The Patriot Report – Dec 4

“The family that prays together stays together.” 

I suppose one of the reasons why I enjoy the season of Advent so much is because of the experiences I had as a child. One such experience is praying around the Advent wreath. I can recall that my parents would have my siblings and I sit at the dining room table each night for a short prayer during the season of Advent. I think as kids, we may have sometimes been annoyed about having to stop what we were doing, but for the most part I recall our Advent prayers with fondness. My dad would have a story picked out from Scripture and we would take turns lighting the candles, as well as reading. Since there were four children, we each had our turn with jobs. One to light the candle, one to do the reading, one to blow out the candles, and one to put a decoration on our advent calendar tree. On occasion my sisters would even ask to sing a song (not something I was thrilled about) but I can clearly picture the dark room, the Advent candles glowing and flickering, and my mom, and two sisters voices filling the room. I cannot recall my brother, my dad, or I singing. 

I share this story with you in hopes that you will find time to pray as a family in your own homes. Perhaps you can find a children’s bible with pictures as my parents did. Find an Advent wreath and pray as one. I encourage you to make it special and use candles as it will create powerful images. Involve your children in the practice. As Catholic educators, we can attest to the value of praying together. It unites us and it builds us up. I am sure every family could benefit from praying together. 

You may have noticed recently that we have put up Blue Christmas Lights around the window of our main doors facing East 15th. This is in support of the Archdiocese’s campaign this Christmas season. The BC Catholic explains:

“With the pandemic competing with the Grinch to snuff out Christmas cheer this year, the Archdiocese of Vancouver wants to rewrite the ending of the Christmas 2020 story as one of hope amidst a challenging time for families.

To brighten up dark evenings, the archdiocese is launching a Blue Light Campaign, inviting everyone to use blue lights when decorating their churches and homes as a sign of hope and solidarity with families who have lost loved ones and are experiencing a “blue Christmas” this year.”

I encourage our families to follow our lead and put blue lights up in their windows as well. You can read more about the campaign by clicking here. 

With the current restrictions in place with respect to Covid19, the school has cancelled the Christmas Concert as well as any Orchestra Concerts. However, we know that parents want to see their children perform and as a Catholic school, Christmas is an incredibly important season for us. 

We are going to be recording our students performing Christmas poems that they are reciting. We are also working with our Orchestra to record them performing. We hope that the video recordings will be viewed by parents and relatives and may offer you a source of joy this season. 

The staff and students will be recording their Christmas poems on Monday, December 7 and Tuesday, December 8. These recordings will be shared with you on the last week of school, just before Christmas break.

Please be sure to send your child in FULL AND PROPER UNIFORM on Monday and Tuesday of next week to help us with our recordings. Students who are in orchestra should be in full uniform on Wednesday, December 9 as well, as the orchestra will perform their Christmas song and these will be recorded and shared with you as well.

From December 14 to 18 our school will be celebrating our Christmas Cheer in Covid19 safe ways! Our Christmas Cheer Committee has created activities and themes for each day. Check it out by clicking the link:

St. Jude Christmas Extravaganza Week

There has been a lot of chatter in the media about students wearing masks in schools. While we encourage the wearing of masks, we will not mandate it, as this would contradict the PHO. Wearing a mask is not a substitute for staying home if you or your child is sick. It is absolutely critical that if anyone in your household has Covid-19 symptoms that they should get tested. Any student living with a person who is Covid-19 Positive is to self isolate at home for a minimum of 14 days. 

As per the PHO guidelines, all in-person faith services are suspended until December 7th, 2020. Sunday 11am Mass will continue to be live-streamed on the Parish FaceBook page @stjudesvan. Please stay tuned for future announcements.

Thank-you for your continued support. Please keep safe and healthy.

Advent displays inspire our students in messages of hope!

Students in Gr. 4 write about their winter wishes. 

Students learn about salvation history through the Jesse Tree. 

This is a reminder that parents need to take the time to do the Daily Check every day. It is important that we remain committed to taking our COVID19 procedures seriously. Click here to access the form.