Filter Content
- Principal Report
- Religious Education
- Feast of Our Lady Help of Christians Prayer Service
- National Reconciliation Week
- Teacher's Gift Made by Liam
- National Simultaneous Storytime
- National Sorry Day - Tuesday 26 May
- Week 5 House Spirit Bin Ball Challenge
- Week 4 House Spirit Poster Challenge
- Common Prayer for the 5th Anniversary of Laudato Si'
- Library is the place to be at Lunchtime!
- Healthy Lunchbox - Nutrition Snippet
- Uniform Shop
- The Nextwave Youth Film Competition
Dear Parents, Teachers and Students,
National Simultaneous Storytime
Today Mt Carmel joined children across Australia in the National Simultaneous Storytime, listening to the book Whitney and Britney Chicken Divas by Lucinda Gifford.
If you would like to share an entertaining telling of this story at home, you can find Denise Scott reading the book on ABC iView.
Reconciliation Week
National Reconciliation Week commences today and runs until next Wednesday 3 June. Reconciliation Week is an important time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures and achievements, and to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving Reconciliation in Australia. At Mt Carmel, we recognise the Ngunnawal people as the original custodians of the land on which our school now stands, and we celebrate our shared history: for many years, following their mass expulsion from the public school in 1883, St Augustine’s Boys' School was the sole provider of formal education to Aboriginal children in Yass. We will be marking Reconciliation Week with a simultaneous classroom Prayer on Monday 1 June.
House Spirit
It has been wonderful to see so many joining in with our House Spirit initiatives recently. McAuley were awarded the Mt Carmel Cup this week for their combined efforts in the poster competition and the inter-house Bin Ball tournament to decide next week’s winners is well underway - thanks, Mrs Glover. And in keeping with our ongoing focus on House Spirit, over the coming weeks I will include some information about the origins of our House names, beginning in Reconciliation Week with Mullungang. The current names for the Mt Carmel House groups were adopted in 2006; prior to that they were simply named for their colours: Blue, Green, Red and Gold.
Mullungang is the Ngunnawal word for Platypus, which were once found in abundance along the Yass River. According to the Ngunnawal people the platypus is the wisest of all animals, symbolising unity and tolerance. In a particular Dreaming story, the Platypus is asked to join the individual tribes of the birds, fish and animals, for they each believe they are the best of all the creatures. Platypus thinks about it and decides to join them all, because no one is any better than anyone else. The Mullungang House Colour, Red, reminds us of our intrinsic link to our land and the deep respect we have for the original inhabitants of our region. Red is the colour of our earth and is also has prominence on the Aboriginal flag.
May God’s peace be in your families,
GOSPEL: John 17:1-11
After saying this, Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said: Father, the hour has come: glorify your Son so that your Son may glorify you; so that, just as you have given him power over all humanity, he may give eternal life to all those you have entrusted to him. And eternal life is this: to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I have glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. Now, Father, glorify me with that glory I had with you before ever the world existed. I have revealed your name to those whom you took from the world to give me. They were yours and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now at last they have recognised that all you have given me comes from you for I have given them the teaching you gave to me, and they have indeed accepted it and know for certain that I came from you, and have believed that it was you who sent me. It is for them that I pray. I am not praying for the world but for those you have given me, because they belong to you. All I have is yours and all you have is mine, and in them I am glorified. I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep those you have given me true to your name, so that they may be one like us.
REFLECTION
“I have revealed your name to those whom you took from the world to give me.” What powerful words and what a wondrous gift Jesus gave to his disciples! Take a moment and think back to your childhood. Who was it that introduced you to God and to Jesus? Was it your parents or was it the priests, sisters, or teachers in your parish or at your school? Was God manifested to you in the beauty of nature? Perhaps it was all of the above!
The question for us this week is: How are we making Jesus’ name known to the people in our lives? Think about that for a moment. How do you strive to share Jesus’ love, compassion and generosity to the people in your life? It may be through the simple and repetitive acts of the daily or it might be through reaching out to someone who is struggling. When we strive to share Jesus’ love and care with others, we are making Jesus known to them.
Who is who makes Jesus known to you? How do they do that? Is it by their care and appreciation of who you are? Did they do something to make your day brighter? This week I invite you to be mindful of the small yet wondrous gifts of care and love the people in your life share with you. Give thanks for their goodness and love! And give thanks for the goodness and love of Jesus! (Sr Kristine Anne Harpenau)
MASS SERVICES
Whilst we are still unable to physically attend mass, I would like to remind everyone that the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn will continue to broadcast mass each day so that we can listen in and participate in the celebration.
Resource URL: https://www.catholicvoice.org.au/mass-online/
St Augustine's Parish is also delivering a Liturgy of the Word each Sunday. To participate in this, could you please forward your email to the Parish Office: yass@cg.org.au and they will email you a link to join the service.
PENTECOST
Happy birthday to the Catholic Church! Happy birthday to you, who are the body of the Church!
We're all familiar with our own birthdays, and we celebrate them because they mark the day of the year in which we entered into this life. But did you know you have a second birthday?
Because you are part of the body of the Church, Pentecost is the Church's birthday, and yours as well. And like any birthday, it's a cause for celebration.
The word Pentecost is Greek and it means "50th day." Fifty days after Easter Sunday, we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and their followers, and the beginning of their Earthly ministry to make disciples of all nations.
Pentecost is also a Jewish holiday, which the Jews use to celebrate the end of Passover. Jews celebrate the gift of the law to Moses at Mt. Sinai on this day. But we, as Catholics celebrate the birth of our Church.
At Pentecost, the Apostles and their followers were gathered in a room. Jews from all over the world were gathered with Peter, the leader of the Apostles and the Eleven. At this time, a great wind blew and a flame appeared as a tongue of fire, which split itself into many individual flames above the heads of all those present. The Holy Spirit came upon these people and each began to speak in tongues. Despite the fact many had no common language, they were perfectly able to understand one another.
Others who were not so blessed, accused those speaking in tongues of being drunk, but Peter arose and addressed the crowd, explaining that it was only 9 o'clock, and that this phenomenon was not intoxication, but rather this was the work of the Holy Spirit, prophesied in the scripture.
Peter then called all those present to be baptised and about three thousand people were baptised that day.
These people were among the first Catholics, and Peter is the first pope of the Catholic Church.
The symbols of Pentecost are the flame, wind, and the dove, which represents the Holy Spirit. The color of Pentecost is red and the priest wears red vestments on this day. Parishioners are also invited to wear red on this day. Red decorations as well as celebrations are appropriate, similar to any other birthday. Special prayers are often said just for Pentecost. (https://www.catholic.org/lent/pentecost.php)
If you have the opportunity, it would be wonderful if you could join one of the online services listed above to celebrate this special feast day with our community.
God Bless,
Warren Ziebowski
Religious Education Coordinator
Feast of Our Lady Help of Christians Prayer Service
On Monday, we celebrated the Feast of Our Lady Help of Christians.
5/6TD kindly prepared a prayer service for all classes to participate in and can be accesses by clinking the link below.
Today we begin the celebrations for National Reconciliation Week. Reconciliation is a journey for all Australians - as individuals, families, communities, organisations and importantly as a nation. At the heart of this journey are relationships between the broader Australian community and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
We will be marking Reconciliation Week with a simultaneous classroom Prayer on Monday 1 June.
Ms Grace and Mr Ziebowski were delighted to receive this beautifully crafted table made for them by one of their talented students, Liam Beeten, during remote learning. We are so proud of you Liam!
National Simultaneous Storytime
National Sorry Day - Tuesday 26 May
Week 4 House Spirit Poster Challenge
This is a small snippet of some of the wonderful posters made last week for the House Spirit Poster Challenge.
Well done to all the students who made a poster and congratulations to McAuley for winning the Week 4 Challenge.
The Mt Carmel School Uniform Shop is open each Tuesday afternoon between 2.30pm– 4.00pm during school terms.
Ordering Options - Uniform orders can be placed online via Qkr! or by order form, which can be collected and paid for from the front office.
All Qkr! orders placed before 2pm each Tuesday will be bundled up and sent home with your child on Wednesday afternoon.
Please note that if the incorrect size/item is ordered or the size selected does not fit correctly, please return the item along with a note regarding changes required and the correct size/item can be sent home.
The Nextwave Youth Film Competition
The search is now on for the next wave of young regional filmmakers, with short film entries open from May 1st – September 21st.
Nextwave, presented by the Screenwave International Film Festival (SWIFF), now in its sixth year is host to Australia’s largest regional youth short film competition and is free to enter for young people aged between 10 - 25 years, living outside a metro area.
Short films can range from a variety of genres, including comedies, dramas, thrillers, sci-fi, animation, documentary and personal essays. All that is needed to enter is to make a short film under five minutes (including all credits) and to creatively include the phrase, ‘What’s Next?”
Along with an array of awards and prizes across a variety of age categories, short film finalists will have their films premiere at the 2021 Screenwave International Film Festival (SWIFF) in Coffs Harbour in January. Lucky creatives will also have the opportunity for their films to screen at venues across Australia for Youth Week in April 2021.
The SWIFF team are also working on broadening access to their Nextwave filmmaking workshop program by offering a series of online workshops for teachers and students across Australia. Nextwave’s redesigned workshop program is launching as an online learning experience to be delivered to regional, rural, and remote students across Australia, with the learning program supported by teachers and home-schooling parents available from June.
For more information, visit www.nextwavefilmfest.com.au.