What are students learning about?

Our Year 6 students have been busy preparing for making the Sacrament of Confirmation. They have been investigating the Fruits of the Holy Spirit through the scripture of Galatians 5: 22-23. The Fruits of the Holy Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. These Fruits are a visible sign of God’s active love for us. Students have chosen and researched a saint that has qualities or traits that mean something to the Year 6 students. Each student is designing a prayer assembly and setting up a prayer focus using different items such as cloths, crosses and Bibles and then taking photographs of it.

What the staff have been learning about?

Miss Norris and Ms Love started our week, of staff prayer, by reading the following story.

The Tale of The Starfish

It all started when…

A young girl was walking along a beach upon which thousands of starfish had been washed up during a terrible storm. When she came to each starfish, she would pick it up, and throw it back into the ocean. People watched her with amusement.

She had been doing this for some time when a man approached her and said, “Little girl, why are you doing this? Look at this beach! You can’t save all these starfish. You can’t begin to make a difference!”

The girl seemed crushed, suddenly deflated. But after a few moments, she bent down, picked up another starfish, and hurled it as far as she could into the ocean. Then she looked up at the man and replied, “Well, I made a difference for that one!”

The old man looked at the girl inquisitively and thought about what she had done and said. Inspired, he joined the little girl in throwing starfish back into the sea. Soon others joined, and all the starfish were saved. 

 Reflection

The Starfish Story is a lovely reminder that one small act of kindness can make a big difference or even a change. The young girl in this story was not overwhelmed by the enormity of the task but simply tackled one starfish at a time and in doing so made a difference to that starfish. It is quite easy to get caught up in feeling paralysed or simply overwhelmed. We put it into the too hard basket or feel that it is not our problem anyway. We can simply feel helpless, passive, indifferent or cynical. Instead of thinking about what you cannot do, think about what you can do. Like the young girl, is there one thing that you can do? Is there a small action that you can take? Maybe it might make more of a bigger difference than what you thought!

God bless,

Alison Ewyk

Religious Education Coordinator (Acting)