Like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood (1 Peter 2:5).
Peter begins this letter with praise to God for the living hope we have through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and with it, an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. That doesn’t mean we won’t suffer grief in all kinds of trials, including during our current pandemic, but rather, we are purified and refined in the process.
Beginning a series of imperatives with the call to ‘be holy’ (1 Peter 1:13), through the next chapters, Peter urges his readers to be intentional in their Christian walk. Like newborn babies desire food, we must eagerly desire spiritual food. As we grow, of course, we need to learn to take in solid food too (see Hebrews 5:12–14).
But there’s purpose in us growing! For our identity comes from Christ Jesus, the living and life-giving Stone; ‘living’ in that it is personal. Followers of Jesus are also like living stones, deriving life from Christ, the living capstone or cornerstone; made alive by the Holy Spirit, being built into a spiritual house and a royal priesthood.
For ‘stones’ to fit and work together well, refining, chipping away, and polishing is needed. In the natural realm, different kinds of stone are used for different purposes. The Lord knows exactly what kind of ‘stone’ he has created and called us to be, and our purpose in where we can serve others best. As ‘living stones’, God is also building us as royal priests, people indwelt by the Spirit of God, belonging to God. A holy nation who declare his praises!
Lord God, we declare that you are good, for you called us out of darkness into your wonderful light. Bless others through us, wherever we are. Amen.
Prayer Points
We praise God for making us all unique ‘living stones’ who serve others
We pray that others may be blessed though us
We ask God to give all students, parents and staff courage during remote learning
We pray for the Pham families (Kate, Rachel and Ivie)
Micah Award
To Ivie for demonstrating courage while starting at a new school
To Mrs. O’Mahoney for demonstrating all our school values
This week has been a very special week for a group of the school’s staff members, as we have been celebrating ‘Australian Teacher Aide Appreciation Week’. The school has been blessed with a wonderful group of Teacher Aides, or as we refer to them, Student Support Officers. Our SSOs, Ms Rodriguez, Mrs. Fernandez, Miss Pietsch, Miss Mead, Mrs. Qumsieh, Mr. Reddish and Mrs. O’Mahoney, work incredibly hard to support the teachers in ensuring that the students have the best educational experience possible. Even more importantly, the SSOs ensure the students are cared for in a safe and happy environment. Each of the SSOs brings different skills and characteristics that enhance our school greatly. We thank them for their tireless work and for being such important members of our community.
This year’s Australian Teacher Aide Appreciation Week was made even more special with the announcement that Mrs. O’Mahoney was awarded the ‘Highly Commended Award’ in the prestigious Australian Teacher Aide Awards. Mrs. O’Mahoney was chosen for this award from Teacher Aides all across Australia. This is a well-deserved recognition of the truly amazing service Mrs. O’Mahoney displays to our students, our staff and our school, as she always strives to put the needs of others before her own and enhance the learning of our students. A very special congratulations and deep appreciation goes to Mrs. O’Mahoney for her amazing work.
In the Prep/1 classroom we have been learning how to use a map grid.
You can help by giving us simple instructions to follow so we can create our own map.
Year 2 / 3
In the Year 2/3 classroom we are excited about learning new ‘passwords’ and building our vocabulary and sentence structure. Ask us to show you how we do this.
Year 3 / 4
In the Year 3/4 classroom we have been learning about Persuasive Writing. We have written our own persuasive texts based on a prompt. You can help by giving us a topic to try to persuade you on!
Year 5 / 6
In the Year 5/6 classroom we have just finished our unit on Shapes and Angles. One of the things we learnt was how to label the different parts of a circle. Ask us to explain what each of these parts are.
