Vocation

Father Vince bought Ferdinand along to St Mary's today.  Ferdinand is from the Philippines and spent 10 years in the seminary over there.  He is now studying in Auckland and will be ordained in NZ and become part of the Palmerston North diocese.  Ferdinand spoke to us about a vocation being a call from God.  At the age of 16 he decided he wanted to be a priest but his parents and grandmother were not supportive.  They encouraged him to experience the world first.  As Ferdinand said, to have an appreciation of the world showed him how great God is.

Knights of the Southern Cross

Last week, we had visitors from the Catholic Discipleship College in Auckland.  After teaching us a fun game, they acted out the story of the Good Samaritan.  We got into groups and discussed the message in the story.  Our challenge was to recreate the story in a modern way.  Some of us set our story at school so that it was relevant to us and how we live our lives.

Reach out in Kindness

Yesterday was the Feast Day of Mary MacKillop.  We shared a story that showed what a kind woman she was, putting the needs of others before her own.  We reflected on how we could "Reach out in Kindness" to those who are important in our lives and had to come up with our own way to visually show this.  Here are two excellent examples.