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

As we approach the season of Advent it is a very good time to reflect on what Advent is and what it means to us. Advent is a time of preparing or getting ready. It begins on the Sunday closest to St Andrew’s Day (the fourth Sunday before Christmas). The beginning of advent would once, I suspect, have tied in with the time when we generally begun to prepare for Christmas; decorations would have gone up in shops, Christmas music would have begun to be played on the radio, advertisements would have begun to appear on television, people would have begun to plan the day, thought about what presents that they were going to buy and then select a tree.

Sadly today most of those activities began long ago, and our preparation for Christmas has become a

competitive race. "I’ve bought all my presents", "I’ve just finished putting the lights up". Sadly

commercialism has slowly but surely eroded the real meaning of Christmas.

The Churches focus at Advent is on preparing for the second coming but remembering the first coming of Christ at Christmas.

While we prepare for Christmas this year let us remember the values that Christ taught us especially the value of compassion. We become compassionate people by being able to put ourselves on someone else's situation, to walk in their shoes as it were. This is a skill that we can learn and that we can teach. When we see a refugee on television think "how hard it must be to have to live their life": Jesus’ greatest gift was that he taught us to think about others—not only about ourselves.

So as we prepare for Christmas in this season of advent, talk to your children about how Christmas can be the beginning of a better time for all, leading to true happiness.

Have a great week, Mike Brosnahan






Year 6—Camp last