Dear Parents, Carers and the St Joseph’s Community,

The veil of darkness, transformed to the brightest light.

The most dreadful end became the most beautiful beginning.

The depths of despair, fade to reveal hope everlasting.

The curse of death, defeated by eternal life.

Thank you Lord, for the wonder of Easter.

It is a strange feeling to be finishing the school term without the buzz of our students anticipating the excitement of school holidays. Whilst we are all in for a very different Easter and holiday period, I hope you manage to take some downtime to stop and focus on the positives that can come from this very difficult and unusual time. Who knows, perhaps celebrating Easter in unusual circumstances will create some new family traditions that will be passed on for years to come.

A reminder that Remote Learning Packs for next term are available from the school. If you are unable to collect your pack by tomorrow, they will be available next term. Please remember that as these packs are for Term 2, your child is not to complete any of the tasks until advised by their classroom teacher.

Following on from previous correspondence, if you believe that your child/ren will be returning to school for Term 2, and you haven't informed the school, could you please email cameron.tarrant@cg.catholic.edu.au by tomorrow. All students will be completing the same Remote Learning Program as prepared by the classroom teachers. Students attending school will be supported in this program by a roster of classroom teachers. 

Please note the first day of school / remote learning in Term 2 is Wednesday 29 April. Full details to come in a separate communication. 

Please know that we have missed the students terribly over the last two weeks. The classrooms are too quiet, the playground is too tidy and the teachers are definitely lonely! Please continue to stay safe.

Yours in Christ,

 Amy Doszpot

Assistant Principal

Amy.doszpot@cg.catholic.edu.au

Religious Life of St Joseph’s

Holy Week

This week is Holy Week, which is the most significant week in the year for Catholic communities. Holy means “set apart” and Christians set apart this entire week to recall the events surrounding the suffering, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus. We know that although we commemorate the events of Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday over the span of a week, these timeline of the events may have actually happened over many months or even years. All families have been provided with a Holy Week at Home booklet in the Remote Learning Packs which includes a short, family friendly prayer service for families to use to commemorate Holy Week at Home. 

Prayer

At this time spending time talking to God is needed more than ever. To support families we have developed our own St Joseph’s Prayer website to support families with prayer. It contains our St Joseph’s school prayers, messages from Father Paul, age-appropriate prayers for each grade, prayer resources for adults and activities to help your family celebrate Easter. You can access the site at:

http://bit.ly/praysjo

Melanie Stratford

Religious Education Coordinator

melanie.stratford@cg.catholic.edu.au

Archbishop Christopher Prowse’s Easter Message 2020

CORONA (CROWN) OF THORNS

Just a few months ago, none of us had heard of CORONAVIRUS. Now it is our uninvited Easter guest. It seems the whole world has become sick due to its global presence.

We cannot get away from it. It has turned our world upside down. We are anxious and fearful. Even in supermarkets we appear to be suspicious of each other.

We are trying our best in our home isolation. The experience so far is one of mixed blessings. New routines are not easy to navigate on our own. Now whole families and others are to negotiate a new way of daily life for the next few months.

“Corona” is a Latin word meaning “crown”. This pandemic has become a crown of thorns for us all.

In the hours before his death, Jesus too knew of a crown of thorns. It became one of his terrible sufferings before his death on the Cross of Calvary. Jesus suffers with us in our sufferings. This is the meaning of the key word compassion. The Easter message is clear: by suffering with the suffering Jesus we enter by Grace into the hope of Resurrection in Him.

Doing this is not something of mere human initiative. We surrender to the Grace invitation of Jesus. The Risen Lord awaits our YES coming from our deepest selves. We do this as Church through, with and in Jesus. Mary and all the saints participate in this saving encounter. We are never alone.

This Easter will be celebrated in unprecedented circumstances. All our Churches are closed. Many, but not all, can participate via online platforms. It will be so new to us. Yet, this pandemic will eventually be contained. Hope insists on this. We want, however, from the quasi-Monastic anchorage of our homes, to encounter Jesus more than ever. Our lives are in flux. Only Jesus remains forever. Alleluia!

Our new found Easter faith insists that it be expressed in practical charity. We do all we can to help those struggling. We thank the medical professionals, cleaners and volunteers, emergency forces, priests and religious, lay faithful and all who give us particular leadership in our time of real need of human closeness and the caress of the Lord who rises in our midst.

Happy Easter and every blessing to you all!

Archbishop Christopher Prowse

Canberra Goulburn Archdiocese

Apostolic Administrator of Wagga Wagga Diocese.