This Sunday is the beginning of Advent and the start of the new liturgical year. The first part of Advent focuses on the coming of Jesus at the end of time. It shows us why Jesus came into the world. In the liturgical calendar, the season of Advent means a joyful waiting, a waiting for someone with love.  Here we wait for Jesus and there is the eagerness within us to receive him as we look forward to this great event of God becoming man. We wait for Jesus as his coming contains promise, love, preparation, alertness, reflectiveness, prayer, new beginnings and fulfilment.

The name Advent comes from the Latin words, ad venire meaning to come to and adventus meaning an arrival of a person of importance, a king or a prince or a warrior leader, and in this context it refers to Christ’s coming into this world.

The theme of the first Week of Advent is hope.

Hope is a virtue that is critical for survival in life. We don't last long without it. We die physically, emotionally, and spiritually without it. Living involves hoping.

A great prayer during the Advent season would be a prayer of hope in Divine Mercy for the conversion of some person you know who is far away from God — even if that person may be yourself! Just utter these words, "Jesus, I trust in you," and he will not be far from you.

The theme of the second week of advent is peace.

As we pray for peace throughout our world in that week in Advent it is a useful time to reflect upon the peace in our own lives – do we find times of quiet and calm to be with God? And how do we work with others to be loving and forgiving?

The theme of the third week of advent is joy.

The Third Sunday of Advent is traditionally called "Gaudete Sunday" (from Latin, meaning "Rejoice!), because the "Entrance Antiphon" of this Sunday's Mass is taken from Paul's letter to the Philippians: "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice! The Lord is near." (Phil 4:4-5b)

The theme of the fourth week of advent is love.

Love is a huge theme but in Advent particularly we focus on the importance of giving to others and trying to ensure that the warmth of Jesus’ love at Christmas will reach far and wide. By supporting those who are most in need we are showing that a baby born in a stable made a huge difference to the world.

 God of surprises and unexpected comings,

Awaken in me a sensitivity to your presence.

As we prepare for your coming into our lives each day.

You who are God, Emmanuel,

God with us.

Amen

Reminders

We please ask that students leave off bringing Christmas cards etc. to school to hand out until Week 9 and that they do not bring candy canes to school so that we are able to keep the students settled and focused on the work that is still taking place in classrooms. Year 6 students are also able to bring autograph books/bears etc. for signing from Week 9. No signing of items of clothing please.

Just a reminder that we are considerate of our neighbours and keep their driveways clear during drop off and pickup times. Congratulations to everyone for a good report from the ranger who spent some time in our street over the last week. She was very pleased with the way everyone followed the rules. Well done!

Kinder Orientation

We had great pleasure in welcoming our new students for kindergarten 2021 last Tuesday. The children had a lovely time, some so much so that they didn’t want to go home. We look forward to welcoming these families and a number of other families across the school again next year.

Activate Fire

Today our Year 6 students participated in a full day spiritual experience. The day centred on the Sacraments of initiation based on their unit of work in Religious Education ‘Conformation: Celebrating the Gift of the Holy Spirit’.

This event is usually facilitated by the CEO Youth Ministry team with a few schools combining, but due to COVID it had to take a different format this year.  The team provided us with videos of the sessions and still provided a very reflective and fun day for our students.