Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Last Sunday, we celebrated the final week in the Church’s liturgical year with the celebration of  the Feast of Christ the King. This feast day became part of the Church’s liturgical calendar in 1925. Pope Pius XI added this feast to send a strong message. Pope Pius lived in a time where the attitudes of communism, secularism and later totalitarianism sought to make man, not God, the most powerful force in the world. A century later, those ‘-isms’ have been replaced by others such as materialism, consumerism or secularism. They too continue to demote God. The Feast of Christ the King stands in defiance of these aspects of our culture.  And it also stands before us as a challenge.

It asks us: “WHO – or WHAT — really rules our lives?” 

As we prepare to enter the season of Advent we could spend a great deal of time pondering and praying about these questions. And maybe it is timely that we should? The Feast of Christ the King reminds us not only to consider what we understand about Christ as King but also what is our understanding of Christ’s kingdom. What is the kingdom we refer to when we pray  “thy kingdom come?”

This kingdom doesn’t have a castle or a court. It isn’t a place of royal fanfare. It isn’t even found on a map. It is a kingdom that dwells within the human heart. And it’s great defining landmark is the cross.

Christ is the conduit that links our humanity to the divinity of God.

We in turn pray for a kingdom of sacrificial love — a place where the greatest honor isn’t in how much you have or how much you control, but in how much you give up. The kingdom is one where true power lies in being powerless.

The title “Christ the King” has outlasted most of the world’s monarchies. Kings, of course, have fallen out of fashion — there are only about 26 real monarchs now ruling in the world. Most of them are just figureheads. But the one we honour through the Feast of ‘Christ the King’ isn’t.

This is the same King we prepare to welcome in a few weeks on Christmas Day. During the next few weeks as we begin our search for the perfect gifts to give our children, the Feast of Christ the King reminds us that one of the greatest of all gifts we can pass on is the foundation of a lived faith. 

Enjoy a week bringing to life our school motto Christ Our Way and Life.

Tina Murray

Principal

CHRISTMAS CARDS - As we prepare to enter the season of Advent, we ask that our students refrain from exchanging Christmas Cards until their class / grade end of year celebration. Classes will be scheduling celebrations before the end of the year that will provide an opportunity for students to personally and meaningfully exchange the cards they have made during our Feast Day celebrations. This initiative has been inspired by the Year 6 students who are involved in planning the activities for this special school celebration. Our students are encouraged to consider making cards rather than exchanging cards that are store bought. The purpose of this request is to respond to Pope Francis’ call to care for our common home by resisting the urge to purchase excessively and to minimise our environmental footprint. We thank you, in advance, for your support of this arrangement and hope that you will reinforce with your children the importance of being a responsible consumer of the earth’s limited resources.

COOLING THE SCHOOLS - Mary Immaculate has been selected as a Champion School to kick off Greening Australia’s ‘Cooling the Schools’ program.  With a heat score ranking in the top 100 schools in Greater Sydney, Mary Immaculate is looking forward to creating greener, cooler places where both children and nature can thrive. 

Greening Australia will be visiting students in Years 4 and 5 to talk about how building and clearing has led to the heating of schools and communities.  Most importantly we will be empowering the children to work together to take action, combat the increasing heat and create ‘cool’ spaces. 

The students will plant 200 native trees, shrubs and understory plants and learn how to care for them. The students will also plant in the Aboriginal Garden and learn how our nation’s first peoples used some of these plants as food, medicine and tools.

Greening Australia’s Cooling the Schools program is supported by the NSW Government to plant thousands of new trees across Greater Sydney schools and parklands. The trees form part of the Premier’s Priority Greening Our City initiative to plant one million trees in the local area by 2022.

We are very grateful for Mrs Alfords’ leadership of this initiative within our school.

Photo by Sebastian Pfautsch, Senior Lecturer Urban Studies, WSU.

This photo was taken at a typical school in Western Sydney last summer with a thermal imaging camera.

ARRIVAL / DEPARTURE FROM SCHOOL - Please ensure your morning/afternoon routine takes into account the busyness and possible congestion at peak times. Please ensure you attend to signage regarding Bus, No Stopping, Kiss and Drop and Parking zones around the school site and model safe behaviour for your children by always crossing the road at the designated monitored crossing. Last week a student attending another school missed their bus because a Mary Immaculate parent had parked in a bus zone.  Please ensure that in trying to drop off or pick up your own child / ren that you remain conscious not to disadvantage someone else.

It is important to be aware that police regularly make random checks of these areas and will impose fines and demerit points for non-compliance.

 

Tina Murray

Principal