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"Blessings on Him who comes in the name of the Lord" shouts the crowds in last Sunday's Gospel. May we be always ready to share our blessings when we are sent in His name.
Dear Parents and Carers,
As we conclude Term 1 this week, I would like to express my sincere thanks and gratitude to our parent community for the support and encouragement we have received throughout this ongoing COVID-19 situation. In the variety of ways that you have assisted your child to remain connected to learning and the OLHC school community, we are all extremely grateful.
In addition, I would like to convey my deep appreciation for the OLHC staff. The last two weeks have seen us establish a new way of ‘being’. We have made many decisions, learnt from our mistakes, endured frustrations, entered into robust discussions and reflected deeply on our beliefs, both personally and professionally. We have also kept at the forefront of all of our thinking, our mission:
To be a place of faith, a place of love, and a place of learning.
This has been the basis of our planning that will aim to provide students with a fully developed remote learning experience from the start of Term 2. This means that the school will not be delivering face to face lessons until we are instructed to return to ‘school as normal’ by the State and Federal Governments through Catholic Education Diocese of Wollongong. At this stage schools will remain open, unless we are instructed otherwise, for students where there is no other alternative. However, the teaching and learning remains the same for all students. Whether present at school, or learning remotely at home, students will be completing the same learning and will continue to be supported by teachers through the giving of feedback in order to improve.
This planning has supported us to be in a position where we are able to respond rather than react as much as we can in a time of significantly fluid and rapid change. Our planning has been working in phases. The first phase was our immediate response which was to continue the teaching and learning. As we head into Term 2 we will be in phase 2 - remote teaching continuation to online learning. We are truly grateful for your support of teachers who have worked extremely hard to provide remote learning experiences that will commence at the beginning of Term Two on 27th April. The focus for phase 3 will be the transition from remote learning back to face-to-face teaching and learning.
During this holiest of weeks, we will be entering a very different Easter season. We cannot forget that the anguish, loss and frustrations we are currently feeling because of the pandemic, this is, in fact, our Good Friday. Our faith reminds us that through every Good Friday there is an Easter Sunday. There is that eternal hope of new life - that time where the love of God will be right before our eyes and where our faith will continue to be revealed as a true gift.
Holy Week and Easter calls us all into the liturgical life of the Church. Let us all set some time aside to engage in these extraordinary liturgies this week through private prayer and the watching of Parish liturgies. It is our Christian calling to gather as a prayer community. May our school community, our family lives and our broader Church all allow us to build a deeper relationship with our God this Easter Season.
Wishing you many blessings to you all for the Easter Break.
A Letter of Reflection and Support from myself and Peter Hill
Jane Webb
Prinicpal
Holy Week
Due to the changing state of our world we have adapted our Holy Week celebrations. For Years 3 - 6, in week 11, teachers will be sharing a google slides liturgy for Holy Week. While we can’t be together to celebrate this important week in the Church’s year we hope that this resource enables you, as a family, to take a moment to find solace in the Lord our God and give thanks for His Son, who came into this world so that we would know the love of God.
Parents with children in Kinder - Year 2 are invited to email me if you would like a copy.
ferderern02@dow.catholic.edu.au
Bishop Brian Mascord's Pastoral Message for East 2020
Thank you.
Natasha Ferderer
Religious Education Co-ordinator
In order for your child to be marked as flexible learning, it is necessary for them to submit work to his/her class teacher by 3.00pm otherwise they will be marked as absent.
We aim to continue to provide regular updates on Compass, so please keep a check of the app as often as you can. The latest information from the Catholic Education Diocese of Wollongong (CEDoW) office continues to appear on the wesbite http://www.dow.catholic.edu.au/covid19
For this reason, parents and carers will be contacted about changing the previously booked enrolment interview to a Telephone Conference Interview with Fr Sarkis and myself. This interview will be held at the same day and time as previously scheduled. All enrolment interviews are an opportunity to explore the hopes parents have for the education of their children within the context of the Catholic community here at OLHC, a chance to get to know more about the student and their individual needs and an opportunity for parents to ask questions in order to know more about the community they desire to be part of. We thank all our families in advance for adjusting to this new and hopefully, temporary new normal.
Parents of prospective Kindergarten 2021 students will be contacted early next term to confirm these arrangements.
Principal's Awards
Congratulations to the following students who, having attained three Merit Awards, are now eligible for a Principal's Award:
Congratulations to the following who have received a Merit Award on 3rd April (These awards will be presented to students on the resumption of school):
KM: Annabelle Chakar, Asher Khanarbkaew, Gisella Wijaya,
Carlos Yousif
1M: Orlando Arias, Marise Kosema, Amelia Meoushy
2M: Makanaka Karimusango, Noah Mickan, Riley Tabone
2W: Oskar Anderson, Lea Camoin, Lachlan Drake
3W: Eva Bolshakova, Loxley-Reid Dale, Jack Harrison
4M: Liam Crawford, Isabella Fazio, Sienna Holmes
4W: Anabelle Federico, Ignatius Przybylo, Peyton Venters
5M: Robbie Barrett-Vizcaino, Ayrton da Silva, Amou Malek
5W: Tom Abbott, Dennis Tran, Adrianna van Kints
6M: Enoch Biju, Samantha Burnett, Zachary Potts
6W: Atong Chol, Logan Hili, Lachlan Toseski
Compass App
eSafety Website
Happy birthdays and congratulations to the following students who celebrate an April Birthday.
Jessica Tran, Roselett Lijo, Peyton Thorpe-Slifer,
Teresa Jimmy, Peyton Venters, Benjamin Robin, Lilly Fenton, Josh Fonseca,
David Abraham, Liam Denniss, Jarrod Crawford, Elizabeth Lisita-Cocheci,
Alex D'Emanuele, Maka Angianga, Alannah Bou Merhi, Seinna Glover,
Lincoln Hickey,Emmanuel Venegas, Sophie Nunes.
A Letter to Parisioners from Father Sarkis
My dear Parishioners,
Since our current circumstances prevent us from being able to meet together over Easter at our usual Holy Week Ceremonies I have decided to write to you via email instead.
I simply want to say that I will be holding each and all of you in my heart as I offer the Divine Mysteries of Faith throughout this Sacred Triduum of our Redemption by Our Lord, Jesus Christ. As we recall the Paschal Mystery of Our Lord’s Death and Resurrection by which we have been forgiven redeemed and saved, I pray that each of you may be filled with the renewing grace of the Holy Spirit, and that you may be strengthened in these difficult days in the knowledge that God holds us and our lives in His Hands. In His Divine Providence, I am certain that from these dark days he will bring great good and blessings upon us and our lives- individually, in our families and Parish, and on the Church and the world. As I have said in my previous email to you, God can and does bring good out of evil and we will emerge from this time of testing stronger and more committed in our faith and hope and love.
I pray that each of you may truly experience the joy and peace, the blessings and grace of Jesus’ Death and Resurrection in this sacred time, and I wish each of you and your families a blessed and joyful Easter.
Please join with me and your fellow parishioners spiritually by uniting with each other by participating in the Sacred Ceremonies as they are live streamed from our Parish church on the Parish YouTube Channel that has been created. Commencing on Holy Thursday all the Ceremonies will be live streamed at the times below. And following Easter the normal daily Mass timetable will also be live streamed. Please see below for details. You may subscribe to the Parish YouTube channel via the following link, or by clicking the “YouTube” link on our Parish Website. Please note that Friday Mass will now be 9.00am (instead of 8.20am) until the current restrictions are lifted.
HOLY WEEK CEREMONIES 2020
All Masses and Ceremonies will be live streamed from the Parish church on YouTube at the following link:
PALM SUNDAY 5 April
10.00am - Mass
HOLY THURSDAY 9 April
7.30pm – SOLEMN MASS OF THE LORD’S SUPPER
Following Mass, I will be present before the Blessed Sacrament in the church from 9pm until 12midnight. With sadness I must do this alone this year. I ask you, if possible, to spend some time together at home uniting with me in prayer- perhaps praying the Rosary or reading the Scriptures or in prayerful silence. I will unite my prayer with Our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane, offering it for each of you, for the Church and the world. These 3 hours will also be live streamed, which will be enable you therefore to adore Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament spiritually from your home. At 12 midnight I will give a solemn Blessing with the Blessed Sacrament, asking Our Lord to specially bless each person who is watching at that moment with all the graces and mercy that flow from His Most Sacred Heart, and to pour forth upon the Church and the world, his purifying mercy and healing love. Fr. Sarkis.
GOOD FRIDAY 10 April
(A day of both fast and abstinence).
10.00am - STATIONS OF THE CROSS
3.00pm - SOLEMN COMMEMORATION OF THE LORD’S PASSION AND DEATH
HOLY SATURDAY 11 April
7.00pm – SOLEMN EASTER VIGIL and MASS OF THE LORD’S RESURRECTION.
*NOTE CHANGE OF TIME THIS YEAR FOR VIGIL MASS
EASTER SUNDAY 12 April
10.00am - SOLEMN MASS OF THE LORD’S RESURRECTION
NORMAL MASSES
Tuesday: 6.30pm
Wednesday: 9.00am
Thursday: 9.00am
Friday: 9.00am
Saturday: 6.00pm
Sunday: 10.00am (NO Mass at 8.30am)
While participating spiritually in Mass from home, I invite you to pray with me the following prayer for Spiritual Communion.
Prayer of Spiritual Communion
My Jesus, I believe that you are present in the Most Holy Sacrament.
I love you above all things and I desire to receive you in my soul.
Since I cannot at this moment receive you sacramentally,
Come at least spiritually into my heart.
I embrace you as if you were already there
And unite myself wholly to you.
Never permit me to be separated from you.
Amen.
I also invite you to pray the Prayer to St. Michael, Protector of the Church.
St. Michael the Archangel defend us in battle; be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the Devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, cast into Hell, Satan and all the other evil spirits who prowl through the world, seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.
May God Bless you all, and Our Lady Help of Christians protect you.
Yours sincerely in Christ,
Fr. Christopher G. Sarkis
Parish Priest
A Walk through Rosemeadow
A beautiful hard cover book on the theology and spirituality underpinning the design of the church, written by Father Sarkis, it contains full colour pictures of all the windows, art works and photographs from the Mass of Dedication. This book captures and explains the design and art of the church and gives simple spiritual synthesis of what we believe as Catholic Christians. Available to purchase from the Pious Goods Store - parish price $59.95 with cash or credit card only - for EFPTOS facilities, please visit the parish office during business hours. All proceeds from the book go to the church.