In Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus says, ‘I want you to love each other in the same way as I have loved you.  I have chosen you to be my friends and am sending you out to share this love with the rest of the world.’  We are called to proclaim our love for God and for each other, but how do we put that into action?  We can make everything we do a little act of love for God.   If we love God, we love one another!  Our students this week will be encouraged to put this into action by becoming aware of where help is needed, helping others and appreciating the help of others.  

This week at Holy Spirit, we value gratitude.  Gratitude is one of many positive emotions. It's about focusing on what's good in our lives and being thankful for the things we have.  There are many ways that we can show gratitude to those around us.  It could be in the simplest form of smiling at someone to show gratitude in something they have said or done.  This week we pray that our students think of a way to show gratitude to those around them to show they appreciate the nice things that are done for them.  With the fete nearly here, there are many people in our school community who are working to ensure it is a success and we thank everyone for their ongoing support of our school.  

This year, Catholic Education is celebrating 200 years in Australia, marking the bicentenary of the first Catholic school established in Parramatta in October 1820.  Over 200 years, Catholic schools have grown to become the largest provider of schooling in Australia (outside government) with one in five school age students attending a Catholic school.  This represents 777,000 students in 1,755 schools across the country and employing over 100,000 teachers and staff.  Nearly 40 per cent of Catholic schools are located outside of metropolitan cities in regional, rural and remote communities.  The formal celebrations were due to be held from October 2020 to October 2021.  However, due to pandemic restrictions, the celebrations are now being held during the 2021 school year.  A National Mass is being celebrated in states and dioceses on the Feast of Our Lady Help of Christians on 24 May 2021.  

God bless.

Caroline Fuller