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Dear Parents and Caregivers,
This week, many of our 2020 and 2021 Year 6 students were presented to Bishop Brian as candidates for the sacrament of Confirmation. The sacrament of Confirmation is the final step of initiation into the Catholic faith and for the candidates it is a very public reaffirmation of the promises originally made by their parents and godparents, on their behalf at Baptism. A powerful ritual in the Confirmation liturgy is the anointing by the Bishop with the oil of Chrism. Anointing with oil is an ancient symbolic ritual that continues to be used today. Kings, queens, prophets and priests were anointed to show they were chosen by God to lead with justice and integrity. The anointing of the candidate at Confirmation is a sign of confirming the gift of the Spirit, and a calling to become involved in the life and mission of the community. The words ‘Christ’ and ‘Messiah’ mean ‘anointed one’. The ritual of anointing with the perfumed oil of Chrism also symbolises being sealed, marked and identified by the Holy Spirit. We are anointed to be Christ for each other, and to be Christ in the world.
Saint Teresa of Avila captures the concept beautifully in her reflection:
"You are Christ’s hands. Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which He is to look out on the world with compassion; yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good; yours are the hands with which He is to bless people now."
As we remember our students who have now become fully initiated members of the Church, it may also be an opportune time to reflect on our own personal faith journey and our effectiveness in our role as parents, the first teachers of our child’s faith. The celebration of Confirmation within our community is an invitation to each one of us to reflect on the Baptismal promises first made on our behalf by our parents and godparents when we too, were baptised. This process invites us into a deeper way of relating to God, to Jesus and to one another, and to becoming more actively involved in the life of the community through the on-going presence of the Holy Spirit.
The further backward you will look, the further forward you will see.
If we are to provide our children with a future faith, we must create a past one on which to build.
The Sacrament of Confirmation speaks of the need to bring the blessings of the gifts of the Holy Spirit to life. Mary Immaculate is a school community not only filled with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but abundantly blessed by the generous sharing of these gifts. This can be witnessed on a daily basis. Thank you to all the staff who support the faith journey of each of our students each and every day. Our Year 6 Confirmation candidates and their parents have been assisted in their preparation for Confirmation through the commitment of the Parish Sacramental Team led by Mrs Sheldrick and Mary Immaculate staff including Miss Price, Mrs Simpson, Mrs Mortimer and Mr McInerney who gave generously of their time to facilitate workshops. On behalf of the candidates I thank each of them for their readiness to live out their faith commitment.
Our Parish and our teachers have done a tremendous job with the Confirmation candidates, but it does not stop there.
The preparation and formal occasion of the sacrament are only the beginning. Confirmation is the acceptance of Jesus’ call to us to be living evidence of Christ in our world today. This is not an easy task for an eleven or twelve year old. In fact, it is not an easy task for adults to make such a commitment to their faith. This is the very reason why we, as the adults, need to support, nurture and guide our children in understanding the commitment they have made.
As parents what can we do to continue to guide and nurture the living witness of Jesus within our children? As a start, we could commit to living with an attitude to make Christ our way and life and strive to bring our gifts of the spirit to life within our community. We could be open to recognise the times when the ‘Spirit’ invites us to reach out or respond to the needs of another. May we be challenged in the week ahead to make space for the spirit to work in and through us. In doing so, may we also confirm our place as the first teachers of faith for our children.
Mrs Tina Murray
Principal
Happy Birthday to the following children who will be celebrating their birthday this week:THE WRITER’S NOTEBOOK
Over the next few weeks, students in Years 3 to 6 will begin using a Writer’s Notebook in their classrooms. The Writer’s Notebook creates a place for students (and writers) to save their words – in the form of a memory, a reflection, a list, a rambling of thoughts or a sketch. The notebook serves as a means to encourage young writers to value writing, where ‘seeds’ for a longer writing project require revisiting and rereading to locate ‘a phrase, a paragraph, a page’ which might be expanded and developed.
The entries can be any of a variety of ideas, including memories, observations of the things happening around them, descriptions of people and places important in their lives, opinions, wonderings, wishes, family stories, hobbies and other passions. Children write best about the things that are important to them and what they are interested in. It is writing that comes from what they know and what they have experienced.
A writer’s notebook houses ideas that writers can return to in order to grow ideas, restructure, rethink, revise, connect ideas and ultimately choose from a variety of entries to publish for an audience. Notebook writing encourages a writer to take the ‘long view’. What might start off as a small undeveloped idea has the potential to be developed into something fully formed. While not all ideas will be seen through to a ‘final’ copy, a writer’s notebook is a tool students use to record the things they notice, observe, and think about.
The generation of the ideas is only the beginning. Teachers will then support the extension and elaboration of these ideas which might become a more detailed plan, a draft or a published text.
Aimee Buckner, author of Notebook Know-How: Strategies for the Writer’s Notebook (Stenhouse, 2005) once said,
“A Writer’s Notebook gives students a place to write everyday…to practice living like a writer. The purpose of a notebook is that it provides students the practice of simply writing. It’s a place for them to generate text, find ideas, and practice what they know about spelling and grammar. It’s the act of writing — the practice of generating text and building fluency — that leads writers to significance.”
MRS LILLIAN DEL GUIDICE
ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL
REGISTRATION FOR FIRST RECONCILIATION AND FIRST COMMUNION
Registration for the Sacraments of First Reconciliation and First Holy Communion in Mary Immaculate Parish Eagle Vale will open on the Parish Website at 6:00 pm on Monday 24 May and will close at 6pm on Thursday 3 June.
Children must be in Year 3 or above for Reconciliation and in Year 4 or above for First Communion.
The Parish website address is https://mipeaglevale.org/ The registration forms will be under the tab on the top right side ‘Sacraments’.
Confirmation
It was an absolute joy last night to see the candidates from our Year 6 students make their confirmation. Congratulations to you all!
Class Liturgies
Our class liturgies have recommenced in the Church on a weekly basis. The focus of the gathering with Father Slawek is based on celebrating St Joseph. 2 Green were reverent throughout the liturgy and participated actively. Thank you for inviting me along!
Mrs Kirsty Simpson
Religious Education Co-ordinator