St. Patricks Day Mini Fete

Last week our Year 6 Mini Vinnies team organised and led a fabulous fundraising fete for Project Compassion with the theme of St. Patrick.

St. Patricks Day is celebrated all around the world on March 17^th. St. Patrick was a brave man who returned to Ireland, where he had been kept slave, to help convert the people of Ireland to Christianity. According to legend, he drove away the snakes of Ireland and used the Shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity. To find out more about St. Patrick visit the Catholic Digest Website. https://www.catholicdigest.com/family/celebrate-st-patricks-day-the-catholic-way/

The fete began with team games and relays with a St. Patrick themed ‘twist’ which included the ever popular ‘Dress the Leprechaun’ race.

After the relays, our Mini Vinnies team held a mini fete with activities which included:

• Toss the coin into the Leprechaun Hat.
• Pin the tie on the Leprechaun.
• Guess the gold in the jar.
• Green goodies stall (jellies, cupcakes, rainbow treats).
• Find the Shamrock Treasure Hunt
• Closest to the Hat Coin Roll
• Find the Buried Coins – Paddle Pop Challenge.

A great day was enjoyed by all. The Mini Vinnies team set a goal to raise $100 for Project Compassion and were delighted to find that they DOUBLED their goal, raising an amazing $246.35. (That’s $80 more than last years total of $160.75).

Special thanks to our Year 6 leaders who diligently and successfully organised this day and had the initiative to create such amazing activities as well as prepare a load of tasty green goodies for the stall.

Year 6 and Trinity wish to thank everyone for supporting our school Project Compassion fund-raising for LENT.

Prayer

Lent is a time of spiritual renewal. One easy step you can take is to use the many free online resources to jump-start or reinvigorate your prayer life. A few such resources are Loyola Press’s popular 3-Minute Retreats and Seven Last Words of Christ guided meditation. If you’re seeking more traditional support for your personal reflective prayer, consider a book specially designed to nourish you during Lent, such as Praying Lent.

One of the most common traditions of Lent is to pray the Stations of the Cross. This prayer helps us reflect on the passion and death of Christ in preparation for Good Friday observance and the Easter celebration.

Being a parent, guardian, or teacher is a holy ministry and a sacred promise. Share your faith with children by letting them see and hear you pray, and by praying together. Guided Reflections for Children: Praying My Faith, Praying with Scriptures, and 52 Simple Ways to Talk with Your Kids about Faith are all practical, realistic resources to help you make the most of your prayer time with children. For more children’s prayer resources, click here.

Project Compassion

Fourth Sunday of Lent -  26th & 27th March

Joshua 5:9-12   |   1 Cor 5:17-21   |   Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

One of the most beautiful expressions in the Bible comes from the prophet Ezekiel. ‘Thus says the Lord, I will take their hearts of stone and give them hearts of flesh.’ It is a call to be tender and compassionate.

You would need a heart of stone not to be affected by the stories we encounter in these readings. Most of us have heard the story of the two sons in Luke’s Gospel over and over. The brilliance of the way Jesus tells stories is that it still gets under our skin. Here are two young men who think they can live on their own terms. One has a sense of entitlement and demands his share of his father’s estate which he then squanders. He is finally prepared to eat humble pie and find his way home. The other son has a different sense of entitlement. He believes that his hard work and reliability should provide him with a greater share of his father’s love. At different times in our life, we can relate more to one or other of these people. Jesus implies that they are both blind to the way God’s love works and that they both need to grow. They have both been dead and need to come to life.

The story we encounter this week through Caritas Australia’s Project Compassion is also deeply moving. Rosalie, aged 37, lives in one of the most damaged countries in the world, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). From the age of fifteen, she was forced to become a child soldier, exposed to violence and heartbreak. She actually says that she was forced into combat with a baby on her back. Now she has seven children and dreams of a better future for them. Thanks to your support of Project Compassion, she has been able to start a small business, save so her children might go to school and become an inspiration to others. Recovery from the trauma of war affects people around the world.

The second reading this weekend reminds us that we are ‘ambassadors for Christ.’ St Paul says, ‘for anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation.’ Let us all be part of building that new creation, setting the world to rights as best we can. God wants to reconcile the world to himself. Our part in this is to reach out in compassion and love to heal the wounds of the whole human family. The theme of Project Compassion this year asks us to think and act ‘for all future generations.’ Our hearts need to be warm and strong.

Please donate to Project Compassion 2022 and help people living with disabilities in India gain access to education and clean water, empowering them with skills to build a better future for all.

Together, we can help vulnerable communities face their challenges today and build a better tomorrow For All Future Generations. You can donate through Project Compassion donation boxes and envelopes available from your Parish, by visiting lent.caritas.org.au, or by calling 1800 024 413.

Harmony Week

This week Trinity students and teachers have celebrated Harmony Week in their classrooms through their lessons and prayers.

Harmony Week is a time to encourage unity and belonging.

Yesterday our school came together to pray for Peace, Harmony and Belonging in a whole school mass led by Mrs Lucas, Mrs Doolan, Mrs Birks, and K-2.

The message for the mass was:

‘We may all be different fish, but, at this school, we swim together.’

This was beautifully portrayed throughout the mass. Students from K-2 set their prayer space with carefully created fish of various shapes, sizes and colours depicting how we are all different, but we work and learn together.

Thought of the Week