Religious Education News
The Month of September
Whilst perusing the Internet this week, I came across the National Calendar of Events in Australia which highlights the multitude of special causes in our communities. This week I have included some in the REC News.
It is so important to take time to look after each other and our family members.
Please click on the link below to follow the Calendar for further information.
https://www.ourcommunity.com.au/calendar/calendar_main.jsp#10Sep2020
Dementia Awareness Month
Dementia Awareness Month is the national flagship month for Alzheimer's Australia's community awareness activities. There will be events and activities held around the country to broaden understanding of dementia-friendly communities during Dementia Awareness Month.
Website: www.fightdementia.org.au
Social September
Social September encourages us all to press pause in September - disconnect from our digital lives and reconnect with each other, and ourselves. The aim is to create spaces for face-to-face social connection, promoting positive mental health and wellbeing.
Foster Care Month
The primary aim of Foster Care Month is to raise the profile of fostering in the wider community by promoting the great work done by existing substitute care services in both the Government and non-Government sectors. The month also creates an opportunity to focus on the secondary aim of increasing recruitment by highlighting the ongoing need for appropriate foster care families.
Prayer for Gratitude
Lord, help us to be thankful for one another.
Help our children to be thankful for each other,
for our families to be grateful
for our communities to be thankful for the many wonderful opportunities which sometimes can be taken for granted.
Our gratitude for one another will bind us together as a family,
and our prayers for each other will further unify us in gratitude and love.
Amen
Readings this Weekend - Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time A
GOSPEL: Matthew 18:21-35
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2018%3A21-35&version=NIV
Parable of the official who, receiving mercy, does not show it to others.
Living the Gospel
In today's Gospel, Jesus tells us we should forgive each other seventy-seven times. To forgive someone seven times is a pretty big call. But the number seven has great significance in scripture; it is regarded as a number of perfection. Peter is suggesting that there is an ideal number of times that one should forgive. Jesus accentuates this by saying, take that perfect number of seven times and multiply it by seventy. There is no perfect number of times to forgive. It’s easy to be forgiving in the big picture. It’s quite another to forgive those closest to us. Sometimes the hardest place to be compassionate and just is our own home. If we are not speaking to a husband, wife, child, parent, sibling or friend then today’s Gospel has a strong challenge right where we live.
Jesus doesn’t tell us that forgiveness is easy, just necessary. To forgive someone in our family, our workplace, our circle of friends or in our Church is not to pretend that a sinful situation did not occur, but to face it head on and seek justice with compassion.
(Excerpts taken from Richard Leonard, Diane Bergant and Greg Sunter Reflections).
Thought of the Week
Wishing everybody a wonderful weekend.
God bless,
Donna Wade