Dear Parents/Carers,

Easter is the most important time in the Catholic Church’s calendar. Easter brings a message of hope for all, but initially we reflect on pain and suffering. Jesus is betrayed by Judas, one of his closest followers, and Peter, his right-hand man, denies knowing him three times. Jesus is arrested, placed in front of an unjust court, flogged with whips, mocked and left alone. Good Friday sees Jesus suffer a brutal death on the cross. 

As a child, I often pondered why Good Friday was ‘Good’? What happened to Jesus was horrific, sad and on ‘Good’ Friday our family would always eat whole fish with eyes that would stare at you. 

It is not until you have Friday, that you can celebrate Sunday. The day of hope and resurrection, of family and feasting. We must reflect on Jesus’ suffering to truly appreciate his resurrection. The fact is that he loved us so much he died for us and gives us an opportunity to spend eternity with him. 

I think about the current COVID-19 situation we are all caught up in. This certainly will be a very different Easter for all us. But perhaps this is a good time to reflect on the message of hope in the Easter story. COVID-19 has been a great challenge. It has the potential to take the life of our loved ones. It has resulted in job losses, loss of income and cancelled holiday plans for many of us. For our emergency service workers, they are in the firing line. Bravely acknowledging that their work is critical at this time and so they roll up their sleeves and risk their own health to assist others. For the fortunate, at a minimum it has been an inconvenience; changed the way we work, care and educate our children and resulted in us having to isolate from others we care about for the safety of all. 

This is our ‘Good Friday’. 

Perhaps it will extend for many Fridays. 

It will however end. Eventually we will return to work, school, beaches, gyms, our favourite restaurants, the homes of relatives and friends and resume our normal lives. What a great celebration this will be! 

Picture it now…

This is the time to be grateful for what really matters in our lives. Enjoy spending time with your family. Be grateful that they are safe. Celebrate the time you have by playing a board game together, sharing stories, looking through old photographs and telling them that you love them. Get the kids to spend time with you in the garden, in the kitchen, the garage and the laundry. Teach them life skills and the value of what you do for them. Pray together. Ask the kids to teach you a new skill. My wife and I are enjoying learning how to play Mario Kart and challenge each other. Kids have much to offer. 

I want to thank you for your support and patience at this difficult time. It is a time that I learnt the value of our community. I miss seeing the kids at school, they give me such energy. I wish you and your family every blessing at this most holy time. I pray that everyone you love is kept safe and that we return with a new appreciation for ‘normal’ soon. 

STAFFING CHANGES - TERM 2

Maternity Leave arrangements have facilitated some staffing changes for Term 2 as follows:

At the end of Week 1, Term 2 we farewell Ms Siobhan Moore who will commence maternity leave. We wish her and her husband Ben well as they await the birth of their first child. We look forward to Ms Moore returning as Leader of English (5-12) for the beginning of the academic year, next year.

I congratulate Mrs Natalie Wagstaff on her promotion to Acting Leader of English (5-12). Mrs Wagstaff is a very experienced middle leader and English teacher with considerable post-graduate qualifications and HSC experience. Mrs Wagstaff will act in the role of Leader of English while Ms Moore is on maternity leave.

I congratulate Miss Sara Issa who will replace Mrs Wagstaff as Diverse Learning Teacher- Extension & Enrichment, for the remainder of 2020. Miss Issa has a great deal of expertise in supporting students with technology and we anticipate that she will be a strong support for our high performance students in extending their academic learning.

I congratulate Mrs Stephanie Wright who will act as K-4 Literacy Coordinator for the remainder of this year. Mrs Wright will replace Miss Issa and work closely with staff and students building their literacy capacity. This change in position will require her to move from teaching 2 Red, to teaching 4 Green from the beginning of Term 2 until the end of the 2020 school year.

I am pleased to advise that Mrs Dearne Vaga will take over teaching 2 Red from the beginning of Term 2. Mrs Vaga has been a member of the teaching staff at St Francis since 2018 and has been selected to take over the class due to her experience and expertise. 

Students will be introduced to the staff changes in a series of Zoom video presentations early Term 2.

May God continue to bless you


Mr Simon Abernethy
College Principal

OTHER RESOURCES

Mass for You at Home is available across the Ten Network on Sundays at 6am and any time on TenPlay

Daily Mass on Demand is available at CathNews YoutTube channel

Daily 1pm Mass and Sunday 11am Mass from the Archdiocese of Melbourne

Daily Mass from Bishop Robert Barron’s chapel

The following resources are also available to assist parishioners with their home worship:

LiturgyHelp is designed to help you and your family to pray.
To access these free resources, please follow these directions.

Liturgy and prayer resources from the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.

Daily Mass readings.

Act of Spiritual Communion prayer card.

Journey Catholic Radio is a weekly radio program and podcast developed by the diocese all about faith, hope, love and life. It includes awesome music, a weekly Gospel reflection, interviews and a variety of weekly inputs from some of the best Catholic presenters in Australia.

Faith Circles is free weekly single-sided A4 PDF resource that contains the upcoming Sunday Gospel reading as well as a reflection on the Gospel (usually by Pope Francis) accompanied by questions for discussion and prayer points. It is a great resource for individual and families to use at home.

The diocese’s Lenten Program is still available to purchase as a PDF and the MP3 resource is now available to download for free.

Let there be light is a free parish communications resource catered especially for the Covid-19 crisis.

The Prayer Course is an 8 week journey through the Lord’s Prayer. Each session is about 20 min in duration.

Formed is a resource containing thousands of short faith formation videos, movies, programs, audio and books covering all aspects of our Catholic faith. The cost for an individual is less than AU$20 per month, just the thing for us who are in physical isolation at present.

Zoom Video Conferencing is excellent platform for hosting small faith sharing groups as well as parish meetings, liturgies and courses. Each parish has an account which can be used for the hosting of such meetings. Click here to download the user guide.

Novena for a World in Need—St Mary of the Cross Mackillop — The Sisters of St Joseph have generously shared with us this novena and have invited us to pause at midday and pray with confident trust for our world that is in need of healing.

On 4th of March all of Year 9 along with six of our teachers travelled on a bus for 3 hours to the Great Aussie Bush Camp.

We did so many fun activities during this camp that everyone really enjoyed! On the first day after seeing our cabins we got into our two groups and did the giant swing. This activity saw many people face their fears and overcome them by going to the very top. Afterwards we went canoeing in the river where due to poor rowing many canoes almost capsized.

The next day we got to abseil and then play an initiative game where we all needed to work together. This game was even more challenging due to the slippery surfaces from the rain! The next activity was called Lost Island, an obstacle course where by the end we were all covered in mud.

That night we played some team activities such as ‘music trivia’ and competed in short challenges, and before lights out we had supper where we were given chocolate milk and cookies.

On the final day we did the vertical challenge where we needed to climb up different obstacles, including the flying fox where two people at a time flew over the lake and the high ropes where we climbed through trees on platforms... and this was all before lunch!

Overall we all enjoyed camp immensely and it brought the grade closer together. All the activities were really fun and we loved the experience, even when we were pushing ourselves outside our comfort zone.

We would like to thank Mr Zakris, Mrs Agostino, Mr Arzapitian, Miss Allen, Mrs Holmes and Mr Haddad for organising and taking us on this camp as well as participating in the activities with us, making camp a memorable experience for all of us.

Elliana V
Year 9

Maya J & Crystal C
Year 10