Dear St John's families,

Today we celebrated the Feast of the Sacred Heart. Thank you Fr Chung for celebrating Mass with us today. We appreciate your presence and care every week for classroom visits, class liturgies or whole school masses.

I would like to thank Mrs Stephanie Stewart who organised the entire day for students and staff. There was plenty of red and plenty of fun. The Year 6 students were a fantastic help for Mrs Stewart.

Have you ever wondered why we celebrate this as our Feast Day and not the Feast Day of St John the Apostle? 

Firstly, there's a very practical reason. The Feast Day for St John the Apostle is December the 27th. Of course, we're well and truly on holidays at that time. It makes sense to look to another important feast day to celebrate our parish and school identity.

Secondly, our parish has been very blessed over many, many years to be pastored, shaped and nurtured by priests from the order of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (msc's). We are the only parish in the ACT that is looked after by this international order of priests. They are an order of priests founded by Jules Chevalier 170 years ago. Their own vision is "that the sacred heart of Jesus be everywhere loved" (hence we say this it the end of every school/class/meeting prayer) and their mission is 'to be on Earth the Heart of God'. Our parish identity, and therefore our school identity, has been imbued with the spirit and mission of the msc's. As a result we share in their Feast Day celebration each year: The Feast of the Sacred Heart. 

What does it mean 'to be on Earth the Heart of God?' Over the next few weeks I would like to reflect briefly each week on an aspect of this, to help us all share an understanding of our community identity. Each week I will share my own answer to a question that is raised by this charism statement, such as:

• What is the 'Heart of God'? How do we know what the 'Heart of God' is?
• When we say 'on Earth' who and what does that include?
• How do we be the 'Heart of God'? Do I need to be perfect?

I look forward to beginning this next week. What are your thoughts to the questions above?

I hope you all enjoy a lovely long weekend and I look forward to seeing everyone next Tuesday.

Matthew Garton

Principal