What a great task it is to discover Jesus hidden in everything! And the way to do it is simple. We can ask ourselves a simple question: here and now, how can I love more and better? Who can I love better? And ask our Lord for help in putting it into action. It is a way of having presence of Jesus in everything we do: study, work, sport and also in difficult situations, when facing hardships and suffering. In words of Saint Josemaria:

"Either we learn to find our Lord in ordinary, everyday life, or else we shall never find Him. That is why I can tell you that our age needs to give back to matter and to the most trivial occurrences and situations their noble and original meaning. It needs to restore them to the service of the Kingdom of God, to spiritualize them, turning them into a means and an occasion for a continuous meeting with Jesus Christ."

What fabulous writers we have in the Junior School! We have had many children enter the Write On 2023 Competition this year. This competition is run by the New South Wales Education Authority (NESA) in conjunction with the State Library and is open to all students from Yr 1 to Yr 6 in NSW. What was most impressive was that many of our students took this opportunity of their own volition and completed their entries in their own time. Congratulations to all who entered.

Kindness Convention

We were lucky to send three wonderful Year 5 ambassadors to the Annual Kindness Convention this week. The idea of the convention is to bring Year 5 students from across Sydney from a range of schools to work through various activities that promote and share kindness. The girls are working on a presentation to share their enthusiasm and their experience with the whole Junior School. I am very much looking forward to hearing their initiatives. Many thanks to Mrs Rogers for accompanying the girls.

St Josemaria Drawing Competition

In the lead up to celebrating the Feast of St Josemaria, many children have entered the St Josemaría Drawing Competition. Well done to all the students who have already entered. Good luck!

We put all our skills into action and wrote our own descriptions of people, toys and settings. We are so proud of our literary descriptions, here are a few examples:

City Description by Mihaela

The tall and wide city skyscrapers reach high up to the heavens like the Eiffel Tower. The city is very, very busy at all hours of the day. People and workers rush to meetings and work early in the morning. When you go to the city you can hear millions of footsteps and cars hustling and bustling, trying to get through the traffic. In the city you can smell smog, litter and pollution.

Description of my Teacher by Joy

My teacher’s caramel, long hair cascades down her back like a waterfall. She has shining white teeth when she smiles. Her lipstick is darker than pink, fluffy fairy floss. Ms Hirsch’s black high heels are as tall as a palm tree! Her gentle, caring voice makes me feel calm and relaxed. She has gold, pretty earrings that dangle down her ears like vines. My teacher has pretty neon pink nails that shine in the sunlight.

My Stuffed Toy Description By Maria

Martita is my special stuffed toy bear. Her golden, caramel fur brushes against my skin. Her dark, black eyes are as black as licorice! Martita’s brown nose sits on her bright white muzzle, as still as a statue. The soft, golden ears on her squishy, soft head sit proudly like a girl winning a trophy. She sleeps as still as a mouse. Her bright pink dress sits elegantly on her soft, golden body. Her multi-coloured necklace lights up the room as she lays on my bed.

We love writing and reading in 2 Navy. Ms Hirsch is certain she will see our work in a book shop in the future – we are talented!

Although games can last for more than five hours it is always nice to win and be given such opportunities like qualifying for JETS. This opportunity is extremely exciting as the Australian Chess Federations has been able to enlist the help of some of the world’s best like Former Women’s World Champion and Chinese Grandmaster Xie Jun, who was sensational in her time for revolutionizing chess in Asia becoming the first Asian women to hold the title of grandmaster.

As well as this, I also have the opportunity to be taught by former world no.3 Boris Gelfand, who was the challenger in the 2012 World Championships. In addition, to this I also have the opportunity to be coached by Hrant Melkumyan, who was the 2011 European Blitz Champion and with team Armenia won silver at the 2022 FIDE chess olympiad. As well as having some of the world’s best coaches, I also have the opportunity to be coached by many former Australian and Oceania champions. I am super excited to be able to have this opportunity in the holidays as it will allow me to learn things that will help me achieve my goals which is to win the U14 Girls National Championship next year in Adelaide and win the U18 Girls State Championships later this year.

Renee Pan | Year 8

The excursion was a great way to put what we had learned in class into action! Overall, our excursion was a success and year 11 learnt a lot about the different tests that can be used to test the abiotic and biotic factors in our local ecosystem, that we can find right on our doorstep.

The second photo was in 2019 when Ellie received all the letters and cards from the girls telling her how much her testimony inspired and helped them.

This time round the girls have written cards and letters to the Egan family to tell them how much Ellie continues to inspire them.

Ellie's Testimony of Hope

Hi guys sorry I can’t be there, I did try but I got too nervous.

So I’ll start from the beginning. When I was 15, just about to finish year 9, I was diagnosed with brain cancer. A tumour called DIPG which is pretty aggressive and inoperable and incurable. This means they can’t operate or take it out because it is in the brain stem which is apparently a really important part of your brain. It is also incurable which means there is no cure and there’s basically nothing anyone can do about it. I did 6 weeks of radiation which is really the only treatment available and this is just to shrink the tumour a bit to buy more time. They gave me 9 months to live. That was 31 months ago.

The tumour is currently sitting on the nerves that effect the right side of my body, that is why I can’t walk properly anymore or write with my right hand. The tumour also affects my vision, my mouth and speech. The medication I had to take to stop the swelling in my brain also had horrible side effects like weight gain and really sensitive skin. Besides all the physical things I’ve had to deal with there is also the mental and emotional side of dealing with being told you don’t have long to live.

At first I was very confused and didn’t believe what was going on. When I started radiation, which is a pretty scary procedure, all the symptoms started like my ability to walk and write and headaches and stuff and that’s when I realised something pretty big was going on. So then I realised I actually might die and as you can imagine that was really hard. I was scared, sad, angry and worried all at once. I didn’t know how to deal with it. For months I was so lost. I had started putting on weight from all the drugs, I was tired all the time and sore. I didn’t want to see anyone or go out. I couldn’t look at social media or in a mirror. I actually made my mum go around and cover all the mirrors in our house. I was angry at God and wondering why this was happening to me.

Then my mum told me all we could do was pray and she told me to hand myself over to God and that He will find good in all this. It was all I had so I started trusting in Him and told Him I trust what you’re doing with me. This wasn’t that easy and it took quite a few months but I kept praying about just doing Gods will.

Once I did this and started praying more my worries started to go away. I was starting to learn more and understand suffering a bit more. I realised that if I was doing Gods will that no matter what happened everything was going to be ok. I was either going to stay here with my family and friends and continue my life or end up hanging out with God in heaven which is a pretty cool option as well. Having this hope and faith in God changed everything. The peace and comfort I now had was amazing! And now I can honestly say the last 2 years have been the best of my life.

My view of the world has totally changed and the things I thought were important aren’t anymore. I certainly don’t care about my snapchat story anymore. But the things that are really important never changed. My family and friends never treated me differently because I was sick or in a wheelchair, they knew I wanted to be treated normally. My family are still there for me like they always were and God is always there of course. My family and friends praying together is the most important thing now and where I find my happiness.

There are so many things I can’t do anything about like being stuck in this wheelchair but I’m still determined to make the most of it. You guys have no idea the benefits I get from this thing. Big crowds seem to just part for me now, I get the best seats at concerts and get to go to front of the queues. My mum also said to mention how great the parking is now too. I did have to get used to people staring at me, especially little kids, but now I just wave at them.

My tumour has stopped growing at the moment and I’ve been able to do more things. I’m doing lots of physiotherapy to try build up the strength in my right side again. I go to TAFE now which is really cool because I don’t have to do the HSC. I love going to the beach, there’s some around that have access for people in wheelchairs. I can get down the stairs in my house now by myself and can walk about 50 steps at a time. I used to miss doing all the stuff I was able to do easily but I’m over that now and I just focus on the things I can do. There’s a quote in one of my favourite movies that says “get busy living or get busy dying” I’ve chosen to get busy living.

I have the best family and friends in the world and their amazing support and prayers throughout all this keeps me strong and positive. My mum is the strongest person I know and has made me be the strongest I can be as well. She has taught me so much about faith and hope in God and this is truly what keeps me going. I’m not afraid to die and this gives me so much hope for the future whatever that may be. I know it’ll take a miracle to beat this thing but God has shown me lots of little miracles along this journey already, so I know its possible.

If you wish to know more about her story and her impact- here is a link to a beautiful article that was published in the Catholic Weekly last year.

A Trail of Blessings By Marilyn Rodrigues September 29, 2022

https://www.catholicweekly.com.au/a-trail-of-blessings/?fbclid=IwAR0oUF5eFIzX8fgECz4n755t8fH__ZzeIe0NfY3EenZBxlyzBJo5hUyp0yA