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Dear Parents and Carers,
As we now prepare for the most sacred time of the year for us as Catholic Christians, Holy Week. We are not able to do the things that we usually do and are not be able to come together to pray in our parish communities. During this time, we commemorate and remember the last week of Jesus’ life on this earth—from his institution of the Eucharist on Holy Thursday, to his suffering and death on the cross on Good Friday, to his glorious resurrection on Easter Sunday!
You are invited to walk this journey online with Bishop Brian Mascord. Masses and liturgies will be live-streamed from St John Vianney Co-Cathedral in Fairy Meadow at the following times:
7 pm - Holy Thursday (9 April) - Mass of the Lord’s Supper
10 am - Good Friday (10 April) - Stations of the Cross
3 pm - Good Friday (10 April) - Commemoration of the Lord’s Passion
7 pm - Holy Saturday (11 April) - Mass of the Easter Vigil
You can watch these Liturgies and Masses via the link.
Thank you to our highly committed school staff for the extra effort they are putting in to make sure our students receive the best care and support when both attending school and learning at home. Once again thank you for your support and cooperation during this challenging time. We hope that the Peace and Joy of the Risen Lord be with you and your families. Have a happy and Holy Easter. God bless and keep safe.
Mrs Vicky Davidson
Principal
CEDoW COVID-19 Information
Please continue to log in to the Catholic Education Diocese of Wollongong COVID-19 information page on their website (see the link below).
The Catholic Education Office is monitoring this situation closely and this page is updated regularly. Staff, parents, carers, and others in our school communities are encouraged to visit the page for the latest information about our systemic response.
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Holy Thursday
This day remembers Jesus sharing his last meal with his friends, his disciples. During this gathering, Jesus said the words which Christians down through the centuries proclaim and live: ‘This is my Body given for you.’
Let us pray
We call to mind all in our community, our world who at this moment are working to bring healing to the deeply wounded Body of Christ.
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Good Friday
Our hearts are bruised by the brutality of this day. To read about or watch a Good Friday re-enactment can even be difficult. Imagine standing on the sidelines and witnessing these actual events unfold before you. Did any of the onlookers, the disciples, Simon of Cyrene, Veronica (source Acta Sanctorum) or the Women from Jerusalem contemplate the gift that was being offered for them by Jesus?
Within this suffering, Jesus had been almost completely isolated from those he cared about. Standing at the foot of the cross was the disciple John, ‘Jesus’ mother Mary and his mother’s sister, Mary wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene.’ (John 19:25). Everyone else responded by staying away. Mary must have had feelings of helplessness at not being able to stop her son’s suffering.
Watching someone we love follow a path that can lead to hurt and suffering is very difficult. Letting go can also be painful but sometimes we have to trust that God holds us close even when we feel isolated and alone.
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Holy Saturday
This is a day or a time of waiting. Our time of self-isolation in staying at home is akin to the “Holy Saturday Time.” It is an “in-between” space as we all wait for the coronavirus to lessen its power of contagion within our communities. We all wait for healing, for a restoration of the body of humanity which we, as people of faith, honour as the body of Christ.
We wait, as did the apostles and the first disciples of Jesus, in silence. However, because we are people of hope we wait in an empowering silence. It is a silence that will generate new life. Jesus described this waiting in silence and darkness in the parable of the wheat grain falling into the ground and dying – buried so that new life can generate from it (John 12:24).
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Easter Sunday
The stone is rolled away, the tomb is opened. We are invited into this space to embrace new life. How do we do this? We do this as a Eucharistic community in an unfolding universe. We remember the words of Jesus recorded in St. Matthew’s gospel: “Where two or more are gathered in my name, in my Love, there I am in the midst of them.” (Mathew 18:20). The bringing together of diverse elements, people, ideas, values, traditions, in the breaking of bread and the sharing of wine, tasting together to the fullness of life, Jesus is present in our midst as life itself. We rise up together beyond the resistant forces around us and within us: this is the Body of Christ. “Christ has no body now but yours.”
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Final Prayer
At present we are all struggling to breathe life into our wounded, contagious world. We ask you Lord to gather all peoples, all creatures, all that exists, into a new unity which respects the interconnectedness of all of life. May we become a new earth community founded in love and built on love, as we seek your ever abiding presence. Glory to God source of all being, eternal Word, Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be. We make this prayer through Christ our Lord. Amen
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Mrs Madaschi
Religious Education Coordinator
EASTER RAFFLE
Thank you to our families for supporting the Easter Raffle. A special thank you to the P&F for organising the raffle prizes before the students commenced remote learning from home. Congratulations to the following winners:-
| CLASS | 1ST PRIZE | 2ND PRIZE | 3RD PRIZE |
| Kindergarten | Ayva.N | Ayva.N | Hudson.S |
| 1 Gold | Lucas. T | Mia.D | Theodore.M |
| 2 Blue | Aidan.O | Aidan.O | Ivy-Rose.L |
| 3 Gold | Ace.T | Ace.T | Fatima.K |
| 3 Blue | Lucas.P | Lucas.P | Lucas.P |
| 4 Gold | Monica.F | Monica.F | Isabella.B |
| 5 Blue | Lamise.S | Lamise.S | Luke.C |
| 6 Blue | James.H | Tianna.T | Wilson.A |
| 6 Gold | Sienna.M | Laila.H | Hassan.R |
| Major Prize Winners | Racquel.S | Gemm.A | Mia.D - 1G |
