Dear St Patrick’s families,

It has been lovely to be back home in beautiful Gundagai after undertaking a very memorable and wonderful pilgrimage through the Holy Lands. I hope that families were able to read the summaries of my journey on our School Facebook page that I tried to update regularly to keep you informed about my travels. My thoughts and prayers were with the St Patrick’s community, every step of my journey.

Many students and people have asked what the best part of my trip was and that is certainly difficult to choose, as each day was so different and fill with so many special experiences. The highlights I have summarised below would be the experiences that touched me personally in an extra special way…….

• Visiting the Church of The Nativity, in Bethlehem and placing my hand on the silver star which signifies the place where Jesus was born.
• Entering the Church of the Nativity, via the Door of Humility which was so small that each person needed to bow down or enter on their knees, as a sign of respect, on entering such a Holy site.
• Spending reflection time around the shores of Lake Galilee where Jesus spent many year’s preaching and performing miracles. Mass on a traditional sailing boat in the middle of Lake Galilee, was certainly a special highlight.
• Visiting the town of Capernaum where Jesus spent most of His ministry years and viewing the spot where Jesus lived with Peter and where he taught and prayed in the synagogue.
• Visiting the beautiful reflective gardens and Olive Trees of the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus prayed before His arrest.
• The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in Old Jerusalem which now contains the sacred sites of Golgotha (where Jesus was crucified) and the tomb that held Jesus’ body after his death and where he resurrected from. Visiting both of these sites and being able to place my hands on these significant holy areas, held immense spiritual importance to me.
• Celebrating daily Mass in the most incredible places eg a traditional sailing boat on Lake Galilee (as mentioned above), a cave where the angel appeared to the Shepherd’s on the night Jesus was born, open air Mass on the Mount of Beatitude’s surrounded by Lake Galilee, Mass in Latin outside the Edicle of the Tomb of Jesus, Mass (said in Hebrew) with the local Anjaran community in Jordan, Mass on the banks of the Jordan River (where Jesus was baptised by John) and where we renewed our Baptismal promises. These are just a few examples but each and every Mass held special significance.

I am in the middle of collating many thousands of photos and putting them together to share with the school community this special journey. Of course none of this would have possible without the support of the wonderful staff at St Patrick’s who have stepped up in many ways over the past four weeks. A very heartfelt thank you to Mrs Wilson and Mrs Howe, for taking on the additional leadership roles during my absence. It was greatly appreciated.

Last week my feet were firmly placed back on school ground as I caught up on the busyness of the first few weeks at St Patrick’s. There is still so many things happening over the last five weeks of term as well and everybody is working hard to ensure we are organised and ready.

This week we are celebrating National Reconciliation Week and an Aboriginal Cultural Day, The Sacrament of First Reconciliation, and the first of our 2024 Open days for children beginning Kindergarten next year. Please continue to spread the good news about our fantastic St Patrick’s school community to other families! More information below in the newsletter on these events.

Stay warm and enjoy the week ahead.

Christine Baron

Principal