From the APRE desk
Dear Parents and Caregivers
Welcome back to Term 4! An exciting and busy term ahead of us for sure. It’s been great to see the students back looking well rested and ready to get back into the routine.
For me, holidays mean reading for enjoyment and listening to podcasts. One of the most informative, entertaining, and worthwhile ones to listen to is called “The Imperfects” with Hugh van Cuylenburg who is also the founder of “The Resilience project.” This particular podcast with their resident Psychologist, Dr Emily, discusses positive psychology which isn’t to be confused with positive thinking. She talks about how OTHER PEOPLE MATTER and what it is about ‘other people’, that matters so much, and how much it relates to our never-ending search for that elusive thing we call ‘happiness.’ It refers to how important it is when we connect with others, celebrate, and acknowledge others’ achievements and possible disappointments and how this has a direct impact on our wellbeing. We build trust and cooperation with others and it strengthens our connections with them.
It asks the question - Where do we show up to other people’s experiences? Is it for both their successes and struggles? When we do, those connections between other humans is the Holy Spirit working in amongst us. It gives us strength, and we feel hope and love. We need to be present to other people’s experiences to feel connection, have intentional conversation and build a stronger community. When I was a child, my family ate dinner together every night. The 6 of us shared a meal and put our faith was in action as we said Grace before meals. My parents were intentional and modelled to us how important it is to showing gratitude for the food we were about to eat. These moments are amongst some of my favourite childhood memories. Kudos to my parents for their commitment to this beautiful ritual one for which I’m grateful. They obviously knew how important it was to come together to share the events of the day to build strong connections between siblings and to show up for each other no matter what.
I highly recommend you take a listen to this podcast.
May the Holy Spirit be with you and your family as we begin a new term.
Date claimers:
Week 4 Tuesday 24th October Whole school Mass – Coolock house to host 9.30am St Patrick’s Cathedral
Week 5 Tuesday 31st October TCS Leadership forum – SSPS singing at Mass 5.30pm St Patrick’s Cathedral
Week 6 Sunday 12th November School/Parish Mass 9am St Patrick’s Cathedral
Have a great week!
Thanks for reading,
Ann-Maree