May God bless all of us during this most holy season of renewal.
Lent in the Lower School at Sacred Heart 2008
Parents,
We want to share with you what has been going on in the Lower School during this holy season of Lent. All students made a Lenten promise, written on a paper caterpillar now patiently waiting inside a paper bag cocoon that hangs on a bare tree in the chapel. Our promises help us prepare our hearts for Easter, and remind us that we try to transform our lives to be the loving, promise-keeping people God calls us to be. When returning from the Easter break, we will transform our caterpillars into butterflies, as a symbol of the new life we are all promised by the resurrection of our Lord. We remember that God always keeps his promises! The first grade students also received a Lenten calendar to follow.
The church asks us to help the needy during Lent. In the Lower School, we have helped children around the world through the Holy Childhood Association. Children have been generously filling Lenten “wallets” with coins that will go to needy children. The third and fourth grade students were invited to enter a toy-making contest held throughout the Archdiocese, helping raise awareness that all children are special and loved by God. Sr. Judy Gomila from the Archdiocesan Mission office, visited us and shared about her missionary experiences with children. The Sacred Heart girls always love her uplifting and thought-provoking visits.
As doing penance is always a part of Lent, we were pleased to be able to offer an opportunity to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation to our third and fourth graders. Four area priests joined us for this healing sacrament which took place in the Rosary Chapel.
We hope you and your children have been enjoying the Phlaum Gospel Weekly we send home each week. These little booklets with puzzles, coloring activities, etc. correspond with the gospel for the upcoming Sunday. They are intended to pique the interest of the children, and hopefully their parents, in the upcoming Sunday’s gospel. As often as possible, we try to make the Gospel stories come to life by having students act out the gospel in our morning assembly. During Lent, students re-enacted the story of Jesus Meeting the Woman at the Well, and the Transfiguration story. The children tell us how excited they are when they go mass and hear the same gospel story they saw or heard at school.
In observation of St. Joseph’s feast day, we did a “Tupa, Tupa” (‘knock, knock’) ,a dramatization of the night St. Joseph knocked on doors looking for a place to stay in Bethlehem. This is a traditional ritual often used to open a St. Joseph’s altar.
Please join us for two special events during Holy Week. On Tuesday March 18, as part of our Holy Week Chapel in the Nims, we will re-enact the Last Supper and the washing of the apostles’ feet by Jesus. On Wednesday, at 1:00 in the Nims we will have a Living Way of the Cross, led by the fourth grade. We pray that your family will have a holy and blessed Lent followed by a joyful Easter.
In the love of the Sacred Heart,
Mrs. Perrilliat and Mrs. Tompkins