In last weekend’s Gospel, Jesus spoke in parables to the people. The first was the Parable of the Weeds and the second was the Parable of the Mustard Seed and the Yeast. Put simply, the first of these parables was about the way that good and evil people grow up together but on the day of judgement, the weeds will be cast aside and the good will be gathered up to God. In the second parable, He explained that the small things can grow and contribute to greatness. Each of these parables encourages us to think about how we might behave within our world and influence, or be influenced by, those around us. Jesus spoke in parables to try to explain morals and religious teaching through stories that people would relate to. He used ideas and events to teach that were common at the time. This underlies the personal relationship that Jesus forms with each of us. In putting things into stories of the times, He was relating to people on their level. As Catholics, we cherish this personal relationship and work toward strengthening it. 

Today we were due to celebrate our feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Unfortunately, the restrictions on gatherings has meant that we were not able to come together as we normally would. The students participated in a small liturgy in Pastoral Classes at the start of the day and were invited to join in the regular Friday Rosary. It was lovely to see so many students involved and saying a prayer that is so important to both our Carmelite and Marist charism. I wish all of our community a very happy Our Lady of Mount Carmel Day.

At the end of last term we distributed our first whole school electronic Compass academic reports. These were a change from previous reports and were in a new format with more information. We then conducted our Parent/Teacher/Student meetings via zoom or telephone. In order to gain some valuable feedback on your thoughts and experiences of these, I am asking parents to complete a short Google survey. This will allow us to evaluate the impact and benefit of these and possibly refine them into the future. You are able to access this Parent Survey here.

Whilst public masses have been resumed over the last few weeks, they still have restricted numbers. Bishop Brian Mascord has continued the YouTube channel where the faithful can watch him celebrate mass with us, and on our behalf. The link to this mass is here. Please log into this site each weekend and join Bishop Brian online for the celebration of the Eucharist.

Mr Steve Lo Cascio