Dear Parents, Guardians, and Community,

With a busy week, including the Flourishing Learners Conference and the Year 5/6 camp at Sovereign Hill, we are keeping this week's newsletter brief.

This Week's Happenings

• Monday 8 & Tuesday 9 September: Flourishing Learners Conference for School Leaders

• Wednesday 10 – Friday 12 September: Year 5/6 Camp, Sovereign Hill

• Friday September 12: Principal's Meeting

Looking Ahead

• Friday September 19: Footy and Fairies Day

• Friday September 19: End of Term 3 - school finishes at 1:30 pm

• Monday October 6: Start of Term 4

A big thank you to everyone who joined us for our Father's Day celebrations last Friday. The breakfast and Mass were a wonderful way to celebrate, and the atmosphere was fantastic. We hope all our fathers and father figures had a special day.

Next week, we'll be wrapping up Term 3 with a fun Footy and Fairies Day! Students are invited to dress up in their favourite team's colours or as a fairy, and our Parents and Friends group will be cooking a sausage sizzle. Just a reminder that school will finish early at 1:30 pm on Friday, September 19. After-school care will be available from 1:30 pm.

St Mary of the Cross. Pray For Us.

Anthony

St Mary’s Faith News

 School and Parish Connections

Gospel: Luke 14: 25-33

All who do not renounce their possessions cannot be my disciples

 Great crowds accompanied Jesus on his way and he turned and spoke to them. ‘If any man comes to me without hating his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes and his own life too, he cannot be my disciple. Anyone who does not carry his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

‘And indeed, which of you here, intending to build a tower, would not first sit down and work out the cost to see if he had enough to complete it? Otherwise, if he laid the foundation and then found himself unable to finish the work, the onlookers would all start making fun of him and saying, “Here is a man who started to build and was unable to finish.” Or again, what king marching to war against another king would not first sit down and consider whether with ten thousand men he could stand up to the other who advanced against him with twenty thousand? If not, then while the other king was still a long way off, he would send envoys to sue for peace. So in the same way, none of you can be my disciple unless he gives up all his possessions.’

New Front Office Display

Crosses from Around the World

We have now collected about 6 crosses - Thank you to everyone who has donated a cross

As part of our recent staff Reflection Day, we were inspired by the idea of creating a new display in our front office – a collection of crosses from around the world. This will be a whole school initiative, and we warmly invite our families and staff to take part.

If you have a cross from your travels – whether from overseas or within Australia – that you would like to donate, we would be honoured to include it. The crosses will be thoughtfully displayed on the wall beneath the mounted monitor in the front office.

Steven will start putting up the crosses in the coming weeks. Keep your eyes peeled.

Thank you for helping us bring this idea to life.

Wednesday Morning Masses

As part of our ongoing commitment to nurturing the spiritual life of our students, each class has been taking turns to attend the Wednesday morning Parish Mass at 9:15am.

The response from teachers has been positive. The children have been able to connect with parishioners and pay attention to rituals that they have been taught in class.

Moving in to Term 3, we warmly invite parents and carers to join their child’s class on the day they are rostered to attend.

You may receive an email invitation or a paper invitation, so please check emails, children’s reading folders or take heed of your child’s verbal invitation.

This is a beautiful opportunity to come together in prayer and strengthen our connection as a school and parish community.

We encourage you to check when your child’s class will be attending the Wednesday Mass.

We look forward to welcoming you to this special part of our faith life.

During this Mass you are welcome to sit with your child, but we ask that you join us as a class - so please come along and sit with us at Mass.

Term 3 Masses 

At the weekend family Masses, families sit together. Children who are reading are encouraged to sit with their family near the front of the church and ideally to have the reader sit in the aisle seat.

Footy and Fairies Day

Sports Update

Thank you to the Father's Day breakfast helpers, Angela and Cameron McCulloch, Elishah Lusi, Leah Pepe, Melissa Arneil, Manny Nana, Karolina Wardawa, Courtney Hocking and Emily Anastasi. On the bbq: Grace, Kelly & Arabella, Rene Paccagnan. Also, Gemma, Michelle and Anthony!

Special shout out to the Year 1 mums for the last minute team effort and Coles run for more food donations.