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God is Grace: "The Lord is My Shepherd" (Psalm 23:1)
Jesus the Good Shepherd (John 10:27-30)
A reflection on the Gospel from the Fourth Sunday of Easter (Year C)
Written by Mr Casimir Douglas
“Light enters through the wound.” – Rumi
Rumi is a renowned Islamic poet and philosopher from Persia in the 13th Century CE. His quote above reminds us that it is when we are hurt, broken, suffering, and struggling that God’s Grace enters our lives and heals, nurtures, protects and reconciles – as the Good Shepherd. The ultimate, emphatic and defining revelation of this truth is the incarnation of God in the person of Jesus who shared in our very human hurt, brokenness, suffering, and struggle, in order to reconcile us to God. Christ told us repeatedly: “I am the Light of the World” (John 8:12, John 9:5, John 12:46).
Although our supermarkets have long since torn down the displays of chocolate eggs, hot cross buns and fluffy white bunnies, the Church continues to reflect on the Paschal Mystery, that is: Jesus’ sacrifice and the new life found in His Resurrection. This past Sunday at Mass we celebrated the Fourth Sunday of Easter, it is an occasion colloquially referred to as ‘Good Shepherd Sunday’.
The reading from the Gospel of John (10:27-30) paints the image of the Good Shepherd: “My sheep hear my voice, I know them and they follow me”. Pope Francis’ homily on this passage from St Peter’s Basilica in 2019 reminds us that the role of the Good Shepherd is an active one: “We see that the work of Jesus is [in this passage] expressed in a number of actions: He speaks, he knows, gives eternal life, guards”. The image of the Good Shepherd is one that is central to our school’s task of pastoral care. St Thomas More’s Catholic School’s Pastoral Care Protocol states: “The very origin of the phrase ‘pastoral care’ is in Jesus’ pastoral image of the Good Shepherd (John 10:1-18). Here the Good Shepherd is one who looks after his sheep and will lay his life down for them”.
In the term ahead, new and unheralded experiences await our students; challenges, successes, trials, tribulations and triumph. Facing the unknown is often a daunting task, one that young people face with uncertainty, anxiety and fear, and they may feel lost and vulnerable. In the parable of the Lost Sheep, the image of the Good Shepherd is one whose compassion for the lost and vulnerable knows no bounds, and as our students face the challenges ahead, our compassion and support for them will know no bounds.
An enduring and popularised image of the shepherd is one of a man with an injured sheep slung over his shoulders behind the back of his neck, carrying the lost and vulnerable animal in an act that is the very definition of pastoral care. However, we have learned through historical research that it was commonplace for Hebrew shepherds to break one of the legs of the troublesome sheep who were prone to wandering from the flock. Not only would this prevent them from further escape attempts, but over the time period of healing, the shepherd would indeed carry the sheep, feed it, nurture it, and protect it. All this was done in order for the sheep to develop a psychological dependence on the shepherd, so that when it was fully healed, it would stay near the shepherd and not stray from the path.
I tell you all this not because we intend to break the legs of any misbehaving, unperforming, lost or vulnerable students, but because so many young people in our society are already lost, vulnerable or broken in so many different ways. And this means that to exercise pastoral care in the image of Jesus’ Good Shepherd is not just the calling of the teacher, but of the entire faith community; staff, students, family and friends alike. The added complexity of the task is that we do not seek to merely engineer a bond with our students to ensure compliance, but that we must develop life-giving relationships in which that process of healing, nurturing and protecting supports both our students in the present, and prepares them for their futures beyond our pastures. I wish to express my sincere gratitude to all those in our community committed to the exercise of pastoral care in the image of the Good Shepherd.
Friday 20th May, 2022
Mosaic in the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia
Ravenna, Italy, c. 425
Dear Parents and Carers,
SALUTATION
Grace to you and peace.
GOSPEL VALUE AWARDS: EMPATHY
At our Prayer Assembly on Monday morning this week, I spoke again to our students about our focus Gospel value for the month of May: EMPATHY. I highlighted to our students that to live with the value of empathy requires both understanding and action. That is we recognise, understand and acknowledge the feelings of another, and then act compassionately to support and stand in solidarity. Indeed, that to truly express empathy is to be willing to trade places with another. To illustrate this message I shared with the students the story of Jesus healing a man with leprosy (Mark 1:40-45).
The following students received a Gospel Value Award during the School Assembly (held via Zoom) on Friday 20th May for an act of empathy captured by their teacher this week:
Ollie Notman | Prep Thomas |
Chase Offer | Prep More |
William Finlay | Grade 1/2 More |
Amelia Birtwistle | Grade 1/2 Thomas |
Kip Cruse | Grade 1/2 Saint |
Mason Swain | Grade 3/4 More |
Kohan Leggett | Grade 3/4 More |
Rubi Butwell | Grade 3/4 Saint |
Dex Cassidy | Grade 3/4 Thomas |
Sara Adams | Grade 5/6 More |
Max Woolcott | Grade 5/6 Saint |
Isla Stephens | Grade 5/6 Thomas |
These students will also attend the Principal’s Morning Tea this coming Tuesday (24th May) morning during first break at 10:50am with Mr Douglas, Fr Chathura Silva and Fr Jesse Banez.
SCHOOLS FUTSAL TOURNAMENT
This coming Tuesday 24th May & Wednesday 25th May, we have nearly forty students from Grades 3-5 participating in the Schools Futsal Tournament at Elphin Sports Centre. I wish to express my sincere gratitude for the parents in our community who have volunteered to coach, supervise and support these teams during the event. I must please ask that we remember that this whilst this tournament is important to our students, that it is not the World Cup (which is happening in December in billion dollar stadiums in Qatar). It is the expectation that parents and spectators will fully support, endorse, and accept the decision of our volunteers coaches. Yes, it is their responsbility to ensure that our children participate and have fun, but it is also their responsbility to maximise the performance and potential of the team. Good luck to all students competing in the tournament. I look forward to catching a couple of the games down at Elphin Sports Centre next week!
TREAD LIGHTLY SHOE DRIVE
On Tuesday 27th May, the students from Grade 5/6 More featured on the front page of the Examiner for their engagement with the Tread Lightly Shoe Drive. The drive is a national recycling initiative of the Australian Sporting Goods Association that takes unwanted sport and active lifestyle footwear and responsibly recycles it to give it new life. The class, under the guidance and leadership of their teacher, Miss Jessica McLauchlan, collected over 260 second-hand and unused pairs of shoes. These have been collected by Tread Lightly and taken away to be transformed into items such as gym mats, flooring, and playground equipment. I am proud and pleased with the efforts of these students, and their achievement is to be acknolwedged and celebrated by all members of the school community. Their actions are in keeping with our Catholic value of stewardship, the need for sustainable practices in our local and global community, and the divine call to ecological responsbility by Pope Francis in his 2015 encyclical, Laudato si'. Additionally, St Thomas More's Catholic School were the announced as the statewide winners of the drive. Congratulations to Grade 5/6 More!
CROSS COUNTRY
On Wednesday 18th May our students participated in the Cross Country carnival, representing their House groups with pride and enthusiam and getting covered in mud and sweat! The Cross Country carnival enables students to develop and maintain their personal fitness and wellbeing, build resilience, demonstrate House spirit and cultivate school culture. All students gave their very best effort in the races, and the winners of these races and the results of the carnival have been included in this Newsletter below. Congratulations to all students for their excitement, pariticipation and energy, and well done to Tenison House on claiming the Cross Country Cup!
This week, St Thomas More's Catholic School began the Pass the Baton Challenge, in which all our students and classes will work and walk together to virtually cover the 22,046,062 steps required to circumnavigate the Australian mainland. What began as a numeracy extension project for our Grade 1 students, has grown into a whole-school learning, fitness and wellbeing focus as a way to both stimulate learning and encourage movement and activity in the cooler months. Each class has been allocated a “milestone”, or leg, of the walk. Once the class has reached the end of their leg around Australia, they will ceremonially Pass the Baton to the next class to take over. The progress for the challenge is tracked through the World Walking website. Grade 5/6 Saint have begun proceedings, and have the task of transporting the baton from Brisbane to Cairns. Stay tuned for further updates in the coming weeks!
I wish to express my sincere gratitude to Mr Damien Brown for his creativity, leadership, and drive of this initiative.
PARKING DURING SCHOOL PICK-UP TIME
I wish to express my sincere gratitude to all parents and carers for their support of, cooperation with, and understanding of, the school's expectations and renewed focus this term on safe, respectful, and considerate road behaviours on Campbell St and Abbott St during pick-up time. Staff, Parents, and the Road Safety Advisory Council have provided positive feedback on the improved safety for our students as a result of this renewed focus. Stephen Covey, a seminal author on the practice of leadership famously wrote: "The main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing". Thank you to all members of our community for keeping our main thing as the safety of our children.
On the evening of Tuesday 17th May at Sacred Heart Church in Newstead, children in the Launceston Parish, including students from St Thomas More's Catholic, participated in their first Sacrament of Reconciliation. The students have been busily preparing for their engagement in penance by engaging in three faith sharing sessions over past month in which they have learned about the nature of Sacraments, the purpose of reconciliation, and the role of the individual, family, and parish in the life of faith. Thank you very much to the Parish's Coordinator of the Sacramental Program, Mrs Rosie Caelli, and our own Religious Education Coordinator, Mrs Belinda Taylor, for all of their work in preparing and supporting our students for their first Sacrament of Reconciliation.
The intent of the sacrament of Reconciliation in the Catholic Church is restorative justice—returning the individual to God, to their faith community, and to their best selves. Asking people to “confess” what they have gotten wrong in their relationships is an important first step, but only a first step. True repair and restoration take much more than a bit of penance and a handful of Hail Marys, not that those aren’t fine places to start. I hope that we Christians will find the courage to take the example of Jesus seriously and think about how we can make all the justice we seek restorative, especially for the “least of these.”
Howard Zehr has written some of the foundational texts on restorative justice, including Changing Lenses: Restorative Justice for Our Times. In the 25th anniversary edition of this text, Zehr includes outlines practices to help us live restorative justice as a way of life. These are listed below, and I pray that our students engaging in the Sacrament, and that we ourselves, may observe these practices as a sign of our solidarity with one another:
- Take relationships seriously, envisioning yourself in an interconnected web of people, institutions, and the environment.
- Try to be aware of the impact—potential as well as actual—of your actions on others and the environment.
- When your actions negatively impact others, take responsibility by acknowledging and seeking to repair the harm—even when you could probably get away with avoiding or denying it.
- Treat everyone respectfully, even those you don’t expect to encounter again, even those you feel don’t deserve it, even those who have harmed or offended you or others.
- Involve those affected by a decision, as much as possible, in the decision-making process.
- View the conflicts and harms in your life as opportunities.
- Listen, deeply and compassionately, to others, seeking to understand even if you don’t agree with them. (Think about who you want to be in the latter situation rather than just being right.)
- Engage in dialogue with others, even when what is being said is difficult, remaining open to learning from them and the encounter.
- Be cautious about imposing your “truths” and views on other people and situations.
- Sensitively confront everyday injustices including sexism, racism, and classism [and other examples of systemic and intersectional injustice].
FINAL GREETING
May the grace of Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
God bless,
Mr Casimir Douglas
Principal
Congratulations to those students who received awards at assembly today!
Kinder 2023 enrolments - now open
Enrolments for Kinder 2023 are now open. All new and existing St Thomas More's families wishing to enrol their child for Kinder 2023 must submit an Expression of Interest to avoid disappointment. The EOI is available from our website Enrolment Expression of Interest. Enrolments close 31st May, 2022.
Prep Hagley Farm School Excursion
Prep T and M were channelling their inner farmer this week during our visit to the Hagley Farm School and here is a snapshot of the day:
Preps had a great day at Hagley.
We stepped back in time and experienced what it was like to live in the “olden days.” We really loved dressing up and seeing how much school has changed … thankfully our teachers are not as strict as Mr Grumpy! We had no idea pens had to be dipped in ink all of the time ... and they did not have textas and pencils.
We explored the agricultural and home industry museums. We had a go at grinding wheat, hand washing and ironing clothes and playing shops. We also got to be blacksmiths and learned that telephones used to have funny dials and “computers” (typewriters) did not have screens. How weird! It really made us appreciate the modern appliances we have at home and school now.
The best bit was the tractor ride, we got a tour of the farm and saw lots of animals. We even saw a live rescue of a sheep stuck in a fence, a rouge chicken that kept following us all day and some newborn calves.
We would like to thank all of the adults who came along to help our classes have a fantastic experience.
And parents/carers … don’t get any ideas about making us do our own washing and ironing!
Band Soiree coming up- Thursday 2nd June
Our first Band Soiree is scheduled to be held on Thursday, 2nd of June, 5.30pm in the Josphite Hall. We look forward to seeing our band musicians display their musical prowess!
To ensure your child/rens names are included in the programme, please return the reply slip to the STM office, emailed recently from the St Patrick's College music program team. A copy is also attached below for reference.
Student medical details changed?
Have your child's medical details changed?
Please ensure the school has up to date medical information for your child/ren, including medical plans and in-date medication. If medication needs replenishing or is about to expire, please bring it to the office at your earliest convenience.
Thank you for your assistance.
This term we will hold an unannounced emergency practice with staff and students, to test our response to a potential scenario that staff identify a threat warranting the school go into lockdown (opposite to evacuation).
Like for fire evacuation drills, we recognised the worth to test this process. We have plans in place to make this practice as least disruptive as able. If you have queries you are welcome to call our Safety Officer Simon Natoli on 0400 105 476
Thank you for your generosity in donating old uniforms to the school.
We are no longer collecting the old style uniforms for donation at this time, however if you have current uniforms you wish to donate, this would be greatly appreciated and please drop them in to the office.
Thank you for your support.