RE News

Project Compassion

Project Compassion boxes went home with the children at the beginning of Lent. Unfortunately we were unable to have our Money Line fundraiser for Project Compassion at the end of Term 1. If you still have your money box at home, can you please send it to school. Caritas Australia will use this money to help the most vulnerable Australians during this difficult time. 

“Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things, with great love”

Saint Teresa of Calcutta

A Reflection on last Sunday’s Gospel: Pentecost

“In the evening of the first day of the week, the doors were closed in the room where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them. He said to them, ‘Peace be with you’, and showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were filled with joy when they saw the Lord, and he said to them again, ‘Peace be with you.

‘As the Father sent me,

so am I sending you.’

After saying this he breathed on them and said:

‘Receive the Holy Spirit.

For those whose sins you forgive,

they are forgiven:

for those whose sins you retain,

they are retained.’” (Jn 20:19-23)

When has the Spirit given you the strength to act with courage?

When and where in your life do you need the Holy Spirit’s help to speak out?

Family Prayer

Come Holy Spirit!                                                                                                                                                                     

Fill our hearts with your gifts

and kindle in them the fire of love.             

Amen

This coming Sunday is Trinity Sunday. In the second reading, we heard St Paul use a Trinitarian greeting in his second letter to the infant church at Corinth: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” Already this understanding of God was present in the very early Church and it would be further developed by the early Church Fathers

In John’s Gospel (3:16-18)  Jesus spoke to Nicodemus:

  “Jesus said to Nicodemus,

‘God loved the world so much

that he gave his only Son,

so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost

but may have eternal life.

For God sent his Son into the world

not to condemn the world,

but so that through him the world might be saved.

No one who believes in him will be condemned;

but whoever refuses to believe is condemned already,

because he has refused to believe

in the name of God’s only Son.’”

God is a love relationship. The Father loves the Son and Jesus loves the Father, and from their love the Holy Spirit bursts forth to give life to the world. The love between them is so strong, even though each is a unique and individual divine person, they act and love as one.