What Staff Are Learning About

This week we gathered as a whole staff to celebrate Mass. It was held in the chapel and is the first of three formation sessions. The readings were the same as the beginning of the year and based on Walking Together.

Father Chung’s Homily reminded us that we need to find people we trust to talk to. That to build community and do our complex work we need always be people of hope. We need to be “drawn from anxiety to hope, from confusion to joy” We can only do this together.

What Students Are Learning About

Kindergarten

Kindergarten celebrated a Liturgy of the Word with Father Chung on Thursday.  Their readings were based on the creation story.  The students understood not only how to participate but why it was important. They were able to answer questions about the creation story and why God rested on the 7^th Day. Thank you to their dedicated teachers Ms Kennelly, Ms Watson Gardner and Ms Neven.

Year Three

Year Three had a reflection retreat about First Communion on Thursday.  They were led by an enthusiastic group of Year 9 students from SFX. It was a time for all of the students to deepen their faith by delving into the scripture story Jesus Appears to the Seven Disciples John 21:1-13. They used 'Read with a Pencil', a comprehension teaching technique, to look at the words. They prayed the Rosary and reflected on several different artistic representations of the scripture story. 

Being led by older students had a profound impact as they witnessed the faith modelled by other young people. The same message, but from different people, helps to connect students to each other but also to their own journey.

Catholic Life and Reflection

I was very lucky to attend my sister’s retirement party last night. It was a celebration of all the work she has done as CEO for Screen Canberra over the last 14 years.

Of course, there was an obligatory speech. In it she talked about successful projects, everything from Me and My Mates and the Zombie Apocalypse to Total Control staring Deborah Mailman and Rachel Griffiths. However, it was people that she talked about the most, those who continue to work and support screen in the ACT but also those who have passed on and were significant contributors to her personal and the industry’s growth. As it was the anniversary of my Oma’s passing yesterday it was a fitting speech. 

Although my sister and I look alike and are quite similar in many ways our work is vastly different. Or so I thought. Yesterday I realised that we are creators of community. Like my mother when she ran the mail room at the old Canberra Hospital and her mother, my Oma, a Catholic school teacher for many years in Canberra, we contribute to and help create communities.

The community of St John the Apostle has been on show this week. Mass, retreats, discos and Fathers Day breakfast and the feedback is always what a wonderful community you have.

Yes, we do.  We don’t always get it right. It is not always smooth sailing, but we continue to move forward. To embrace each other and move from anxiety to hope and confusion to joy.

So, to my wonderful sister, mentor, and friend congratulations.  For your dedication, creativity, savvy and mostly for the community you have created.

1 Corinthians 1:10 (NRSV)

¹⁰ Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters,by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose.

God bless,

Stephanie Stewart