Feast of the Sacred Heart

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1 Term 2, Week 5, Dear Parents /Caregivers, This week we celebrate the Feast of the Sacred Heart. I recently read an article in Ametur which is the Newsletter of the Associates of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart which is lovingly shared with me by Ray Gleeson, a parishioner and long-time friend of our community. I quote: It is helpful to make a distinction between Chevalier s charism and his spirituality [Fr Jules Chevalier, the Founder of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart]. A charism is a special Gift of the Holy Spirit, which enriches a Founder with a vision that attracts people to join him or her in carrying out a lifelong mission. A charism could be compared with a flame that sets the heart of a Founder on fire, and that keeps burning during his or her whole life, kindling a similar fire in the hearts of his or her spiritual sons and daughters. What we do with that fire, how we channel it, is our spirituality, states Ronald Rolheiser. When reading about Fr Chevalier s charism and spirituality, we have to keep in mind that he lived in France of the 19 th Century. His way of channelling the fire that burned in his heart, that means, the way of expressing his charism in a spirituality, was shaped by the European mentality of his day. Now we live in the 21 st century and in different cultures. It would be more appropriate today to speak of a Spirituality of the Heart. Each of us has received a special Gift of the Spirit. We are called to respond to this gift and follow the guidance of the Spirit in our daily lives. The Spirit is always at work in each of us to deepen and strengthen our relationship with God and Jesus Christ as well as with our neighbours.

2 By being faithful to the Gift of the Spirit in our hearts, we will be empowered in loving our neighbours wholeheartedly. God s Spirit makes us loving, happy, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle and self-controlled. (Galatians 5:22-23) Let us celebrate The Feast of the Sacred Heart by being loving, happy, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle and self-controlled. I look forward to you joining us, and our friends from OLSH, at Mass on Friday morning in the Community Centre. By the time you are reading this, several of our children would have received the Gift of the Holy Spirit through the Sacrament of Confirmation. We congratulate them and their families who have prepared them and pray that they will always be ready to share this Gift with others. Recently the Board and I received a letter from Sue Mellon informing us that she would be retiring at the end of this term. Sue has been the bursar here since July 1998 and we are grateful for her financial guidance and advice over the last 18 years. Sue has been an integral part in growing and resourcing our school and she is leaving us in a healthy financial position, ready to keep growing and being able to offer excellence in education. We wish her all the best for this new stage and I would certainly invite you to pop in on a Monday or Tuesday over the rest of this term to farewell her. We have come to the end of Catholic Education Week. This was an opportunity to celebrate Catholic Education and what that means to each of us. Four of our students, along with Paul Panos went to the Green Day Out held at St. Pius X for students in the North East Region. Please read the article from the students who represented us at this day. I also invite you to visit our school website click on the our school tab and then catholic Education Office where you will find a series of 5 videos promoting Catholic Education. They are only short and worth a look. Congratulations to the girls from St. Martin s who represented us at the North vs Sturt Football match on Sunday 22 nd May. See Michael Woods article below for more details. Congratulations too to the girls who represented us in the recent school aerobics competition. We entered two teams; a junior and senior team.

3 Our juniors (Mia, Elise, Gemma, Yoo Jung, Olivia, Amelie, Chloe, Ciera, Emma & Lily) finished second and our seniors (Olivia, Lorelei, Annalise, Paige, Madeline, Riley, Mackensie & Rori), fifth. They were both selected to compete in the state finals on 25th at Norwood Town Hall. This weekend we have our school disco on Friday evening and Family Mass in St. Monica s Church on Saturday evening. I look forward to sharing these community events with you or your child. For more details on each of these events, see below. Perhaps you might consider coming along to our next P&F meeting which will be held on Friday 10 th at 1:30pm in the foyer of the Community Centre. On Saturday 25 th we are having a Quiz Night and on Friday 1 st July, a Cultural night. Details for both of these events can be found in this newsletter. We offer lots of opportunity for you to be involved and for us to develop community we hope that you take up these offers. Susanne Harding sharding@smg.catholic.edu.au

4 Religious Education Greetings! This week we celebrate the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. We are blessed to have approximately 160 staff and students from OLSH join us for Mass and morning classroom activities on Friday, 3 rd. Please join us for Mass at 9am in the St Martin s Community Centre. Reflection Sacred Heart of Jesus Feast Day 3 rd Come to me and you will find rest for your soul (Mt11:28-30) A gracious invitation from a welcoming heart! And a timely invitation for so many in our society today, whose souls are weary and exhausted, disillusioned and despairing, searching and longing, empty and aching. It seems when Jesus extended this invitation to come to him, he knew who he was speaking to. More than that, it is as though he saw into the very depths of our souls and recognised there what our frantic pressured lives prevent us from seeing: our need to come home to God and simply rest in the welcoming love of the One who yearns for our homecoming. This is what the Feast of the Sacred Heart really amounts to love. A love that is typified by this gracious invitation from Jesus to come to him, whatever our need or desire be, and find rest. This feast is about a love for our humanity that is fired and impassioned by an unconditional desire to fulfil our deepest need and longing. Love is the Heart of God the Heart of Jesus the heart of you and me All that is of love is of You, O God. Tis love that takes us beyond ourselves to the world of each other across our fears touches our unbelieving softens our unforgiving heals our wounding. O why is it we resist You so? (Noel Davis 2002)

5 That is a good question to ponder during this Feast of the Sacred Heart. Why do we resist the love of God? Further to this question is how do we resist the love of God? Jesus told us plainly, that love of God is enfleshed in love for one another, and the love we fail to give one another is the love we fail to give to God. (Mt 25:45) Here lies the real challenge of love, the challenge that this Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus calls us to embrace. We can find support and inspiration for this challenge of love, by personally responding to Jesus invitation to come to him. Find even a moment or two, to find shelter in the welcoming love of Jesus that waits to warm and comfort you, whatever your need or desire may be, and simply rest in that love. As a family take time around candle light and in the silence that unites you, rest in the sacred welcoming love of Jesus. And in the warmth and security of that love, pray for the poor and needy and those who are without the warmth of love and shelter Emmaus Productions & Some history about The Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. Our story begins with Jules Chevalier, who founded the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in 1854, and in 1874, the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. As a young priest, Jules Chevalier lived in a town where people had grown hard-hearted and indifferent towards God. He was convinced that our greatest need, if we want to find meaning and happiness in life, is to learn to believe in God's love for us and let it transform our lives. He saw that devotion to the Sacred Heart was most effective way of making God's love known to the world.

6 Week 5 Friday 3 rd Mass 9:00am Year 2 Week 6 Friday 10 th Assembly 9:00am Year 2 Week 7 Friday 17 th Liturgy 9:00am 3FW Week 8 Friday 24 th Assembly 9:00am 6/7DK Week 9 Friday 1 st July Liturgy 9:00am RDB Week 10 Friday 8 th July Assembly 9:00am 6/7R Sacramental Program :00pm St Martin s School Community Centre 28 7:00pm St Martin s School Community Centre Session 1: First Eucharist Session 2: First Eucharist Theology of Eucharist Theology of Eucharist Congratulations to the following children who celebrated the Sacrament of Confirmation on 31 st May 2016 at St Martin s Church. Please keep all of these children in your prayers. Cameron M Olivia P Caitlin W Aaley W Keeleigh O Kaysii O Shania G Connor C Angelo D Ethan D Tam An V Glenda D

7 Family Mass Our next Family Mass is on: Saturday, 4 th at St Monica s Church at 6pm. All are welcome to attend. This term, St Martin s support St Vincent De Paul with their Winter Appeal. We will begin this appeal with a Silver Coin Collection beginning this week and going through to Friday, 1 st July. We ask that you send any silver coins to school with the children to put in their class glass jars. They will watch their donations grow over the coming weeks. With the money donated, we will purchase blankets for those in need and support our local St Vinnies. Parish News St Vincent De Paul Volunteers Feel like you want to make a difference in our community? Maybe through volunteering? Our local St Vincent De Paul Society are looking for more volunteers. Please contact Pat Patience via if you are interested (ppatience@internode.on.net). Rose Valenti rvalenti@smg.catholic.edu.au