The Patriot Report – December 13, 2019

“Be patient, brothers and sisters, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and late rains. You also must be patient.” (James 5.7-8)

This week’s reflection focuses on the second reading from the book of James. One of the primary reasons why sacred scripture holds a significant place in our faith, is that it contains spiritual lessons that span across time and place. The lesson of patience is certainly is as applicable today as it was in the time of Christ. 

Patience is not simply the ability to wait. Consider the person in the shopping line who huffs and puffs and is all irritable and the other person, waiting in the same line and for the same time, but yet engages in conversation with another person. Patience is all about HOW we wait. How do we conduct ourselves as we wait for our turn? How do we conduct ourselves as we battle traffic? How do we conduct ourselves when we are educating our children in lessons we feel they should already know? 

In a NY Times article patience is defined as “the ability to keep calm in the face of disappointment, distress or suffering.” The same article goes on to explain that patience is “worth cultivating” because it is “associated with a variety of positive health outcomes, such as reducing depression and other negative emotions. Researchers have also concluded that patient people exhibit more pro-social behaviors like empathy, and were more likely to display generosity and compassion.” There are many strategies the article outlines for developing a little more patience. 

Given the stress, the traffic, and the line ups that all come with the holiday season, we would do will to listen to scripture and develop a little more patience. 

WOW! The generosity of our community is truly astounding! As a school we have collected over 3000 items (3194 to be exact) for the Door is Open food bank! To motivate the students Mrs. Chao and Mr. van der Pauw said the class that brought in the most items would be awarded a pizza lunch. The Grade 5 class was the early leader, then Gr. 7 shot out in front and paced the entire school, only to be surpassed by Gr. 6 on the final day, who brought in over 900 items as a class. I am just so impressed by the giving nature of our parents and students. Thank you to all for your support of what is truly a worthy cause!

St. Jude School is now receiving applications for Kindergarten. If you know of families that are considering St. Jude School please encourage them to apply right away so that spots can be guaranteed. New families are encouraged to email office@stjude.ca to set up a tour and to pick up an application package. 

The doors will open at 6:00 pm. We will have a cash bar, a silent auction on class baskets and sponsor baskets, a 50/50 draw, a DJ, a dance floor, a Photobooth, and wonderful food catered by Presto Catering! The Christmas Raffle Draw will take place at 9:00 pm. The Movie Night will open its doors at 6pm (there will be no supervision prior to this time). The Movie Night will happen in the downstairs library. Children must have a ticket to enter the Movie Night!

Thank you for supporting our Dinner Dance Fundraiser!  

We are looking to fill the following Supervision positions. Please contact Ann Tang, the Participation coordinator at eparticipation@stjude.ca if you are available.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday mornings from 8:10 – 8:50 am

St. Jude School is modernizing its hot lunch ordering. Over the past several months we have noticed several inefficiencies with our hot lunch ordering. First, paper orders can be forgotten by students and can be lost between school and home. Second, parents are liable to forget if they have ordered because the order forms are kept at the school and it is difficult to remember if you ordered or not. Third, the sheer volume of orders results in a lot of paperwork by the office and our parent volunteers, which can lead to errors. We believe Munchalunch will allow us to eliminate most if not all of these inefficiencies.  

Several other Catholic elementary schools use Munchalunch as a platform for managing their hot lunch program. With Munchalunch, orders are completed online. You can pay online and receive an email confirmation of your order. The school is able to better process the orders and ensure accuracy in delivery. In January, parents will receive instructions about how to set up an account and order hot lunch for your child(ren). 

We hope you are as excited as we are about Munchalunch coming to St. Jude!

The Jr. and Sr. Orchestra opened up our Christmas Concert this year with their performance. More images of our Christmas Concert will become available next week. 

The students in Kindergarten have embraced their role as little elves 🙂