Welcome back! It has been wonderful to meet our Kindergarten students and their families and welcome them as they commence their learning journey at St Joseph’s.

As we begin a new school year, we ask God to bless all our students, staff members and families. We pray that every member of our school community may experience the warmth of welcome and the presence of Our Lord Jesus Christ here in our school.

To mark the 150^th anniversary of Saint Joseph being named as patron of the Universal Church, Pope Francis has declared 2021 as ‘The Year of St Joseph’.  

In his Apostolic Letter entitled Patris corde (“With a Father’s Heart), Pope Francis reflected on the qualities of Saint Joseph whom he described as a strong working man, a beloved, loving father, an accepting, obedient and “creatively courageous” person.

In the eyes of the Pope, Saint Joseph is an extraordinary person who epitomises our own experiences. By reflecting on Joseph’s life, we can appreciate that God calls each of us to love freely, to accept our responsibility to welcome and serve others, to use and develop our gifts and talents, to appreciate the value and dignity of honest work, to overcome our challenges and become “courageously and firmly proactive” in our daily living.  A “respectful and sensitive man,” Saint Joseph “did not look for shortcuts, but confronted reality with open eyes and accepted personal responsibility for it.”

Pope Francis encourages each one of us to imitate Joseph’s virtues and zeal as he urges us to:

Discover in Joseph — the man who goes unnoticed, a daily, discreet and hidden presence — an intercessor, a support and a guide.

(Taken from Sr Therese McGarry - Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart: https://www.sosj.org.au/)

As Patron Saint of our school, we ask St. Joseph to intercede for us, to obtain God’s blessing on us as we commence our new school year.

I look forward to celebrating our Opening School Mass with you on Thursday 18^th February.

Liz Murray

REC Co-ordinator