Sunday’s gospel was the story of Jesus walking on the water and Peter’s attempts at faith in the storm, it was an important one to share together.

On Monday for our karakia as a school we looked closely at this particular passage and we considered how, when Jesus called to Peter to come to him across the water, Peter could walk towards Jesus while he kept his eyes focused on him. It was only when Peter took his eyes off Jesus and focused on the storm sea and his fear of it that Peter began to sink and needed to call out to Jesus to help him.

We concluded our karakia and reflection with the following prayer:

Jesus, you walked on the stormy sea and called Peter to come to you across the water.

You call us out of our boats, onto the stormy seas of life.

May we be bold and courageous in our service of you and others, sharing our faith confidently with everyone around us.

Give us the grace of faith that is strong, that can stand the test of difficult times and remain true.

Give us gentle hearts to reach out to those who are finding the storms in their lives challenging. May we lend a hand to pull others up out of difficulty so that they can find peace and see you in us.

Amen.

Youth Group

Last week during the Ignite Youth Group session we also focused on this particular gospel and the students were led through a meditation in which they used their imaginations to place themselves with Jesus in a boat on the sea. The students, Ivory, the youth worker for the parish, and Fr Matthew all spoke about enjoying the experience and the peacefulness of it. We hope to share with the young people in the group a range of prayer experiences as a way to provide more opportunities for them to encounter the person of Jesus Christ in their own lives and in their own prayer. Meditation is a valuable experience for all of us and the Catholic Church encourages the use of the imagination in prayer as a means by which we might become more connected to the gospel stories and to Christ in our prayer.

Antioch

All young people in Years 9-13 are invited to attend an Antioch camp beginning on the final day of Term Three and continuing through that weekend at the beginning of the holidays. It is a rich experience of encounter and young people gain a lot from the peer ministry involved. Young adults and members of the Catholic Youth Team will lead the camp.

We encourage everyone who is interested to go online and register. If there are any concerns with payment for the camp, please feel free to get in touch either with me joanie.roberson@johnpaul.ac.nz, the parish office or Ivory, the parish youth worker. We will be more than happy to help.

Parish Ministries

We continue to be delighted to see that some of our young people are fully involved in the Parish and participating in ministries. Being involved in ministries in the parish helps young people to feel connected and valued and we encourage our families who would like to, to seek opportunities for students to become more deeply involved in the life of the parish in this particular area.

Assumption Feast Day Mass

We enjoyed a lovely celebration of the patronal feast day for Aotearoa New Zealand. This was a special day for us as members of a Catholic community in Aotearoa as we recalled our Catholic origins in New Zealand and celebrated this feast which is also deeply connected to the Marist charism connected to our school.

New Zealand was dedicated to Mary as “Our Lady Assumed into Heaven', by Bishop Pompallier when he celebrated the first Mass in Aotearoa New Zealand at Totara point in the Hokianga on 13th of January 1838.

Staff Professional Development

Two of our staff members have recently been to the Champagnat in the Pacific, Marist retreat in Auckland. This is a four day retreat which helps to develop staff understanding of the Marist charism. It also places before staff key stories and concepts relevant to all Catholic Educators. It is an important opportunity which is provided each year for staff in Champagnat Marist and dual charism schools where the Champagnat Marist charism is also present and provides plenty of opportunities for reflection on how to live the mission more fully in the Catholic school environment. Madeline Campbell and Trish Dellaway join a large number of staff who have been to the retreat over the years and who have remained in the school. We will be hearing more about their experiences in the coming weeks and seeing the inspiration the retreat has provided.

Social Action

Sixteen of our students are supporting the work of the Cancer Society today but spending an hour at a time in groups of four assisting with the Daffodil Day collection. We are very proud of the group of students who volunteered to be part of this wonderful action for the good of others.

September 3-9 is Social Justice Week. Social Justice Week in 2023 is the beginning of something very special. For the next three years the focus will be on peace and responding to conflict. The overarching tagline for the three years is: ‘Imagine Peace For All / Pohewatia te Rangimārie mō te Katoa’.

Each year there will be a unique focus and for 2023 it is:

‘Peace begins with you! / Ka tīmata tonu te Rangimārie i roto i ā koe!’.

In Religious Studies classes and as a staff and school we will be reflecting on how we can make peace with others and support the building up of peace in our world through our own interactions. We will also spend time praying for peace and praying for the courage to be peacemakers.

New Initiative

We are grateful to those who have responded to our request for support with cooking meals but we still need more support for this initiative for families. We advertised in the Parish Newsletter as well but had few responses. Therefore, we are asking again if anyone else is able to join a team of people to make meals for families in need. All resources will be provided. We just need a team of people who can volunteer some time to support this. If you would like to be part of this group please contact the DRS, Joanie Roberson at joanie.roberson@johnpaul.ac.nz.

We continue to pray for all of our families, to ask God to bless them and Mary, our good mother, to protect us all.

Congratulations to former student Callum Donaldson!