From the Religious Education Coordinator
World Mission Month – Socktober
This World Mission Month, we can make a difference and kick goals for good with Socktober. Together, we can support young Timorese children to access a brighter future.
Our school Socktober Day will be held on Tuesday the 31st of October. All students are encouraged to wear ‘crazy’ socks on this day. We will also participate in a prayer service and take part in other activities (organised by our Mini Vinnies group) for all students to enjoy.
This year, on Socktober Day, the students are also asked to bring to school as many donations of gold and silver coins (the more the better) as possible, to see which school Sports House can create the longest coin trail. All proceeds will go to Mission Australia.
We are also asking for donations of lots of socks to be used for activities on the day!
We are looking forward to our school Socktober Day and thank everyone for your support.
Class Mass Dates
Please note in your diaries the following Mass dates:
- Year 5/6 Class Mass – 25th of October
- Year 2/3/4 Class Mass – 20th November
- Year 6 Graduation Mass – 13th December
We welcome everyone to attend these very special events at St Joseph’s Church.
Class Mass
The Year 5/6 Mass was a very special occasion. Their chosen theme was ‘joy’. The students did a great job of conveying the theme. They read beautifully and modelled reverence. By all accounts, it was lovely to see all the students so settled and respectful. Well done, Year 5/6!
Sunday Gospel Reflection (October 29)
Gospel Matthew 22:34-40
Gathering around Jesus, not in devotion, but to ‘test’ him, a Pharisees, an ‘expert in the law’, asks: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” That is to ask, which is the commandment that undergirds all others? Jesus responds: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ And yet, astonishingly, he does not stop there! The pharisee only asks for one response, the greatest commandment, not the second, or third. And yet Jesus continues, as if to say these are one and the same. “And the second... the second is like it: you must love your neighbour as yourself.”
Jesus teaches that the seemingly most obvious of all the commandments, even to many today, the love of neighbour, is only made possible by and thus lies secondary to the first and greatest commandment of all. This first primordial commandment is that which allows all others to exist. One cannot love God without loving the other, those placed in our lives. Jesus calls us to consider, every relationship we share, the emotions that drive our passion to love... the feelings which we delight in... do not exist, without God! After all ‘God is Love” (1 Jn 4:8). And when we love, we are (quite literally) experiencing what it is to participate
in God.
Lord,
In this coming week, help me to genuinely love and serve you,
by loving those who you have placed in my daily life.
Amen.
Source: Formed in Prayer, CSYMI
Student Prayer of the Week
Sacrament of Confirmation
Yours in Faith,
Danielle McFarlane
Religious Education Coordinator
Parish News
Sunday 8 am
St Joseph’s Church, Grenfell
Please note that a Mass will be held on the second and fourth Sunday of each month. There is a Celebration of the Word with Holy Communion, not a Mass, on the first and third (and any fifth) Sunday of each month. Everyone is welcome to attend!
If you wish to visit St Joseph’s Church, it is open daily from 10.00am – 4.00pm and following Mass on Sundays.
Annual Leave for Fr Jiss
Fr Jiss will be back next week from his holidays. Please keep him in your prayers for a safe return.
Parish Street Stall
St Joseph’s Parish will be holding a street stall on Friday, 27th and Saturday, 28th of October. Donations of cakes, slices, produce and any saleable goods welcome as well as volunteers to assist on the stall. Please contact Deidre Carroll on 0403 480 729 if you have any enquiries.
