with others.’ Like the women finding the tomb empty and telling the disciples, or Peter running to the tomb when he heard the news, we are called to respond to the message with action! We are meant to become bearers and sharers of hope: He is Risen!

As the Pope suggests, sometimes this means that we have ‘to roll away the stone from the tomb where we may have enclosed the Lord.’ We need to be open to being changed.

‘A Christianity that seeks the Lord among the ruins of the past and encloses him in the tomb of habit’, the Pope declares emphatically, ‘is a Christianity without Easter.’ Every year, therefore, we should take up anew this opportunity to follow our Lord with joyful hope. Each Easter is an opportunity to proclaim Christ Risen in our own time and place.

‘Let us make Jesus,’ the Pope says, ‘rise again from all those tombs in which we have sealed him.’ Let us embrace this Easter opportunity for ‘encountering him today as the living God who desires to change us and to change our world.’ Let us proclaim the Resurrection by what we do next.