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- Plastic-Free Picnic Day
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- Inside Out 4 Kids - Expression Of Interest
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The Once and Future King
The Parable of the Pharisee & the Tax Collector (Luke 18:9-14)
A reflection on the Gospel from the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)
Written by Mr Casimir Douglas
“For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and but all who humble themselves will be exalted. ” (Luke 18:14)
In this passage, Luke’s Jesus teaches about the virtue of humility. The story contains the common Lukan parabolic structure of heroes and villains. The tax collector is the hero, and the Pharisee is the villain. The story is at once a rebuke of those gathered in the crowd whom Luke describes as: ‘priding themselves on being virtuous and despising everyone else’, and also a rebuke to the Pharisees. The Pharisees were the Jewish law-keepers, and valued litigiousness, righteousness, and fidelity to the laws of the Torah above all else; they were the scholarly and priestly class of the time. Tax collectors on the other hand were despised by Romans and Hebrews alike.
The story form of parable must not be confused with the story form of myth. Indeed, the two are at the opposite ends of the spectrum of story function. Where myth explains the world, that is, it explains why the world is the way that it is; parable subverts the world, it shows the world the way that it is, and suggests how it instead should be. In this parable, Jesus subverts the notion that holy Pharisaic class are the example of Discipleship, and instead uses the image of the lowly and reviled tax collector as the example of Discipleship. For Jesus’ intended audience, and for the intended audience of the Gospel of Luke, this is a profound and potentially inflammatory world view.
But, Jesus gives us real eyes to realise where the real lies. Read that again, slowly.
Ultimately, Luke’s Jesus is teaching where real faith lies, what real faith is, and is challenging us to a discipleship and spirituality that is not characterised by ritual purity, perfection, litigiousness and righteousness; but a faith that is simple, humble and places God first.
The Pharisee’s prayer in the parable is all about himself; what he does right and what he knows, and how and why he is better than everyone else. His faith is not to God. But to himself. The Pharisee positions himself as the knower and not the learner. There is only one teacher: Christ, the Once and Future King.
To grow, to improve, and to flourish, is predicated on one’s capacity to learn. By this, I do not mean one’s intelligence quotient, or speed of cognitive processing, but by a genuine openness, curiousness, and desire for self-improvement. In our educational endeavours and enterprise, as teachers, parents, and students, we must be prepared to humble ourselves, to accept our ignorance, our naivety, and our foolishness, and to cherish those as hallmarks of the faithful learner.
To conclude this reflection and emphasise this point, I share the passage below from the novel, The Once and Future King, by T.H. White (1958):
"The best thing for being sad," replied Merlyn, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then—to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the thing for you. Look at what a lot of things there are to learn.”
Look, St Thomas More’s Catholic School community, at what a lot of things there are to learn.
Friday 21st October, 2022
Dear Parents and Carers,
SALUTATION
Grace to you and peace.
STM TV: TERM 4 - WEEK 1, 2022
STM TV is our school's weekly episodic YouTube show designed to share the key learning experiences of nominated students each week to engage our parents and the broader community in the learning journey of our school.
Please find below the episode for Term 4 - Week 1, 2022, which explores the upcoming Grandparents Day next Monday, dinosaurs, plays, trombones, coordinates, and floods! We hope you enjoy it!
GOSPEL VALUE AWARDS: EMPATHY
The following students received a Gospel Value Award during the School Assembly as nominated by their class teacher for exemplifying the Gospel value of EMPATHY this week:
Elliott Hammersley | Prep More |
Scarlett De Virieux | Prep Thomas |
Lucy Claxton | Grade 1/2 More |
Isla Hawkins | Grade 1/2 Saint |
Amelia Birtwistle | Grade 1/2 Thomas |
Kai Thomas | Grade 3/4 More |
Ethan Crawford | Grade 3/4 Saint |
Nate Pedder | Grade 3/4 Thomas |
Oscar Gleeson | Grade 5/6 More |
Anabelle Haigh | Grade 5/6 Thomas |
These students will also attend the Principal’s Morning Tea this coming Tuesday (25th October) morning during the first break at 10:50am with myself and Fr Chathura Silva or Fr Jesse Banez.
During the school holidays from Thursday 20th to Sunday 23rd October, seven students from our school, supported by two staff members travelled to Canberra to participate in the Tournament of Minds (TOM) International Finals. The team qualified for the finals tournament after claiming first place in the State Finals in Hobart in the Language Literature section.
TOM is a program for all primary and secondary students providing the opportunity to solve authentic, open-ended challenges that foster creative, divergent thinking whilst developing collaborative enterprise, excellence and teamwork. And this team of students and staff committed hours, days, and weeks of time into preparing their presentation for the finals, and bracing themselves for the challenges the multi-day event would bring.
The team is to be commended on an outstanding effort, and are to be celebrated for representing themselves, their peers, their families and their school with pride, endeavour, and excellence!
I wish express my sincere gratitude to Mrs Angela Edwards and Mr Anthony Healey for volunteering to travel to Canberra with the students to support them in their learning and striving, and to take time away from their families during the school holidays.
This Thursday 20th October, our Grade 6 students were treated to some special visitors from St Patrick's College who came to speak to our students about their impending transition to secondary school and life at St Patrick's College. We welcomed Ms Deborah Cottle (Director of Curriculum - Middle School) and Ms Carmen Robotham (Director of Pastoral Care - Middle School) from the College to answer our students' questions, share insight into learning routines and structures, and provide some hints and tips on just how to unlock the padlocks for the lockers!
Having conducted many of these visits myself over the years, I can speak to the importance of the transition visit from both sides of the fence. It is a critically important step on the transition journey for our students and a valuable reconnaissance and information-gathering mission for our visiting guests.
SOCK-TOBER: CRAZY SOCK DAY!
This Friday 21st October, all students and staff were invited to wore their most zany, outrageous, creative and colourful socks to join in our celebration for Crazy Sock Day! The day is held to raise money and awareness for World Mission Month, and involves a soccer shootout competition, for which I was nominated as goalie and emulated Socceroos World Cup Qualification hero, Andrew Redmayne!
However, the World Mission Month focus is more than just socks and soccer. All students will also engage in a month special prayer and learning experiences, and we celebrated Mass as a whole school on Wednesday (19th October) emphasising social justice and our school's Gospel Values.
I wish to express my sincere gratitude to Mrs Belinda Taylor (again!) for her careful preparation, exacting organisation, and quality leadership!
FINAL GREETING
if your family are not returning to St Thomas More's Catholic School in 2023 (excluding students leaving Year 6 2022), please email stm@catholic.tas.edu.au to advise.
Congratulations to Gemma Richardson for reaching 25 starts in her student acknowledgement booklet.
Congratulations to Alexis Harmey who recently represented Tasmania at the National Touch Football Youth Championships on the Sunshine Coast. The Tasmanian team did exceptionally well against some very strong Queensland and NSW teams. Congratulations Alexis.
Metro Bus Service - Friday 4 November 2022
The Department of Education has advised that Friday 4 November will be a student-free day in northern Tasmania for state primary and high schools from kindergarten to grade ten. As the secondary colleges and the majority of non-government schools will be open as normal, Metro will make some alterations to school bus services as follows:
Friday 4 November, 2022 only
Route 811 from Prospect Marketplace to St Leonards schools will operate via the normal route to Abbott St.
Route 820 from Queechy High to the City will start from Abbott St at 3.10pm, then via the normal route to the City.
Route 822 from St Leonards schools to St Patrick’s College will depart Abbott St at 3.12pm approx, then via the normal route to St Patrick’s College.
General public services on Metro’s Launceston network will continue to operate to the Term weekday timetable.
This information will also be made available on the Metro website and communicated through our social media channels. It would be appreciated if this information could also be shared across the school community.
Should the school have any questions regarding these arrangements, please contact the Metro Hotline on 13 22 01 or email contact@metrotas.com.au
During Term 4, whilst at recess or lunch, we will hold an unannounced emergency practice with staff & students to test our response to a potential scenario that staff identify a threat warranting the school to go into lockdown (opposite to evacuation).
Like fire evacuation drills, we recognised the worth of testing this process.
We have plans to make this practice as least disruptive as possible.
If you have queries, please call our Safety Officer, Simon Natoli on 0400 105 476.
Thank you to everyone who wore their crazy socks and donated money to Catholic Mission today. It was great to see so many students kicking goals for Ethiopia during our breaks today. Please watch this short video about Ethiopia. We will share our final total with you in next week's newsletter.
As part of National Recycling Week, we are hosting a Wearable Arts Competition in November. It is optional to join in but there will be some great prizes thanks to the 1st place prize money we won for our scarecrow at the recent Launceston Show. We look forward to seeing all of your creative ideas! See our poster for more details.
? Mrs Kidd and the Conservation Club
On Tuesday 25 October we are having a plastic-free picnic on the oval (or indoors if the weather is wet). This means students need to bring a lunchbox with NO PLASTIC, please.
Waste-free lunches contain only items that are eaten, composted or recycled. They don’t contain wrappers or packaging that will be thrown in the rubbish bin. Your child can also bring a picnic blanket to sit on with their friends and buddies. Here are some ideas and recipes to help you with planning.
Mrs Kidd and the Conservation Club
Inside Out 4 Kids - Expression Of Interest
The Change, Grief and Loss Program is an engaging small group program that will run over 7 weeks at STM and focuses on understanding the emotions associated with change, grief and loss. Each session will be 2-5 students and for 45mins.
Your privacy and dignity is important to us, and therefore what is discussed would remain between the students and their facilitator. The emphasis is on strategies and understanding emotions, not on the cause of the grief.
If you are unsure if this program is suitable for your child, please indicate so on the form and we can contact you with more information early Term 4. More information about the program can be found here:
https://www.citymission.org.au/find-a-service/insideout4kids
In order to begin Week 2 of Term 4, we require EOI no later than Friday 21st October. Thank you.
Expressions of Interest Google Form: https://forms.gle/mKHoKRJNbMrq8V3N8