St Mary's Newsletter

We rely on each other to do the right thing. 

Christ who ascended into heaven in his body carries on what he began on earth through his new body, the church. He teaches through its apostles and evangelists. He ministers through its prophets and pastors. In and through the church, Jesus continues to heal and to comfort; to forgive and to include. We have not been left alone; we have his power, the same power with which he performed marvels when he walked the earth. We have not been left alone; we have each other. Together we make up the new body of Christ. Together we await the fullness of this body. It is this new body that stands in between the times, secure in what we have, confident of what we will be given. 

Our Year 6 class will be doing the readings and participating in the Mass this Sunday 21 May at 10:30am. Everyone is welcome to attend. 

What a fantastic sight this morning, seeing so many of our students take an alternative way to school. Thank you to the Year 6s who came to school early to hand out tattoos and to the members of the Western Australian Police Force who came in and spoke to our students and arrested a few!  Thank you God for blessing us with beautiful day to be able to walk to school.

Please read the post sent out earlier today for instructions. Or just click here and enter the code SMSMPACS in the Start Questionnaire field. The aim of this process is to build and maintain a positive school climate in which your child/children will flourish.

This meeting was presented by Father Andrew and provided an insight for the parents and students into the Sacrament of Confirmation and what to expect. Thank you to Father Andrew for presenting the information.

On Tuesday 23 May, we celebrate the feast of Our Lady Help of Christians, patroness of Australia. The infant church in Australia had a special reason for turning to Mary. No priests were sent to the colony in its early days and Mass was not allowed except for one brief year until 1820. It was largely the Rosary in those early days that kept the faith alive. Catholic Australia remained faithful to Mary and was the rest nation to choose her under the title Help of Christians, as principal Patroness. St Mary’s School will be having Mass in the Church at 9.00am to honour Mary Help of Christians, which will be led by the Year 3/4 class. All are welcome to attend. 

Although our survey results were inconclusive, the canteen day will be permanently changed to a Tuesday as this is more convenient for Wild Poppy Café and the fact that it also proved very popular with our Kindy class.  Week 5, Tuesday 23 May will be the date on which canteen will move permanently to the Tuesday. Orders will need to be in by Monday at 1.00pm. We apologise for any inconveniences. 

65 Roses Day is held on Friday 26 May 2023 and is the National Day of Awareness for cystic fibrosis. St Mary’s will be fundraising for this cause by encouraging our students to wear free dress (with something red) with a gold coin donation. You can support people living with cystic fibrosis this 65 Roses Day by purchasing a rose which will be available in the morning or at various locations in Merredin. Funds raised throughout May will help us continue to provide vital support services to people with cystic fibrosis, and fund critical research.  

May is the month of Mary. Catholics look to Mary to learn how to have faith in God and follow God in their daily lives. People learn from Mary’s example how to live as Christians and follow God. Mary is a model of faith. Mary always cooperated and trusted in God. She is an example of living and responding to God with faithfulness and love. Mary always said ‘yes’ to God. She responded with great hope and love to all God asked of her, even in times when she did not fully understand what God was asking of her.  

Mary’s example of discipleship helps Catholics be people of faith, hope and love. The Rosary is one way Catholics can pray with Mary to become people of faith, hope and love. The Rosary is a special prayer which helps people think about and meditate on the life of Jesus. By praying and meditating on the rosary with Mary, people remember the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus. They remember and meditate on important events in the lives of Jesus and his mother. Catholics use rosary beads to help them pray and meditate. The beads of a rosary are used to count the prayers as they are prayed out loud or in silence.  

The rosary is divided into five groups of ten beads called decades. As people pray the rosary they meditate on the events in the life of Jesus and his mother Mary. These are called mysteries. There are four sets of ‘Mysteries of the Rosary’, called Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful, and Glorious. These four “Mysteries of the Rosary” contain, a total of twenty mysteries. The repetition of the prayers when praying the rosary helps people in this prayerful meditation. When people pray the rosary their thoughts focus on a different mystery for each decade. These mysteries represent the significant events in the life of Jesus. 

In May of 2002 Pope John Paul II said, "Today we begin the month dedicated to Our Lady a favourite of popular devotion. In accord with a long-standing tradition of devotion, parishes and families continue to make the month of May a 'Marian' month, celebrating it with many devout liturgical, catechetical and pastoral initiatives!" This year we have classes that have been praying together and learning about the Rosary. 

God Bless and have a lovely weekend with your families,

Mr Andy DiCarlantonio

Principal

Semester One is flying by quicker than the speed of light in Year 4/5! We enjoyed learning all about different artists and their styles and how the elements of art are incorporated for a purpose. We will be using this to create our own portraits and still life paintings influenced by various artists. Our focus is on data collection and representation in Mathematics and we found some awesome topics to gather data from our class to display. In Writing we have chosen a famous Australian to research and write a biography on. Researching these people made us even more proud to be Australian! We are getting organised for our assembly next week where we can’t wait to show you what we have been discussing in Health… it has something to do with how the health of population has changed over time, the reasons why and what we can do about it! 

Please note the following changes to the Mass times over the coming weeks:

28th May - 8.00am

4th June - 8.00am

11th June - 8.00am

Thank you for you understanding. We look forward to seeing you there!

Merredin: Saturday 6.30pm & Sunday 8.00am

Kellerberrin: Sunday 8.00am

Open Wednesday 8.30am-9.10am

Online Orders: www.quickcliq.com.au