Dear Parents and Friends of St Mary’s,

Congratulations to all Grade Three to Six students who participated in the Yarram and District Athletics last Friday. Your sportsmanship and support of each other throughout the day were evident. I had many comments about beautiful manners and the respectful way our students spoke to each other. Thank you to all the staff and helpers that made the day run smoothly.

We are busily preparing for the Easter Prayer Service, to be held next Thursday at 12 pm in The Mary MacKillop Hall. The students have been incredibly creative and enthusiastic in preparation for this special event. Everyone is very welcome to join us and celebrate the Easter Story.

A gentle reminder to parents and carers to access the crossing when dropping off your children if you are parking on the opposite side of the school. Buckley St can become incredibly busy, especially with more caravans accessing the Yarram Rec Reserve.

Many items have been donated for our Easter Raffle, and I thank everyone for their generosity. Please remember to get those tickets in by next Thursday when we draw the raffle.

Maria

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

TERM 1 2023

March

April

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
3rd	4th	5th	6th  12 pm Easter Liturgy End of Term 1 School finishes at 2:15	7th
24th Pupil Free Day - Start of Term 2	25th ANZAC DAY - Holiday	26th Term two begins for students	27th	28th

TERM TWO 2023

May

We are proud of all the students who participated in the Yarram and District Athletics last Friday. Well done to all of you who participated. Congratulations to all our students who won ribbons.

Religion News: Thursday March the 30^th

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew. (Taken from The Catholic Youth Bible. NRSV Catholic Edition)

21: 1-11

When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethpage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her, untie them and bring them to me.  If anyone says anything to you, you just say this, “The Lord needs them.”  And he will send them immediately.”  This took place to fulfil what had been spoken through the prophet saying, Tell the daughter of Zion, “look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of the donkey.”

The disciple went and did as Jesus had directed them; the brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them.  “A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.  The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting,

“Hosanna to the Son of David!

Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!

Hosanna in the highest heaven.”

When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?”  The crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

Palm Sunday is a pivotal day as Lent is done and now Holy Week begins. This is an extraordinary week, in every sense of the word. It is a week of high drama, of courage, betrayal, tragedy, sorrow, grief, triumph, joy ... choose an emotion - you'll probably find it somewhere in the events of Holy Week! So, take a deep breath and ready yourself to commemorate the greatest story of all time.

This holiest of weeks is a journey for all of us, not just a journey that was only for Jesus. Jesus invites us all to join him this week. 

Some questions to discuss with your children leading into Holy Week.

Who are the people who love you?

What special things do they do for you?

Jesus suffered and died because he loved us.

How can we show God’s love to others?

Today is the beginning of a special week of celebrations.

How can we participate in Holy Week? 

Easter Liturgy: A celebration of Holy Week

We continue to prepare for our Holy Week enactment, which, will be presented on the last day of Term One, Thursday 6th of April at 12:00 midday in the St Mary Mackillop Hall.  This is an excellent way for our students to learn and reflect on Jesus’ journey from Palm Sunday to Easter Saturday.  Everyone is invited to our presentation on April the 6^th at 12:00 midday.  Please come along and watch our amazing children.

Sacramental News

Sacrament of First Holy Communion will now be celebrated on Sunday the 21^st of May at St. Mary’s Catholic Church at 11:00am.

Sacrament of Confirmation will be celebrated on Sunday the 23rd July at 11:00 am Mass.  Bishop Greg Bennet will celebrate this special Sacrament with us and the Parishioners.

Kind Regards

Sue Benc

St Mary's will be holding a lucky jar stall at the Yarram Easter Carnival on Saturday, 8th April 2023.

To make this a success we need help from our St Mary's Community to help fill jars.

Here are some suggestions:

Lollies

Toys

Hair ribbons 

Pencils, erasers

Stickers

Beads 

Help Required prior and on the day of the Carnival:

• help on the day at the stall
• numbering the jars
• purchasing products to make extra jars (schools expense)
• making up extra jars as we are hoping to have 200 or more lucky jars on the day.
• donation of empty jars.

Please contact Debbie at the school office if you can help with any of the above. 

Please note the Mass times for HOLY WEEK - YARRAM

LENTEN RECONCILIATION

March 28th 11:00 AM

PALM SUNDAY

April 2nd 11:00 AM

HOLY THURSDAY

April 6th 7:00 PM

GOOD FRIDAY

April 7th 3:00 PM

EASTER VIGIL

April 8th 7:00 PM

EASTER SUNDAY

April 9th 9:00 AM