RE News
Christmas Eve Children’s Mass in the Park - We are very fortunate that we have the opportunity to once again celebrate this Christmas with our annual Mass for Christmas Eve in the Park. The letter requesting volunteers to assist with this Parish Mass will be emailed home today with a hard copy also sent home tomorrow to be filled in. You are strongly encouraged to nominate your child/ren to be involved in the various roles this year, hopefully with some extra families involved. It is a beautiful way to share some Christmas cheer with the community in 2020.
Sharing Mass (Liturgy) 2020 - For 2020 we will be having a Sharing Liturgy at school. While we are not having a full mass as usual, we are strongly encouraging our school families to give as generously as possible by contributing towards the St Vincent De Paul Christmas Appeal with donations of money. We appreciate that Christmas is a difficult time for a lot of families and any contribution that you can manage this year is greatly appreciated. The money is donated by the school to help with the purchase of food and gift vouchers which are then distributed to needy families within the Temora district.
We ask that you please return donations to the school office by Friday 4th December (or before school on Monday the 7th at the latest) for our Sharing Liturgy on Tuesday 8th December where our donations will be given to a representative from St Vincent de Paul. We thank you in anticipation of your continued support of our school’s efforts to support this wonderful local Catholic charity.
Year 10 Graduation - Year 10 Graduation Mass is 5:30pm on Tuesday December 15th.
A reminder that graduates are only permitted to invite 4 guests each.
First Sunday of Advent, Year B, November 29, 2020
Second reading: 1st Letter of St. Paul to the Conrinthians 1:3–9
Context for the second reading: Our Liturgical Setting: We wait for Christ in two ways. The early Sundays of Advent always carry on the end-of-the-world theme, from the last Sundays of the preceding liturgical year. In this theme, we wait for Christ to come again in glory, to judge the living and the dead. The later Sundays of Advent celebrate a different theme, the coming of the Messiah in the flesh, when Jesus was born of Mary.
The Historical Situation: Today's second reading comes from an early letter of Saint Paul, written while he and his audience were sure that Christ's second coming was just around the corner. Saint Paul reassures the people of Corinth who were a young, somewhat wild Christian community anxious about the imminent return of Christ to bring history to an end, by reminding them of the gifts that the Spirit of God has already given them. They're ready, and God will keep them so.
“...Likewise, the witness I bore to Christ has been so confirmed among you that you lack no spiritual gift as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will strengthen you to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Gospel Mark 13:33-37 - “Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.”
Reflection on the Gospel: The people of Jesus' time lived in the present, without thinking much about the future. Jesus feels an urgency about the works of God that remain unfinished, that can only be completed by the return of the Son of Man. Jesus tries to stir up that urgency in the hearts of his disciples with the message of this reading not unlike our own St Anne’s scriptural quote for 2020.
- Jesus exhorts us to be always vigilant and this involves making sure that we have God in our soul in grace for we do not know when Our Lord will decide to call us unto Himself and when His Second Coming will be.
- To be always prepared, and knowing that “even the just man falls seven times a day,” it is necessary to humbly, contritely and frequently approach the Sacrament of Confession to ask pardon from God for our sins and to receive His forgiveness, love, mercy and be reconciled with Him.
May we, this Advent, prepare ourselves to meet the Savior by opening our heart and life to Christ with a careful vigilance, firm faith, humble and sustained daily struggle out of love of God so as to immerse ourselves totally in Christ and share his light and everlasting joy with others.
https://www.catholicsstrivingforholiness.org/1st-sunday-of-advent-a-be-prepared-always/