Dear Parents, Caregivers and Friends of St Mary’s School,

Tomorrow 22nd February is Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday has always been an important date in the Christian Calendar because it is the beginning of the season of Lent, the time when we prepare for the celebration of Easter.

It was during the season of Lent last year that we were stunned by two natural disasters that had a huge effect on our lives and will for years to come.

I am writing of course about the Christchurch and Japanese earthquakes. Both events were defining moments for us as a nation, the Christchurch earthquake because I think we all believed that things like this only happen on T.V. so the reality of people we know being effected bit deep. The Japanese earthquake was terrifying for a different reason, because it wasn’t just a huge earthquake; it was a massive Tsunami followed by a near nuclear meltdown. Thing that popular authors like Clive Cussler and Tom Clancey wouldn’t write because they would be seen to be too far fetched. But they were and are real, and the healing process goes on, made all the harder by the after shocks.

Lent allows us a time to reflect on ‘the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune’ - (to quote Shakespeare) that we face.

But it is also a time when we can focus beyond the traumatic at the tranquility that exists in our world. Life is a path that for every climb has a drop and for every person who loves to climb we have one who loves to descend. The challenge in life is to be a person who accepts the climbing and the falling, the ups and the downs and to know that our faith is what enables us to keep going even when the climb appears too hard or the descend too steep.

Have a great week,

Mike Brosnahan.