Holy Week: Last term ended with students, staff and whanau reflecting on the last days of Jesus life and we started back this term with the joy and love of the Resurrection.
Holy Week liturgies started with a reenactment of Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey. Students dressed in ‘Jesus’ clothes and then processed from the liturgy to the field for a donkey procession. On Monday our liturgy focused on Washing of the feet and the Last Supper. Tuesday we reenacted the scenes at the Garden of Gethsemane. To follow on Wednesday we had a very reflective Good Friday liturgy. On a very wet Thursday we prayed the stations of the cross. It was a very moving week as we journeyed with Jesus during his final hours. Upon our return to school we were able to have a very joyful Resurrection liturgy.
We are now in the season of Easter, students are being encouraged to become Easter people in three ways.
Live with Joy
Joy is a deep-down gladness that cannot be taken away, even in the midst of sorrow. The suffering of Jesus was transformed through faith in the Risen Christ. With this faith, we are able to hold on to an enduring sense of joy even in the midst of the sadness we experience from the loss of a loved one, a failure to achieve an important goal, or a setback during recovery from an illness. We need to live each day joyfully.
Live without Fear
The Resurrection teaches us that God can overcome anything, even death. When the Risen Christ appears to the women at the tomb and later to his disciples, his first words are “Do not be afraid!” (Mt 28:5,10) These words speak to our hearts, helping us cope with the fear from the loss of a job, a serious illness, or a crumbling relationship. Our faith allows us to trust that God can overcome our most serious problems.
Live with New Eyes
Easter means to live with a sense of newness. Just as the return of spring lifts our spirits and makes us feel like the whole world is new, the Resurrection of Jesus makes “all things new.” (Rev. 21:5) The Easter spirit is a spirit of renewal that enables us to show up at work with a positive attitude, to renew relationships that have been taken for granted, and to express appreciation and affection to those closest to us. It means to see the world through new eyes—God´s eyes.
We can use these 50 days to cultivate an Easter spirit that enables us to be truly Christian: embracing joy, living without fear, and seeing the world again—as if for the first time.
This term teaching will focus on the God strand. Leading students to know God better and further developing their relationship with God. A major focus is on God in our lives today, what can we learn from Scripture to bring us closer to God in today’s world. Ask your child to share with you what they are learning at school. Help them build their links between school and home and family life; What is your family’s relationship with God? How can that be developed?
Farewell Father Santey
Last week we thanked and farewelled Father Santey. We wish him all the best at the Tyburn Monastery which I am sure he will really appreciate the spirituality and beauty the Tyburn Monastery offers. We look forward to welcoming Fr Danny and getting to know him.
Mothers Day
We wish all the Mothers/ Grandmothers/ Aunties and those who are spiritual mothers a very blessed Mothers Day.
May Mary shine her love on you all.
Thank you, Lord, that you fill a mother’s heart with love,
That you have instilled in her very being the need to protect her children if at all possible,
Thank you for giving her the gift of nurturing her children, of teaching them, of comforting them,
or feeding them and making a safe place for them.
For guiding them to be all that God has created them to be.
We pray for those women who are not mothers
But still love and shape us with their motherly care and compassion.
Fill every mother with love, wisdom and endurance,
with strength and patience and joy.
Give them ability to forgive again and again.
Enable her to rely on You and call upon You, because You will give her all she needs.
In Your precious and all powerful name, Amen
Teresa Rush
Director of Religious Studies
