Sacrament of Confirmation

Thank you for your prompt response in enrolling for the Sacrament of Confirmation. Please ensure that you have selected a family group and mass. Booklets for enrolled Candidates will be handed out next week.

Social Justice  - Vinnies Winter Appeal

On Thursday during our Value Assembly, members of the Year 6 Charity and Social Justice Leaders will launch our Vinnies Winter Appeal. This year, St Vincent de Paul are focusing on the issue of older women experiencing homelessness. The number of older women experiencing homelessness across the country has grown rapidly in recent years, and continues to increase, accounting for almost double the growth rate for all people experiencing homelessness in Australia.

The true extent of the problem in Australia is likely to be hugely under-reported as older women who are at risk of homelessness are often ‘hidden’. Many will stay with their children or friends, live in their car, or stay in unsafe relationships to avoid sleeping rough.

Experts predict we are likely to see an increasing number of older women at risk of homelessness in the coming years given the ongoing shortage of social and affordable housing, rising rents, ageing population and lifetime wealth gap between men and women.

Research shows that most of these women have never been homeless before. For many of these women, homelessness is triggered by a crisis such as the death of a spouse, divorce, serious illness, rent increase or eviction. Intimate partner violence or elder abuse can also lead to older women being forced to flee their homes.

Through their specialist homelessness services, Vinnies assists older women who are homeless, or are at risk of becoming homeless, to have access to the supports they need to get back on their feet and to be safe and well. They will continue to advocate at state, territory and Commonwealth levels to immediately increase social security payments and to boost the supply of social and affordable housing so that older women can retire with dignity and with a safe, affordable place to call home.

Sts Peter and Paul Vinnies Winter Appeal - so how can we help?

Throughout Weeks 3 and 4, we are inviting students to, ‘Share your Kindness’ and donate one or more of the the following items: toiletries bag, toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo, conditioner, soap, face washer, hairbrush, moisturiser, and feminine hygiene products. Donations can be dropped off at the school foyer in the labelled tubs. 

‘Share your Kindness’ weeks will culminate in Crazy Hair Donation Day on Friday 19th May. Students are invited to have crazy hair and donate one or more of the items listed above. Thank you for your support. 

Sunday Gospel: John 14:1-12, Fifth Sunday of Easter - Year A

I am the way, the truth and the life.

Today’s gospel passage comes from the very long Last Supper discourse in the gospel of John. When Jesus speaks about ‘going away’ for a time it could be interpreted as the period of his death and rising that are about to occur in the chronology of the story. However, the gospel of John is written a very long time after the death of Jesus; perhaps as much as 70 years after Jesus. Given this period of time between the events and the writing, we know that the writer was also referring to this longer time of Jesus ‘going away’. By the time of the writing of this gospel the early Christians were starting to come to terms with the fact that Jesus probably wasn’t going to return in their lifetime. They had seen the devastating destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by the Romans in 70CE which they thought had signalled the end of all time. However, here they were, still alive and still no sign of Jesus’ return.

The theme of being present and being absent is very strong in this gospel. The discussion about Jesus and the Father being one is part of this theme. Jesus is God present in the world. God has come to dwell among the people. When Jesus speaks of preparing rooms in the Father’s house, it is a reference to preparing the disciples to ‘live’ in God; to dwell in God just as God has dwelt in the people. (Greg Sunter)

Blessings for the week ahead,

Veronica Hall

Religious Education Coordinator