Term 4 Week 1

Principal

Dear Parents, Guardians, and Community, Welcome back! We hope you all had a restful break.

Mark Your Calendars 📅

School News

This week we welcome Bishop Martin Ashe to our school. He is visiting the Parish and School this Friday. He will be visiting students, meeting with school leadership and teachers. It will be a great opportunity to share the great things that are happening at our school.  

St Carlo Acutis

In 2025, the Catholic Church canonised it's first Millenium Saint, Saint Carlo Acutis. He was just 15 years old when he died of leukaemia in 2006. For someone so young, he lived an extraordinary life. He was born in London, but grew up in Italy.  From a young age he devoted his life to God. At aged 11 he developed a website dedicated to miracles, where he catalogued all miracles from around the world. He became known as, 'God's Influencer." He also gave a lot of money to the poor. On September 7 this year, he officially became a Saint.

What was special about him?

Beneath his ordinary exterior, Carlo developed a great love for Jesus in the Eucharist at an early age. Ever since his First Communion, he has been attending daily Mass.

• Carlo was 12 years old when he researched and catalogued, on the internet, an exhibition of over 130 Eucharistic Miracles which occurred throughout history. Why? Carlo’s desire was to prove the true presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. The exhibition has been translated into 15 languages and is known worldwide.
• After his death, a first miracle in 2013, the healing of a young child, was attributed to Carlo’s intercession.
• In 2018, his body was exhumed and found to be ‘intact’. To this day, his body lies in Assisi, Italy.
• Only 14 years after his death, Carlo was beatified ‘Blessed’ in 2020 by Pope Francis. This is considered exceptional.
• A second miracle, the healing of a college student, was also recognized in May 2024. Pope Leo XIV has announced that Blessed Carlo will be canonized in 2025, making Carlo the first millennial Saint
• His Feast Day is October 12.
• His official website https://www.carloacutis.com/en/association
  

St Mary of the Cross, Pray for us. 🙏

Anthony

Parent Education

Parent TV

Religious Education

St Mary’s Faith News

 School and Parish Connections

Gospel: Luke 17: 5-10

If you had faith!

The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith.’ The Lord replied, ‘Were your faith the size of a mustard seed you could say to this mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea”, and it would obey you.

‘Which of you, with a servant ploughing or minding sheep, would say to him when he returned from the fields, “Come and have your meal immediately”? Would he not be more likely to say, “Get my supper laid; make yourself tidy and wait on me while I eat and drink. You can eat and drink yourself afterwards”? Must he be grateful to the servant for doing what he was told? So with you: when you have done all you have been told to do, say, “We are merely servants: we have done no more than our duty.”’

St Mary’s Family Monthly Mass

Sunday 26th October 2025

Forms will be sent home on Friday.

Please fill in the forms and return as soon as possible - especially if you would like your child to read at Mass. There are limited readings and we need to make sure the children have time to practice at home and then in the church.

Thank you to all those who have responded already. Your commitment is valued.

Everyone is welcome to sing with the choir. There will be a practice in the church with Monique and myself the week before the Mass.

Thank you for your support!

A heartfelt thank you to all families who encourage their children to participate. It is always wonderful to see familiar faces at these Masses, and we hope even more families will join us in this special school tradition.

New Front Office Display

Crosses from Around the World

The Cross display is starting to take form - Thank you to everyone who has donated a cross

Thank you Miss Mahony for bringing a beautiful cross back from her travels in England. We have a cross from Salisbury Cathedral to add to our collection that is taking shape above the staff room doors in the office area.

As part of our recent staff Reflection Day, we were inspired by the idea of creating a new display in our front office – a collection of crosses from around the world. This will be a whole school initiative, and we warmly invite our families and staff to take part.

If you have a cross from your travels – whether from overseas or within Australia – that you would like to donate, we would be honoured to include it. The crosses will be thoughtfully displayed on the wall beneath the mounted monitor in the front office.

Thank you for helping us bring this idea to life.

Wednesday Morning Masses

As part of our ongoing commitment to nurturing the spiritual life of our students, each class will continue to attend the Wednesday morning Parish Mass at 9:15am.

The response from teachers has been positive. The children have been able to connect with Parishioners and pay attention to prayers and rituals that they have been taught in class.

We continue to warmly invite parents, grandparents and carers to join their child’s class at the Wednesday Masses, when they are rostered to attend.

You may receive an email invitation or a paper invitation, so please check emails, children’s reading folders or take heed of your child’s verbal invitation.

This is a beautiful opportunity to come together in prayer and strengthen our connection as a school and parish community.

We encourage you to check when your child’s class will be attending the Wednesday Mass.

We look forward to welcoming you to this special part of our faith life.

During this Mass you are welcome to sit with your child, but we ask that you join us as a class - so please come along and sit with us at Mass.

After the Parishioners have received Communion, Younger students in years Prep to Year 3 will be invited to receive a blessing from Fr Greg. Everyone is welcome for a blessing. Those wishing to receive a blessing should approach Fr Greg with hands crossed over their chest.

Term 4 Masses

Parish Newsletter

Wellbeing

Italian Day

Buongiorno Parents and Guardians,

We are very excited to announce that Italian Day will be held on Friday, October 24th (Week 3)

The day will be filled with fun activities celebrating Italian language and culture. During the morning session, students will take part in a range of Italian crafts and games. This year’s craft theme is Carnevale di Venezia!

During the middle session, students will enjoy an engaging and interactive show called L’ingrediente Segreto!

Production synopsis-

Giacoma Bonda is just an ordinary girl. She goes to school, walks home, and most nights helps her Nonna make dinner. But there’s one thing her family doesn’t know... she’s also a secret agent!

Recruited by “L’Agenzia” when she was just 12 years old, luckily Giacoma is very good at her job — because Nonna has wandered off again! Giacoma’s mission is to find Nonna ASAP, as she’s the only one who knows the secret ingredient to the bolognese sauce they are making for dinner. Without it, the sauce is doomed! So come along and join the adventure! Giacoma needs your help to solve the riddles and follow the clues. Only you can decide where we go next in our first-ever “choose your own adventure” musical — a brand-new story featuring the best songs from all our past shows combined. 

After the show, students will be treated to a delicious gelato outdoors while listening to some classic Italian tunes. 

Students are encouraged to dress up in Italian-themed costumes or in the colours of the Italian flag (green, white, and red) to help make the day even more festive!

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at medmunds@smwilliamstown.catholic.edu.au.

We can’t wait to celebrate all things Italian together!

Grazie mille,
Melissa Edmunds

Parents and Friends

Community