22 Term 4 Week 7

Sunday 27^th November marked the First Sunday of Advent, which is a time of preparation for the coming of Christ and the beginning of the liturgical year in the Catholic Church. We are gathering each Monday for an Advent liturgy, as we prepare our hearts and minds for Jesus’ birth. Families are welcome to join us in the Church from 8.50am. 

2023 TRANSITION PROGRAM

Last Thursday was the last of our Stella Stars Transition program for those students who will begin with us next year. These transition sessions have been hugely successful and have provided students and parents with a great lead in to beginning school with us next year. I would like to thank Michelle Thomson, Jane Button, Hannah Keain, Kara Wodson and our great teams of ESO’s for their organisation and support of these students and ensuring that the transitions were the success they have been.

SWIMMING WEEK

This week, all students from Reception to year 6 have been participating in the school aquatics program at SA Aquatic & Leisure Centre (Marion). This program is aimed at developing students’ physical skills, knowledge and understanding of a range of aquatic situations while participating in essential water safety and survival skills education. Thank you to those parents who have volunteered to assist our classes this week.

COMMUNITY CAROLS NIGHT

We are excited to host our Community Carols celebration next week. Please see below for general information:

WHERE: Our Carols will take place this year in Ramsay Avenue Reserve, opposite our school.

TIME: Families are invited to attend from 5:00pm onwards. During this time, some of our Year 6 student leaders will be running a number of fun games and stalls (at a small cost - cash only - between 50c and $2 per game) to engage in. 

FOOD: There will be food available for purchase from food trucks and families are welcome to BYO.

CAROLS:  We ask that all students are present from 6:00pm, when they will meet their class teacher, ready for a 6:15pm start.

COMMUNICATION

Please be aware that James has emailed some important information over the last couple of days, including information related to:

• Community Carols next Thursday
• 2023 School Fees and Finance Information

Further information re: 2023 staffing and class structures and a building update will be emailed early next week.

Please ensure that you are up to date with this correspondence and if you have not received it, or need to change your email details, please contact the front office.

END OF YEAR REPORTS

We are in the final stages of finalising students’ end of year reports and these will be sent home with your child on Tuesday, 13th December. We encourage you to read these alongside the curriculum letters, which outline the content areas covered within each subject area. On Tuesday 13th December, students will also take part in a Transition morning, whereby they will spend some time in their 2023 classes.

THANK YOU

I would like to thank the Stella Maris school community for your support and best wishes on my recent appointment as Deputy Principal from 2023. I really look forward to beginning this role next year and continuing to be a part of this wonderful school community.

As always, thank you for your ongoing support and please don’t hesitate to contact me if there is anything you would like to discuss.

Kind Regards

Ella Kirkham

Assistant Principal

VINNIES CHRISTMAS APPEAL TOY DRIVE:                                              

This Christmas Stella Maris is again supporting the ‘Vinnies Christmas Drive’.

Our Year 6 ‘Social Justice Group’ are helping to coordinate this important outreach work.

Next week will be the last week that items can be sent to school in order for them to be sorted ready for delivery before Christmas.

Below are examples of items which can be donated. Gifts can be placed in baskets in your child’s classroom up until 9am Thursday 8 December. Please do not wrap any of the items as this will be done by Vinnies as it allows them to allocate gifts appropriately

Toy Suggestions:

• Building blocks, hand-eye co-ordination toys or crawl and play mats
• Musical toys
• Beach or surf gear
• Puzzles and games
• Gift voucher for a retail outlet
• Microscope or science kit
• Teething toys, bath toys or rattles
• Action figures, dolls or dress-ups
• Toy cars (Hot Wheels or similar) or remote control cars/bikes/trucks with batteries
• Backpacks, handbags or accessories
• Arts and crafts supplies or stationery
• Sporting equipment
• Perfume, aftershave or other toiletries
• Movie tickets
• Story books, novels or diaries

******** All items must be in by 9am Thursday 8 December.

ADVENT LITURGIES MONDAY MORNINGS UNTIL THE END OF TERM, 8.50AM HOLY SPIRIT CHURCH - ALL INVITED TO JOIN US!

We are holding Whole School Liturgies for the liturgical season of ‘Advent’. These liturgies invite us all to reflect on our personal preparation for the coming of Christ at Christmas.

We invite all families to join us each Monday at 8.50am in Holy Spirit Church, until the end of term.

END OF YEAR WHOLE SCHOOL MASS 9.15AM, WEDNESDAY, 7 DECEMBER

A warm invitation is extended to all parents and family member to join us for our End of Year Whole School Celebration Mass this coming Wednesday, 7 December at 9.15am in Holy Spirit Church.

At this Mass we will celebrate the many achievements of our year and reflect on our school theme for 2022, ‘With our own Two Hands’.

POPE FRANCIS’  HOMILY MESSAGE SPEAKS TO US ALL THIS ADVENT SEASON

I share with you today a Homily that Pope Francis gave back at the start of the Advent Season in 2020 as I believe this message still speaks well to all in 2022

In his homily, the pope reminded people that Advent is a time to reflect on God’s closeness to humanity, illustrated through his incarnation, and to remember humanity’s need of him.

“Advent reminds us that Jesus came among us and will come again at the end of time. Yet we can ask what those two comings mean, if he does not also come into our lives today? So let us invite him,” Francis said, urging faithful to make their own the traditional Advent prayer taken from the Book of Revelation, “Come, Lord Jesus.”

Pope Francis also stressed the need to be “watchful,” insisting that “one great mistake in life is to get absorbed in a thousand things and not to notice God.”

“Drawn by our own interests, and distracted by so many vain things, we risk losing sight of what is essential,” he said, adding that Advent is also a time “to live in hope.”

“Just as before our birth, our loved ones expectantly awaited our coming into the world, so now Love in person awaits us. If we are awaited in Heaven, why should we be caught up with earthly concerns? Why should we be anxious about money, fame, success, all of which will fade away? Why should we waste time complaining about the night, when the light of day awaits us?” he said.

Noting that Jesus’s disciples also fell asleep when he asked them to stay awake and keep watch before his arrest, the pope warned, “that same drowsiness can overtake us.”

This drowsiness, he said, often manifests itself in mediocrity and indifference.

Mediocrity, he said, “comes when we forget our first love and grow satisfied with indifference, concerned only for an untroubled existence. Without making an effort to love God daily and awaiting the newness he constantly brings, we become mediocre, lukewarm, worldly.”

As time goes on, “this slowly eats away at our faith, for faith is the very opposite of mediocrity: it is ardent desire for God, a bold effort to change, the courage to love, constant progress,” he said, insisting that faith “is not a tranquilizer for people under stress, it is a love story for people in love! That is why Jesus above all else detests lukewarmness.”

Speaking of indifference, Francis said those who succumb to this attitude “see everything the same, as if it were night; they are unconcerned about those all around them. When everything revolves around us and our needs, and we are indifferent to the needs of others, night descends in our hearts.”

An indifferent person, he said, immediately begins “to complain about everything and everyone; we start to feel victimized by everyone and end up brooding about everything. Nowadays, that night seems to have fallen on people who only demand things for themselves, heedless of the needs of others.”

Pope Francis suggested prayer and acts of charity as remedies for these two spiritual ailments, insisting that consistency in prayer “rouses us from the tepidity of a purely horizontal existence and makes us lift our gaze to higher things; it makes us attuned to the Lord.”

“Prayer allows God to be close to us; it frees us from our solitude and gives us hope,” he said, adding, “just as we cannot live without breathing, so we cannot be Christians without praying.”

Similarly, he called charity the “beating heart of the Christian,” saying, “just as one cannot live without a heartbeat, so one cannot be a Christian without charity.”

“Some people seem to think that being compassionate, helping and serving others is for losers,” the pope said. “Yet these are the only things that win us the victory, since they are already aiming towards the future, the day of the Lord, when all else will pass away and love alone will remain.”

“It is by works of mercy that we draw close to the Lord,” he said, adding, “Jesus is coming, and the road to meet him is clearly marked: it passes through works of charity.”

Pope Francis

29 November, 2020

CHRISTMAS MASS TIMES ST ANN'S PARISH

Saturday 24 December, Christmas Eve:

Holy Spirit 6pm

St Bernadette's 9pm

Sunday 25 December, Christmas Day:

Holy Spirit 9.15am

There will be NO Christmas Day Mass at St Bernadette's

SOUTHERN CROSS

The current edition of the Catholic newspaper put out by the Archdiocese called,’ The Southern Cross,’ is available at; www.thesoutherncross.org.au

The December edition will be available online, however it will also be included in the Advertiser during one of the December editions. Keep an eye out as there may be some photos of our students taking part in the Socktober Fundraising Appeal.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK:

We make a living by what we get – we make a life by what we give.