St Vincent de Paul Winter Appeal

Winter is well and truly here and in true Canberra style. Snow has fallen all around us bringing temperatures below 10 degrees during the day and into the minus during the night. How lucky are we – coming home to a warm, heated house, owning various items of clothing so we can ‘layer up’ and keep warm. Sadly, this isn’t the case for many of our neighbours. But, as members of God’s family, we are called to reach out to those in need. One way St Monica’s school community reaches out to those in need is by proudly supporting the Vinnies Winter Appeal, collecting new donations of warm winter clothes and blankets.

The Year 6 Social Justice Team will be visiting classes this Friday to start gathering donations that are brought in. We are hoping to collect the following new items:

• Gloves
• Socks
• Jackets
• Beanies
• Blankets
• Scarves
• Jumpers
• Tracksuit pants
• Sleeping Bags

All your kind donations go directly to people in need in our community or are sold at our local Vinnies Centres to raise funds for other forms of assistance like respite programs and crisis accommodation.

Sacrament of First Eucharist

Last Thursday was our First Eucharist Retreat Day. All of our Year 4 students engaged respectfully to investigate scripture, explore the key symbols from the scripture, pray through art, make bread and commit to an action as a Eucharistic person. We had fun sharing our thoughts and especially in making bread just like Jesus and the apostles would have had to do.

The retreat day was then followed by the Parent/Child formation evening. The candidates from both St Michael’s and St Monica’s shared what they had learned during the retreat day, enjoying breaking bread with their parents.

Please continue to pray for the candidates and their families as they continue to prepare for the Sacrament of First Eucharist next week.

Thank you for your prayers and support this term!