Happy New Year!
What an exciting start back we have had in Year 5. On Thursday we read Mathew (2:1-12) to understand the story behind the Feast of the Epiphany. We recalled our nativity performances from years gone by which helped us remember the story. Now that we are older, we talked in more depth about the meaning behind the gifts that the Magi brought to our Lord, and why scripture tells us about these visitors coming from a distant land to pay homage to a baby. We understand that Jesus is the King of all nations of the World, and that is why the Magi chose to come from afar to worship him.
Later, we heard about a tradition called, “Chalking the Doors,” whereby a collection of symbols is chalked above or near a doorway and bestows a blessing upon all those who pass through. We took ourselves outside to chalk our own blessings around our classroom doors, as well as those that are shared by the rest of the school. By doing this we have “blessed” all our friends and members of staff too, as well as discovering a way to remember the names of the Wise Men – Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar.
On Friday, we took part in the mass. Some of us were joining via the livestream (and the children were incredibly respectful, despite being in their classrooms) and some of us (Chaplaincy and choir) went to the church, to lend their voices to the service. We enjoyed the service,
and we look forward to shining brightly for 2023.