Dear Parents and Carers,

This week at St Benedict’s Primary is Sabbath Week. This week is designed to ease the pressure on staff, students and families. Taking time to rest and recharge is important for all of us, particularly at this challenging time.

Traditionally, Sabbath means ‘rest’ and we can read about it in Exodus 20:8-11. “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work...For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” Exodus makes a clear connection between the Sabbath day and the day on which God the Creator rested. Therefore, this week, Week Seven, we will experience a week of rest - and don’t we all need it!

Staff, students and families have been doing a wonderful job at managing the challenges of these COVID times in conjunction to the everyday busyness of daily life. During Sabbath Week, students (and teachers) have the week off homework. It is also a time where we encourage staff to leave work a little earlier and lighten their after-school work load. We hope that our whole community may find some time for rest and renewal in Sabbath Week.

Last week I was privileged to attend the Catholic Leaders Day and Principal Retreat. The Catholic Leaders day enabled schools to have input into the Catholic Education Strategic Plan and then discuss some of the successes and challenges being experienced in implementing a new pedagogy focus. It also gave schools the opportunity to discuss some significant issues being experienced in education such as staff recruitment, retention and wellbeing, faith formation and digital technologies for the future. As a school that will go through registration again next year, a workshop on changes to the school improvement and registration process was also very welcomed and timely. The two day retreat that followed, led by Archbishop Christopher Prowse, focused on Mercy, which was described as ‘the loving kindness of the heart of God.’ We investigated the idea that Justice and Mercy go hand in hand; in giving you shall receive. We were challenged to consider that Mercy is God’s way of doing justice and that there must be an equal balance between Mercy and Justice. The Archbishop left us with a poignant quote by Jamie Cardinal Sin, the 30th Roman Catholic Archbishop of Manila and the third Cardinal from the Philippines:

Justice without mercy is tyranny,
Mercy without justice is weakness,
Mercy without love is baloney.

This is rich food for thought, when considering our relationships – with God, with each other and with the world.

God Bless

Alana Quirk
Principal (Acting)