Social Justice - Crazy Sock Day Socktober Catholic Mission - This Friday!

Social Justice is defined by the Catholic Church as, “the respect for the human person and the rights which flow from human dignity.’ Catholic Social Justice teaches that all people are made in the image of God and possess an equal worth, and that each person has a right to all that is needed to allow him or her to live their full potential as intended by God.

This year, we are supporting Catholic Mission by participating in Socktober. Socktober 2024 will contribute vital funds to projects around the world, including Mongolia, where the Don Bosco Caring Center is providing hope, education, protection and guidance for young children.

On Friday 1st November, students are able to participate in Socktober in two ways:

• Wear ‘crazy socks’ and ‘sock it’ to poverty. Students are invited to wear crazy socks and make a gold coin donation.
• Kick goals for poverty. Could you score a goal against a teacher? Students are invited to donate additional gold coin/s and try to score a goal. 

As a community, let’s join together to help Catholic Mission bring hope and dignity to people in need. Thank you.

Presence of God - Year 1 Mini-Retreat

Tomorrow (Thursday October 31st) our Year 6 Youth Ministry Team will run a mini-retreat morning for our Year 1 students. This retreat is a high impact student formation experience that invites students into a personal response to who God is. This retreat will build on students’ knowledge of God’s presence and action in the lives of individuals and communities, how people live safely and happily in community and loving relationships with God, and how people can use God’s gift of freedom to make choices to show respect for the dignity of others. Thank you to our Youth Ministry Officer, Olivia Brown, for her support of our Year 6 students as they prepare to lead this retreat.

Gospel - Mark 12:28-34

31st Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

The wise scribe asks Jesus which is the greatest commandment

Generally, in the gospels, the scribes are shown as antagonistic towards Jesus and when we begin this passage we may be expecting a trap being laid by the scribe. In Jewish tradition, a lot of teaching occurs through a question and answer style and often the question is related to a particular teaching from Torah. Here, the scribe approaches Jesus as a teacher, a rabbi, and poses a question just as he would to any other worthy teacher. He asks which of the commandments Jesus regards to be foremost. This could be an opening question to any teacher and one would expect it to be the start of a long conversation. Neither of the commandments Jesus quotes come from the Ten Commandments with which we are most familiar, but, rather, they come from other parts of Torah (the Law). His qualification of the first commandment – to love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength – is a way of capturing the whole person. What Jesus is saying is to love God completely and utterly with your whole person. Then he follows up and adds another commandment – ‘You must love your neighbour as yourself.’ The scribe agrees with Jesus’ teaching and adds that these are far more important than offering sacrifice. This is a pretty controversial statement from a scribe! Sacrifice has been the official form of prayer practised in the Temple for a very long time and he suggests that love of God and love of neighbour are far more important! It is because of this understanding about the priority of love over religious practice – the hallmark of the kingdom of God that Jesus proclaims – that Jesus pronounces the scribe to be ‘not far from the kingdom of God.’

Adapted from Greg Sunter

Blessings for the week ahead,

Sarah Walsh

Religious Education Coordinator (Acting)