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The Sowing of the Seed
A peasant in Galilee would hope for a return of 7:1 when sowing seed for a crop. So when Jesus pictures the Kingdom of God as a wonderful harvest (returning 100:1 as he put it in another parable), his peasant listeners would envisage a future without hunger, without servitude to rapacious landlords and money-lenders. A true liberation (such as Mary sang of in the Magnificat)!
Naturally, they and we want to know when this new way of life, this fulfilling of the Kingdom of God, will come about. Our Lord replies: ‘Be patient. Your job is to sow the seed. Something will happen out of all proportion to your part in the process, just like the disproportion of the mustard seed to a mustard bush’ (which he exaggerates into a tree sheltering birds).
God’s creative power worked in the depths of stony ground of the tomb to raise up the Gospel Seed who is Jesus Christ. From that, a community has grown which, at its best, leads to a fair and just distribution of the world’s resources, as Pope Francis insists is a major test of authenticity of our claim to be Christian.
We could take a moment to pray for the courage to sow the seed of the Gospel whenever an opportunity presents itself, and the patience to await the germinating power of the Resurrection to create the Tree of Life such that all peoples ‘can shelter in its shade’.
© Fr Michael Tate; mtate@bigpond.com
Dear Families,
Last weekend our First Holy Communion and Confirmation candidates commenced their journey towards receiving the Sacraments by being presented at our local weekend masses. It was so great to see so many St Thomas More’s students at our Church on Saturday evening. We’ll keep our students and all the candidates in our prayers as they prepare for these important Sacraments.
Last week I introduced Dr Kristy Goodwin, who provides information for parents about the online world and their children. This week, rather than talking about online activities, I’d like to ask you, how much sleep do we need and why do we need a good night’s sleep? Dr Kristy informed us that a good night’s sleep is important, it provides the opportunity for our brains to process the day and is essential for learning. Poor sleeping habits lead to working memory and other learning concerns. For primary aged children the Australian Department of Health recommends 9 to 11 hours sleep per night and for teenagers 8 to 10 hours.
Adding to this in our modern world is blue light, the light emitted from our devices. Blue light has the potential to suppress melatonin, a natural chemical your body makes that is required for a good night sleep. Therefore, if we use our devices before bed then this may impact on our sleep.
Sleep is extremely important for our children to remain healthy and to learn, and we need to ensure our children are provided with the right environment and times for a good night’s sleep every night. Also don’t forget about yourselves, you too need a good night’s sleep of about 8 hours for your long-term health as well. How much sleep does your child get?
If you wish for more information, please follow the link to Dr Kristy Goodwin’s website. Also we receive a 20% discount to her online library, called the Switched on Parents' Portal, the portal is a digital library that contains professional recordings of similar presentations, webinar replays, eBooks, checklists etc. The discount code is ‘parents’.
A reminder that on 23rd June, Di from Care for Africa will be speaking with our community at 7pm to explain the program and how we will be helping out by donating our old uniforms. You are most welcome to attend the evening, and if you have any old uniforms in good condition please send them to the office.
Kind Regards,
Shayne Kidd
PRINCIPAL
11th June, 2021
Congratulations to Freya and Nate who have received 25 stickers in their Student Acknowledgement booklets. These stickers are given to students displaying positive and respectful behaviour in the playground. They are a great role model for others. Well done!
Congratulations to the following students who received awards this week:
Queen's Birthday - Public Holiday Mon 14th June
Reminder that Monday, 14th June is the Queen's Birthday Public Holiday. There is no school on this day.
Care for Africa presentation 23rd June, 7pm
As we are transitioning to new uniforms, we have been donated many old uniforms. As such, we have reached out to Di from Care for Africa, who will donate our old uniforms to students in Africa.
If you would like to find out more about this, you are welcome to join our combined Board and P&F presentation on 23rd June at 7pm. If you have any old uniforms in good condition, please bring them to our office and we’ll pass them on to Care for Africa.
We have a number of student-led lunchtime clubs operating at STM. These clubs are organised and run by the students themselves. Each club has Club Co-Ordinators. If they need teacher assistance they seek that out themselves and put forward a 'pitch' to the teacher. Club CoOrdinators have created posters promoting their club and these are displayed in our new student noticeboard.
St Thomas More's Cup: House points update
Congratulations to Tenison house who was awarded the St Thomas More Cup for most House points received in Term 2!
To recap, last year we commenced a House points system to acknowledge the collective effort of individual and House groups, by awarding the House with the most points each term with the St Thomas More's Cup.
House points are collated from the number of school stickers earned by students. The school stickers are earned by being role models and examples of our school rules in our playground - Be Respectful, Be Responsible and Be a Learner. House points can also be earned by Houses at the whole school assembly for being respectful audience members.
STM students have been talking about some key concepts in online safety - Be Safe, Be Kind, Ask for Help and Make Good Choices. Students in Grade 1/2 have designed their own eSafety posters. Here are just a few examples.
Attached, the Launceston Parish Bulletin for 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B (12/13 June 2021).
Regards,
Fr Mark Freeman