Religious Education
Mission Month
Last Friday, 16 October, St Columbkille’s celebrated a zoom liturgy to recognise October as Mission Month. Thanks to our Year 6 Faith Team for being a part of this celebration. In 2020 Pope Francis has asked us to focus on the country of Cambodia. All our prayers and monetary donations will help the Church provide shelter, food, education, and life fulfilling opportunities for children in need, especially those with disabilities. Our Year 5 Mini Vinnies group is in the process of organising a small event to help our school raise funds. Stay tuned for this announcement.
The Catholic Mission Church Appeal was held last weekend with many families already donating to the work of the Church in Cambodia. These donations will reach out to those who have been affected by disability and give them hope and support to live their lives. For more information head to https://www.catholicmission.org.au
October Month of the Rosary
In the Catholic Church, the rosary is one of the most cherished prayers. For Catholics, it is a powerful prayer of intercession to the Blessed Mother. Praying the rosary is promoted as a means of strengthening one’s faith, resisting evil, growing spiritually, and generally benefiting society.
If the rosary is not a part of your regular prayer life right now, here are five key things you need to know to get started.
- We don’t have to pray the rosary all at once. We can choose to divide it up, saying just a decade or two at a time at different points throughout the day; on the way to work, in between meetings, while folding laundry or doing dishes.
- We can pray it anywhere! The rosary is like a portable chapel we can keep in our pocket and pull out anytime, anyplace. Whether we have a sudden, urgent situation to present to God in prayer or we just want to fill some of our day with thoughts of God, all we need to do is pull out our beads and turn to the Lord in this prayer.
- We can pray the rosary in different ways, customising it to fit the needs of the moment. We might focus on the words of the prayers, at other times, we might reflect on the mysteries of Christ’s life, his transfiguration, or his death on the cross, etching the Gospel on our hearts.
- It’s easy to fit the rosary into your schedule. If an urgent need comes up in the day – I can say a quick decade right on the spot. In just two and a half minutes, I can offer a special gift to God – one decade of the rosary – for that particular intention.
- Even if I’m not able to give the rosary my full attention, it’s still worth praying. I might not always be able to completely unplug mentally from the concerns of the day.. But offering God a decade or two in the midst of my daily life gives him something beautiful, even if I give it without my full, undivided attention. I’m giving God some space in my day and filling it with words of praise for him.
Sacramental Updates
Confirmation booklets were due back to school today. Please make sure they are handed in asap. First Communion online classes have commenced. The correct code to log on is rnzolxl, sorry for the confusion. As we draw closer to the celebration of these sacraments we continue to keep these children in our prayers. A reminder the dates are:
First Holy Communion: Saturday 21 November @ 3pm & Saturday 28 November @ 3pm
Confirmation: Thursday 5 and Friday 6 November @ 7pm (Liturgy)
N.B. All Sacraments will be celebrated in the St Columbkille’s Monsignor Downey Hall.
Solemnity of All Saints
The Feast of All Saints is a rich and beautiful tradition within the Church which occurs annually on the 1 November. It honours those who have died, it reminds us that we are part of a wider communion of holy people, and it affirms our faith in God’s loving fidelity to life. The Gospel reading for today is Jesus’ teaching of the Beatitudes. His teachings are all in some way directed toward the establishment of the reign of God. It is clear that each beatitude invites us to turn the standards of our world and our way of life upside down and inside out.
Solemnity of All Souls
The Feast of All Souls is celebrated the following day on the 2 November. This day is not a feast of sadness, but one of great hope and confidence. It invites us to entrust our dead to God, because we know that they are really God’s dead. We know that if we have loved them, God has loved them more. They are in God’s care, and like a good shepherd God will lead them to peace. (Dianne Bergant CSA). May we continue to pray each day, but especially today, for all those departed souls we have known and loved over the years, that they might pray for us that we never forget God’s saving love and live lives worthy of it.
CatholicCare
CatholicCare is currently seeking male volunteers to join Community Visitors. A Community Visitor provides friendly companionship to an isolated older person through regular visits or phone calls to their home. Activities might include chatting about common interests, playing cards/chess/games or watching movies or sport together. All training and support is provided. If this interests you please contact Rebecca Miller: 0448930287
Ripples Episode
This week's Episode features Paige Bullen who currently works for Grief Care and prior to this was a Visual Arts Teacher. She is passionate about Visual Arts as a way of embodying and expressing difficult to describe experiences. The Episode is entitled "The Spirit takes Shape: When Art Embodies, Restores and Transforms".
The links to this week's Podcast are provided below.
PODCAST LINKS:
LINK TO PODBEAN: https://ripples.dow.catholic.edu.au
APPLE PODCAST LINK: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ripples/id1511337808
LINK via CEDoW Learning Continuity Site:
PARENTS: https://sites.google.com/dow.catholic.edu.au/clem-spiritual-formation/spiritual-formation/parents