Today, Year 5 was lucky enough to have a talk with Fr. Slawek and Mrs Murray about the Christmas stories and scriptures.

We saw pictures of Mrs Murray’s trip to the Holy Land. We looked deeper into the pictures to find a better understanding of the Christmas story and how it is a big part of our Liturgical Season. We saw buildings that were built on the site of the historical events that took place more than 2,000 years ago. The places looked very different to what we had in our minds, especially the river Jordan. The pictures inspired us with different ideas, with the landscape and their meanings. We saw how the historical life in Holy Land was 2,000 years ago, and how their life was compared to our modern lives now. The houses were made of stone and clay with holes in the thick walls for windows (some houses were even built into the rocky mountains). We were surprised to see how they made everything by hand. We learnt about the Jerusalem Cross and how the four small crosses represent Matthew, Luke, Mark, John and the big cross represents us and our lives.

After our Principal Mrs Murray, visited us, Fr. Slawek came to chat with Year 5 about the scriptures we may use for our Christmas art. We discussed the visit of the Three Magi. It taught us how there is always someone there for us no matter what, like the star was there for the Three Magi. Something we found very fascinating was that the Christmas tree has a true meaning… All of the ornaments represent each and every quality we have. It also represents the first sin that was caused by Adam and Eve and how they had a lack of trust for God.This was because of the serpent and its cunningness, about how it convinced them to eat the forbidden fruit from the apple tree. Because of that Jesus had to die on the cross for all of our sins. We learnt a lot and  we are very grateful for our chat with Fr. Slawek and Mrs Murray.

By Leila and Monica (Year 5)