Author: mblair

Holy Name Parish Pilgrimage Walk 2017

mblair

Holy Name Parish Pilgrimage Walk 2017

We have been asked by the Holy Name Parish of Villa Maria to inform local parents of the upcoming Parish Pilgrimage walk for 2017.  All parents and families are invited to participate and the details are listed below.

Parish Pilgrimage Walk 2017 – A Walk on the North Side – Walking the Rosary

Date: Sunday 15 October. 

Theme: A Rosary Walk.  The idea is to link in with the 100th anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady at Fatima.  The final apparition occurred on the 13th October, hence the selection of the date, being as close as possible to the final apparition.

Pilgrimage Route: 1. Start at Holy Name of Mary Church, Hunters Hill; 2. Our Lady Queen of Peace, Gladesville; 3. Mary help of Christians Chapel, Greenwich; 4. St Mary’s Church, North Sydney; 5. Our Lady Star of the Sea Church, Kirribilli – our final destination.  At each prayer stop we will pray one decade of the rosary and have some focused reflection and prayers for our parish, community, Church and the world.

Who can walk: Although Holy Name of Mary Parish is the host, it is open to all parishioners, their friends & family members, other parishes, Catholics and non-Catholics, and basically anyone who wants to do it.

Start time:  Leaving after the 10am mass at Holy Name of Mary Church.  We will have a morning tea together after mass then start our first set of prayers at about 11.30am, then head off on the walk.

Cost: $0

Estimated distance: 14.9 kilometres

Estimated time:  4 hours

More information:  Call the Holy Name of Mary parish office on 9817 5325 or email pilgrimage2017@westnet.com.au

Science competition awards at assembly

mblair

Congratulation to the following boys who received awards for their strong performance in the recent Australian Science Competition:

Zac Hallinan

Matthew Jarjoura

Nicholas Kochanowicz

Cameron O’Sullivan

Jon Ryan

Joe Carrigan

Will Coffey

Adrian Dawson

Lochlann Giles

Joe McCauley

Brendan Quirk

Speaker from the Black Dog Institute

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Today during Period 2 Shannai Pearce from the Black Dog Institute came and spoke to the boys about mental fitness. It relates to the “Biteback Challenge” that the boys have been doing during Pastoral groups for the last few weeks.

Shannai gave the boys some easy to use tips which research has proven helps mental fitness. Tonight in the dorms we will be using one of her tips: think about 3 things which you were grateful for during the day.

SANTA SABINA YOUTH REVIEW FORUM

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Brendan Quirk – Y9, Cameron Horne – Y9, George Johnson – Y10, Daniel Gibbons – Y10 with Paul McDonald from the Children’s Bookshop.

Four of our talented readers from Year 9 and 10 did a fantastic job participating in the Santa Sabina Youth Review Forum, along with students from Santa Sabina, St Patrick’s College, Strathfield and Meriden College. The forum members, George Johnson, Daniel Gibbons, Brendan Quirk and Cameron Horne, were asked to read four of the six books shortlisted by The Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) for the 2017 Book Awards in the Older Readers Category and then discuss their responses to the novels with other students, in front of an audience of around 150 Year 10 Santa Sabina students. A special mention to Cameron Horne who was the only panel member to read all six of the shortlisted books.

The nominations for Book of the year 2017 were, One Would Think the Deep by Claire Zorn, The Bone Sparrow by Zana Fraillon, Waer by Meg Caddy, Yellow by Megan Jacobson, Frankie by Shivaun Plozza and Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley. It is a somewhat controversial selection of novels, with all but one dealing with social realism and four of the six written by debut authors.

The students on the panel, as well as the Year 10 Santa Sabina audience concluded that Words in Deep Blue was the book which most appealed to them, with The Bone Sparrow coming a close second. Their choice was not endorsed by the CBCA who awarded Book of the Year for Older Readers to Words in Deep Blue by Clair Zorn at the CBCA awards. While this was not the panel’s top pick, it was a book most of the panel members very much enjoyed reading.

This is a wonderful opportunity for teenagers from a range of schools to come together an openly discuss a range of books.

Bonfire

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After the discussions on Saturday evening, the boys and fathers came together to sit around a massive bonfire. The fathers presented a letter they had written to their sons. If you look carefully at the size of the people in the photos of the bonfire, you might get an idea of the size of the flames!