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Last Saturday, we celebrated the feast of The Assumption, a Holy Day of Obligation and the oldest feast day of Our Lady. It remembered that at the end of her life on earth Mary was assumed, body and soul, into heaven. It is also known as the Feast of the Dormition (falling asleep) of Mary.
While the when and the how of Mary’s assumption is utterly a mystery, there is no doubt that the reason for her assumption is ultimately a matter of love, God’s gracious love in response to Mary’s faithfulness. In Mary we see an ordinary woman who becomes extraordinary by virtue of her faith in what God makes possible in her life. Mary not only listened to God’s word and heard it, but she allowed the Word to take flesh in her life. In and through her feminine humanity she proclaims the greatness of God’s love for all humanity and in this sense is a disciple of God’s love. This feast is an opportunity to celebrate the heavenly rewards of such a loving discipleship and to be inspired at how lowly humanity can be raised to such glorious heights simply because of love!
Father in heaven,
all creation rightly gives you praise,
for all life and all holiness come from you.
In the plan of your wisdom
Mary who bore the Christ in her womb
was raised body and soul in glory to be with him in heaven.
May we follow her example in reflecting your holiness
and join in her hymn of endless love and praise.
We ask this through Christ our Lord,
AMEN.
Dear Parents and Caregivers,
The feast of The Assumption is also our school’s feast day and we held celebrations last Friday. Students wore mufti clothes, participated in craft activities and enjoyed some old-fashioned games such as hopscotch, egg and spoon races and marbles. They also received a free ice-block. We are indeed fortunate to be involved in the Stella Maris school community.
PUPIL FREE DAYS
Parents are reminded that we will be having a Pupil Free Day next Friday 28 August. The staff will be involved in a Professional Development Day via Zoom, focusing on Challenging Maths and agreed practices in teaching literacy.
With the updated Covid-19 school directives, we will not be able to have our Staff Spirituality Day on the last day of term, Friday 25 September 2020. As a result, this will no longer be a pupil free day and it will be school as normal
STUDENT TEACHERS
We have welcomed two more student teachers in the last week at Stella Maris. Miss Ellena Viselli (Kindergarten Blue- Mrs Thompson) and Mrs Stephanie Mears (Year 1 Gold- Mrs Hopkins) have settled in well and will be a great asset to the class teachers and the students in both classes.
PRAYERS
I ask that families continue to pray for those members of our school community who are suffering poor health or financial hardship during these difficult times. Parents are reminded to contact me at school if I can be of assistance in any way.
AFTERNOON PICK-UP
With the increase in COVID- 19 cases in NSW schools, I continue to urge parents to pick up their children after school in a prompt manner between 2.30-2.50pm. It is important that people are not stopping to have conversations with others and that social distancing is being followed both whilst waiting for the school gates to open and on-site.
SPORT
A decision has been made that the annual Basketball Gala Days have been cancelled this year.
ASTHMA MEDICATION IN SCHOOL
Students in years 3-6, are able to carry their own Asthma medication, with the signed permission of their parents. If your child carries their own medication, could you please ensure that the medication is up to date and always in their bag within easy access for your child. Please also ensure that their Asthma Action Plan is up to date and with their medication at all times. Thank you for your assistance.
PARENT- SCHOOL PARTNERSHIPS
This week we outline the fifth principle of the Parent- School Partnership Framework: Active Engagement, which is about supporting engagement in learning and wellbeing. We live this in our communities by:
- Participating in initiatives which share information between school and home to complement learning across both settings.
- Communicating openly to share relevant information about each child’s learning and wellbeing.
- Modelling a positive attitude to learning, school and co-curricular activities.
- Actively supporting consistent student attendance.
- Facilitating a positive learning environment at school and at home.
This Sunday’s Gospel
Jesus asks,
"Who do people say I am?"
Online registration for weekend mass is available at: https://www.dow.org.au/…/all-saints-catholic-parish-shellh…/
* CONDITIONS APPLY
YOU CAN FIND THE ALL SAINTS PARISH BULLETIN ONLINE
On the All Saints parish website: www.allsaintscatholic.org.au
Click on the link at the bottom of the page where it says Bulletin.PDF
Confession by Appointment
Gospel
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew
You are Peter, to you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven.
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi he put this question to his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say he is John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ ‘But you,’ he said ‘who do you say I am?’ Then Simon Peter spoke up, ‘You are the Christ,’ he said, ‘the Son of the living God.’ Jesus replied, ‘Simon son of Jonah, you are a happy man! Because it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. So I now say to you: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church. And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven.’ Then he gave the disciples strict orders not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.
This is the Gospel of the Lord.
Ripples Podcast
by Robyn Gallagher
This week’s episode is entitled
‘The Musical Thread.’
For PARENTS: https://sites.google.com/dow.catholic.edu.au/clem-spiritual-formation/spiritual-formation/parents
Social Justice Sunday
30 August
The celebration of Social Justice Sunday is a long tradition in the Catholic Church in Australia.
From this year forward it will be celebrated on the last Sunday in August.
The COVID-19 pandemic is impacting the mental health of many members of our parishes, schools, and communities. In fact, most of us will experience a mental health problem at some point over the course of our lives. Understanding mental health will help us to be aware of those who need our support. Our parishes, organisations and communities can be places of acceptance, care and healing, not places of rejection, judgment, or stigma. The Bishops invite us all to reject stigmatisation, to work for the transformation of social determinants of mental ill- health, and to call for policies and service provision that meets the needs of the poorest and most marginalised members of our community.
Season of Creation
September 1 - October 4
From September to October each year, the Christian Community celebrates the Season of Creation by praying and acting together to protect our common home. The celebration of the Season of Creation is especially relevant this year, in the light of the coronavirus pandemic. As Pope Francis said during his General Audience of 22 April 2020, on the fiftieth Earth Day: “As the tragic coronavirus pandemic has taught us, we can overcome global challenges only by showing solidarity with one another and embracing the most vulnerable in our midst”. During this time Catholics unite with others in a global family to pray and protect every creature in God’s beautifully complex web of Creation. The theme of this year’s Season of Creation celebration is ‘Jubilee for Earth’.
The Season of Creation begins on September 1st, the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation. Pope Francis in calling us to an ecological conversion says that, “The annual World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation offers to individual believers and to the community precious opportunity to renew our personal participation in this vocation to be custodians of creation.”
Season of Creation 2020 Prayer
Creator of Life,
At Your word,
the Earth brought forth plants yielding seed and trees of every kind bearing fruit.
The rivers, mountains, minerals, seas and forests sustained life.
The eyes of all looked to You to satisfy the needs of every living thing.
And throughout time the Earth has sustained life.
Through the planetary cycles of days and seasons, renewal and growth, you open your hand to give creatures our food in the proper time.
In your Wisdom,
you granted a Sabbath;
a blessed time to rest in gratitude for all that you have given;
a time to liberate ourselves from vicious consumption;
a time to allow the land and all creatures to rest from the burden of production.
But these days our living pushes the planet beyond its limits.
Our demands for growth, and our never-ending cycle of production and consumption are exhausting our world.
The forests are leached,
the topsoil erodes,
the fields fail,
the deserts advance,
the seas acidify,
the storms intensify.
We have not allowed the land to observe her Sabbath,
and the Earth is struggling to be renewed.
During this Season of Creation,
we ask you to grant us courage to observe a Sabbath for our planet.
Strengthen us with the faith to trust in your providence.
Inspire us with the creativity to share what we have been given.
Teach us to be satisfied with enough.
And as we proclaim a Jubilee for the Earth, send Your Holy Spirit to renew the face of creation.
In the name of the One who came to proclaim good news to all creation, Jesus Christ.
Amen
Julie Hopkins
Acting Religious Education Coordinator
Author Visit
On Tuesday 25 August Year 1 are privileged to have a local author visit our school.
Karen Hendriks is a children’s author who lives in Shellharbour. She is passionate about writing quality stories for children. She writes from the heart and loves creating both quirky, warm, funny stories and tender ones too.
Karen was a primary school teacher and has a special interest in literacy education. She is an experienced speaker and loves sharing her passion for story with any age. She is a proud ambassador for Books in Homes; an organisation that helps give books to students in disadvantaged schools. Karen visits schools and believes stories help children create their own kind of wonderful for themselves.
Karen’s short stories have been published both online and in book anthologies. Her picture book Feathers will be released in 2020 with Empowering Resources, followed by Go Away, Foxy Foxy in 2020 and Home in 2022 with Daisy Lane Publishing.
Here are some links to some of Karen’s short stories that are free to access.
Here's the Smashwords Short Tales links:
ST1: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/544212
ST2: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/640910
ST3: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/724261
ST4: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/827750
ST5: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/937945
And the Christmas Tales links:
CT1: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/686317
CT2: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/762781
CT3: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/910090
https://www.facebook.com/karenhendrikschildrensauthor/
Canteen News
We are a school run canteen and rely on volunteers to operate.
Canteen is open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays to make and prepare lunch orders and serve the children over the counter.
Online orders can be made via the My School Connect app - www.myschoolconnect.com.au/stellamarisps click on create account.