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- Week 6 2025
- Library News
- Religious Life of the School - Project Compassion
- St Gregory's Purple for Lent and Big Water Walk Day
- The Resilience Project
- An Update From Your School Community Council
- Respectful Relationships
- Harmony Week
- Merici College - Legally Blonde
- Your Inviation to Explore St Clare's College
- Let Us Journey Together in Hope
- Monaro Panthers
- Pop Camp
This past week we welcomed a new PE teacher to St Gregory’s, Mr Angus Sutherland. Angus is teaching across both campuses and joins our other specialist teachers, Miss Sharon Robinson, Music Macquoid Street, Mrs Maddy Chalker, Music Lowe Street and Amy McAlister, Creative Arts. We are fortunate to have been able to secure such dedicated and passionate teachers to provide quality lessons for our students in these areas of the curriculum.
This year we have introduced grade level prayer celebrations and thus far Year 5 and Year 2 have held their grade prayer celebrations in the St Gregory’s church. Thank you to all the parents who were able to join us for these celebrations. The other grades have their prayer celebrations coming up as the term continues. We warmly welcome family members to join the children at these celebrations throughout this term and the remainder of the year.
Years 5 and 3 students will commence the 2025 NAPLAN assessments from Wednesday this week. I wish them well and encourage all students to try do their very best. It is super important that they also know that they do not need to be worrying about the suit of assessments.
This fortnight let us further contemplate the first reflection on what it means to ‘journey together in hope’ from his holiness Pope Francis from his 2025 Lenten message.
‘First of all, to journey. The Jubilee motto, “Pilgrims of Hope”, evokes the lengthy journey of the people of Israel to the Promised Land, as recounted in the Book of Exodus. This arduous path from slavery to freedom was willed and guided by the Lord, who loves his people and remains ever faithful to them. It is hard to think of the biblical exodus without also thinking of those of our brothers and sisters who in our own day are fleeing situations of misery and violence in search of a better life for themselves and their loved ones. A first call to conversion thus comes from the realization that all of us are pilgrims in this life; each of us is invited to stop and ask how our lives reflect this fact. Am I really on a journey, or am I standing still, not moving, either immobilized by fear and hopelessness or reluctant to move out of my comfort zone? Am I seeking ways to leave behind the occasions of sin and situations that degrade my dignity? It would be a good Lenten exercise for us to compare our daily life with that of some migrant or foreigner, to learn how to sympathize with their experiences and in this way discover what God is asking of us so that we can better advance on our journey to the house of the Father. This would be a good “examination of conscience” for all of us wayfarers.’
Sisters and brothers, thanks to God’s love in Jesus Christ, we are sustained in the hope that does not disappoint (cf. Rom 5:5). Hope is the “sure and steadfast anchor of the soul”. It moves the Church to pray for “everyone to be saved” (1 Tim 2:4) and to look forward to her being united with Christ, her bridegroom, in the glory of heaven.
This was the prayer of Saint Teresa of Avila:
“Hope, O my soul, hope. You know neither the day nor the hour. Watch carefully, for everything passes quickly, even though your impatience makes doubtful what certain, and turns a very short time into a long one” (The Exclamations of the Soul to God, 15:3).
May the Virgin Mary, Mother of Hope, intercede for us and accompany us on our Lenten journey. Rome, Saint John Lateran, 6 February 2025 Memorial of St Paul Miki and Companions, martyrs. FRANCIS
(07/03/2025, 13:25 Lent 2025: Let us journey together in hope | Francis https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/lent/documents/20250206-messaggio-quaresima2025.html 1/4 travellers)
Please join with me in praying for our Pope Francis as he continues to recover from illness in hospital. We also pray for all those who are unwell or suffering in any way that they may all feel God’s healing presence and comforting peace.
Amen
Have a blessed fortnight.
PREMIER'S READING CHALLENGE
Each year our school participates in the NSW Premier's Reading Challenge (PRC).
This is a voluntary extra-curricular activity that needs to be supported by parents/carers. Once your child has been registered, this is an activity which requires you (the parent/carer) to record and update your child's record. We help and support this activity; however you must be involved to monitor, encourage, and record online. If you are not prepared to do this, please do not register your child.
Due to a change in online security requirements, the PRC team have re-issued passwords for ALL previous participants. Therefore, even if you did save the log-in details from previous years, it is very important for you to re-register your child/ren so that I can issue the new password details to you. Without your permission and current contact details, I will not be able to forward the new passwords.
NB: The PRC team is experiencing IT issues and are unable to issue any passwords for NEW participants. Please keep a written record of the books that are being read by or to your child. When you receive the login and password, you can then enter all these books at the same time. The PRC team will be extending the deadline for St Greg's due to the current IT issues but have yet to set an actual date. I will communicate the new deadlines once the majority of access issues have been resolved by the PRC team.
If you are interested in the challenge for your child, please download and read the attached the Parent Letter and return the registration form to the Library. If you are unable to print this form, I will have hard copies available at both libraries.
If you would like more information about the PRC, please follow the link to the PRC website: https://online.education.nsw.gov.au/prc/home.html
Or alternately, you can contact me at: natalina.ireland@cg.catholic.edu.au
LIBRARY TIMETABLE FOR TERM 1 (Amendment)
Macquoid St:
Mon: 5R, 5G, 2R
Tues: 2G, 3G, 3B, 3R, 3W
Wed: 2B, 4G, 4R, 4W, 4B
Thu: 5B, 6R, 6G, 6B, 2W
Lowe St:
Mon: 1S, KG, 1B
Tues: KS, KR, 1G
Wed: 1W, KW, 1R, KB
Reminder: All students in Kindergarten, Year 1 and Year 2 MUST have a library bag if they would like to borrow books.
The latest Book Club catalogue will be sent home this week (both Lowe St & at Macquoid St) .... Orders are due by Wed 26 March .
The ordering is only available through LOOP - Linked Online Ordering and Payment. This means that we will not accept orders or payment at the school - this must all be done online. Please do NOT send cash to school.
All orders are then sent directly to the school for submission to Scholastic.
Books will be delivered to your child's classroom if you order by the close date.
If you miss this close off date, you can choose to have home delivery at additional cost.
There is no need to return any order forms or payment details back to the school.
As the new year begins, the Community Council are turning their minds to key fundraising priorities and a master plan for community events in 2025.
At our 3rd December meeting, the following members were voted into Council Executive positions for 2025:
Chair: Cristina de Jongh
Secretary: Stuart McCreanor
Treasurer: Mick Cronin
Fundraising Coordinator: Ben Mills
The SCC are looking for fresh faces to volunteer in 2025! Please contact us if you are interested in helping with fundraising, events, BBQs or playground improvement projects.
Key Council events coming up are:
- Open Meeting #2 on Tues 25 March 2025
- Mother's Day Stall on 8th May
- Winter Disco in June (date TBC).
Contact us and get involved at:
stgregorys.schoolcouncil@cg.catholic.edu.au or visit the St Gregory’s Primary School Community Council Webpage.
Harmony Week:
We’re celebrating the AWESOMENESS of diversity this Harmony Week!
Get ready to paint the town ORANGE as we embrace and learn all about inclusivity,
kindness and respect.
We’ll enjoy lots of special activities to highlight the joy of belonging! ✨
Book NOW to join the FUN – www.teamkids.com.au/venues
Reach out to your DOS to find out when your venue will be celebrating!
MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
FOR LENT 2025
Let us journey together in hope
Dear brothers and sisters,
We begin our annual pilgrimage of Lent in faith and hope with the penitential riteof the imposition of ashes. The Church, our mother and teacher, invites us toopen our hearts to God’s grace, so that we can celebrate with great joy thepaschal victory of Christ the Lord over sin and death, which led Saint Paul toexclaim: “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is yourvictory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Cor 15:54-55). Indeed, Jesus Christ,crucified and risen, is the heart of our faith and the pledge of our hope in theFather’s great promise, already fulfilled in his beloved Son: life eternal (cf.Jn10:28; 17:3).[1]
This Lent, as we share in the grace of the Jubilee Year, I would like to propose afew reflections on what it means to journey together in hope,
and on the summons to conversion that God in his mercy addresses to all of us, asindividuals and as a community.
First of all,to journey. The Jubilee motto, “Pilgrims of Hope”, evokes the lengthyjourney of the people of Israel to the Promised Land, as recounted in the Book ofExodus. This arduous path from slavery to freedom was willed and guided by theLord, who loves his people and remains ever faithful to them. It is hard to thinkof the biblical exodus without also thinking of those of our brothers and sisterswho in our own day are fleeing situations of misery and violence in search of abetter life for themselves and their loved ones. A first call to conversion thuscomes from the realization that all of us are pilgrims in this life; each of us isinvited to stop and ask how our lives reflect this fact. Am I really on a journey, oram I standing still, not moving, either immobilized by fear and hopelessness orreluctant to move out of my comfort zone? Am I seeking ways to leave behindthe occasions of sin and situations that degrade my dignity? It would be a goodLenten exercise for us to compare our daily life with that of some migrant orforeigner, to learn how to sympathize with their experiences and in this waydiscover what God is asking of us so that we can better advance on our journeyto the house of the Father. This would be a good “examination of conscience” forall of us wayfarers.
Second, to journey together. The Church is called to walk together, to besynodal.[2] Christians are called to walk at the side of others, and never as lone
travellers. The Holy Spirit impels us not to remain self-absorbed, but to leaveourselves behind and keep walking towards God and our brothers and sisters.
[3]
Journeying together means consolidating the unity grounded in our commondignity as children of God (cf.Gal3:26-28). It means walking side-by-side,without shoving or stepping on others, without envy or hypocrisy, without lettinganyone be left behind or excluded. Let us all walk in the same direction, tendingtowards the same goal, attentive to one another in love and patience.
This Lent, God is asking us to examine whether in our lives, in our families, inthe places where we work and spend our time, we are capable of walkingtogether with others, listening to them, resisting the temptation to become self-absorbed and to think only of our own needs. Let us ask ourselves in thepresence of the Lord whether, as bishops, priests, consecrated persons and laityin the service of the Kingdom of God, we cooperate with others. Whether weshow ourselves welcoming, with concrete gestures, to those both near and far.Whether we make others feel a part of the community or keep them at adistance.
[4] This, then, is a second call to conversion: a summons to synodality.
Third, let us journey together in hope, for we have been given a promise. May the hope that does not disappoint (cf.Rom5:5), the central message of theJubilee,
[5] be the focus of our Lenten journey towards the victory of Easter. As Pope Benedict XVI taught us in the Encyclical Spe Salvi
, “the human being needsunconditional love. He needs the certainty which makes him say: ‘neither death,nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, norpowers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able toseparate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Rom 8:38-39)”.
[6] Christ, my hope, has risen! [7]
He lives and reigns in glory. Death has beentransformed into triumph, and the faith and great hope of Christians rests in this:the resurrection of Christ!
This, then, is the third call to conversion: a call to hope, to trust in God and hisgreat promise of eternal life. Let us ask ourselves: Am I convinced that the Lordforgives my sins? Or do I act as if I can save myself? Do I long for salvation andcall upon God’s help to attain it? Do I concretely experience the hope thatenables me to interpret the events of history and inspires in me a commitment tojustice and fraternity, to care for our common home and in such a way that no one feels excluded?
Sisters and brothers, thanks to God’s love in Jesus Christ, we are sustained in thehope that does not disappoint (cf.Rom5:5). Hope is the “sure and steadfast anchor of the soul”. [8]It moves the Church to pray for “everyone to be saved” (1 Tim2:4) and to look forward to her being united with Christ, her bridegroom,in the glory of heaven. This was the prayer of Saint Teresa of Avila: “Hope, O mysoul, hope. You know neither the day nor the hour. Watch carefully, foreverything passes quickly, even though your impatience makes doubtful what iscertain, and turns a very short time into a long one” (The Exclamations of theSoul to God, 15:3).
[9]
May the Virgin Mary, Mother of Hope, intercede for us and accompany us on ourLenten journey.
Rome, Saint John Lateran, 6 February 2025
Memorial of St Paul Miki and Companions, martyrs.
FRANCIS
__________________________
[1]
Cf. Encyclical Letter
Dilexit Nos
(24 October 2024), 220
.
[2]
Cf.
Homily for the Mass and Canonization of Giovanni Battista Scalabrini andArtemide Zatti
, 9 October 2022.
[3]
Ibid.
[4]
Ibid
.
[5]
Cf. Bull
Spes Non Confundit
,
1.
07/03/2025, 13:25 Lent 2025: Let us journey together in hope | Francis
https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/lent/documents/20250206-messaggio-quaresima2025.html 3/4
[6]
Encyclical Letter
Spe Salvi
(30 November 2007), 26.
[7]
Cf. Easter Sequence.
[8]
Cf.
Catechism of the Catholic Church
,
1820.
[9]
Ibid
, 1821.
Copyright © Dicastero per la Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
07/03/2025, 13:25 Lent 2025: Let us journey together in hope | Francis
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