1. Thursday 16th April, 2015 Term 2 - Newsletter No: 1 Upcoming Dates Message from the Principal Dear Families, Some thoughts on Simplicity. Simplicity It’s not easy to write about simplicity in a complex world. It is even harder to think abut it. The concept seems to evoke one of two reactions: guilt (“I know I have too much, but I don’t have a clue how else to live”) or ridicule (“I know I can’t have everything. Wherever would I put it?”). The fact is that frugality is cheap simplicity. Simplicity requires a great deal more from us than simply getting rid of the gadgets we don’t want or the surplus we don’t need. Simplicity requires that we learn to make a centred life, to “make God our potion,” in a world that tears our days, our lives, our psyches into tangled shreds. Isn’t simplicity really what the ancients called “purity of heart” - that single-minded search for the essence of life rather than for a grasping after its frills? Simplicity is openness to the beauty of the present, whatever its shape, whatever its lack. Simplicity, clearly, leads to freedom of soul. When we cultivate a sense of “enoughness,” when we learn to enjoy things for our own sakes, when we learn to be gentle even with what is lacking in ourselves, we find ourselves free to be where we are and to stop mourning where we are not. Simplicity of life in a complex and complicated world is marked, I think by four characteristics: a life is simple if it is honest; if it is unencumbered; if it is open to the ideas of others; if it is serene in the midst of a mindless momentum that verges on the chaotic. And which of these do you do best? And which of these do you do least? Joan Chittister God Bless Ellie McGinness April 2015 - Term 2 17th School Cross Country - Foundation - Gr 6 19th ANZAC Centenary March Children’s Liturgy 20th Grade 4 Camp 23rd 1st Communion Parent/Child Info Night - 7.00pm 24th 5/6 Sport 25th ANZAC Day 30th Foundation Faith Night - 6.00pm May 2015 - Term 2 1st 5/6 Sport 4th Family Week P & F - 7.30pm 7th Mother’s Day Stall 8th Mother’s Day Breakfast Liturgy - 8.50am 5/6 Sport 10th Mother’s Day 12th NAPLAN Testing 12th PEAB - 7.00pm 15th 5/6 Sport 16th Junior School Mass - 6.15pm 17th Children’s Liturgy 22nd Dendy Cross Country - Gr 3 - 6 23rd Working Bee - 3.00pm - 5.00pm 27th School Photos 28th Parent Q & A Faith Night - 6.00pm 29th 5/6 Sport June 2015 - Term 2 1st P & F - 7.30pm 5th 5/6 Sport 8th Queen’s Birthday Holiday 9th School Closure Day 11th 1st Communion Reflection Day 12th 5/6 Sport 13th 1st Communion - 6.15pm 16th PEAB - 7.00pm 18th Netball Lightning Premiership 19th Football Lightning Premiership 21st Children’s Liturgy 22nd Parent Teacher Interviews (this week) 26th Mass - 12.00pm End of Term 2 School finishes at 1.00pm - 22nd - 14th