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Dear Families,
As we close our first week of Advent, a week that focuses on hope, I find myself reflecting on our school theme this year, “Disciples with Hope to Bring”. It is our job, as people of faith and of hope, regardless of our age, to be lights for our world and to spread the goodness that surrounds us, for those to experience who might be unable to find it alone. When Mary found out that she was pregnant with Jesus she didn’t say “No, God, not me”, but she approached it with hope and with faith that God would provide all that she needed, and all that we needed, through her. And Joseph? In that time it would have been completely appropriate for him to just “cut and run” but no, he stayed, with hope and with love for his God, and for Mary and for the world and the light to come. The three wisemen followed the star. The shepherds too followed the directives of the angels. “Fear not” and they didn’t. They went forth with hope, into the unknown because of the greatness they believed existed, because of their faith in God. We too, in hopeful anticipation, follow the star each year as we journey to Bethlehem. We walk with hope, and faith in God. We believe in the goodness of the world, among the despair, because we walk as children of light, and of the sons and daughters of day. We are the people of God, and together we build the kingdom, one day, one kindness, one action at a time. We walk by faith, not by sight, and we walk together just as the shepherds and the magi and Mary and Joseph did.
This week, we celebrated hope in the story of Mary Poppins, which our 2nd and middle school students got to experience at the 5th Avenue Theatre today. Mary Poppins classically reminds people to have faith and to believe. There is always hope with Mary Poppins. Likewise, our students got to model what it meant to be stewards, and good stewards of a theatre, and experience an environment outside their norm. For some of our 3rd graders, tomorrow they too will experience an opportunity to be outside their norm, being stewards in a service capacity at Westside Baby. This weekend, our student council and some of our 8th graders will share more stories of hope in our feast day celebrations! This too is stewardship. What hope our children bring each day.
Speaking of hope, a HUGE thank you to our families who participated in Shoeboxes of Joy! As a school we collected 133 boxes, making 133 people’s lives just a little bit brighter because of your generosity. Our KINDERGARTEN class brought in the most shoeboxes, and will be receiving a hot chocolate party by the parish! In the end, between parish and school combined, there were over 180 boxes, with the school brining in about 80% of them. Way to go, Bulldogs!
Friday kicks off our St. Vincent de Paul Item and Dollar Drive. Every canned good, every box of food, every item makes an impact. Nothing is too little, or not important enough. If you’d use it, if it’s not expired, if it’s still in it’s original packaging (wrapped granola bars, etc), bring it in!
See you tomorrow for Light up the Night! We look forward to kicking off our Feast Day weekend bringing our whole community together! See more below and in the FCE tomorrow!
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