Number 2

Sunday's Gospel is one of the most iconic parables of Jesus, and this chapter of Luke is often called "the chapter of the lost and found." This is because we have three examples of how God seeks out the lost so they may be found by his care and love.

The Gospel opens with the Pharisees complaining that Jesus welcomes sinners and eats with them. The Pharisees were a group of Jews who believed that the best way to remove the Roman occupation of their land was to follow God's Law perfectly.

Anyone with a reputation as a sinner was certainly not following the law! A Pharisee would avoid a known sinner for fear of becoming religiously impure by association.

Jesus, however, does the opposite and reaches out to these sinners. In Biblical culture, showing hospitality was a way of building relationships. In the eyes of the Pharisee, Jesus was befriending people who were part of the problem.

To respond to these complaints, Jesus gives three examples of how much God cares about us. In each example, someone representing God seeks out or patiently waits for a person or item that has been lost to be found or restored.

What makes these examples so poignant is that they show us the many ways we can become lost. First a sheep is lost. This sheep did not make a conscious choice to wander off the path, but perhaps curiosity or seeking the best patch of green led it astray. Sometimes we can get off track simply by prioritizing the wrong thing in our lives.

The second example is a lost coin that certainly had no choice in the matter. Sometimes we are in the wrong place due to someone else's actions, or we realize a part of our lives is off track, but we don't know how it happened.

Finally there is a son who makes a clear choice to leave his family and stray from the path of faith, but he also makes a clear choice to return home in humbleness.

Meanwhile, another son chooses to stay home, but he lives in a state of judgmental pride, much like that of the Pharisees.

As the sheep, coin and wayward son are returned "home," there is rejoicing. This is a reminder that we should never fear letting God find us. We also should always rejoice when someone who is lost begins the journey home.

Dear Parents/Guardians,

Our school year has kicked off to a good start. The students are in good form and have settled into their studies. Yesterday we remembered that tragic event of 9-11 with a prayer at morning assembly and a short reflection. We emphasized to students that as part of our history there are certain events we honor and remember. For our country this was a tragic day and the repercussions still are being felt by the survivors, especially those first responders.

Tomorrow we will be hosting an 8th Grade Event, where 8th graders from our seven neighboring Catholic schools will gather for a Mass and to listen to presentations from our Catholic High schools. This is the first time that we have had such a gathering.

I met with the SSF City Public Works representative recently and discussed the state of the road along the school perimeter between the Medical Center and our fence. He indicated to me that the roadway will be repaired next summer with drainage and resurfacing. I am sure we all will look forward to this completed work.

Parent Teacher Conferences will be starting on Wednesday, October 2nd. By now you have received the link to register for the conference. If there are any issues, please contact Mrs. Cierra at info@ssfallsoulsschool.org.

I am very happy to release our Annual Report for 2018-2019 school year. Please click on the link to access the report. Enjoy reading about our school's achievements for the year 2018 -2019.

Next Monday, September 16th is a Minimum day, and students will be dismissed at 12:20pm. On minimum days lunch will be offered to students like any other day. The only difference is that it will be a brown bag lunch so that students can take it home with them. In the case of Extended Care students they will stay and eat in the cafeteria as usual.

We are not allowed to sell other food during the day since we are part of the Federal lunch program. This was pointed out to us at a recent inspection of our Federal Lunch Program. Unfortunately this will not benefit the athletic program or other groups who wish to sell items during the day.

We are in the midst of our annual Guatemala Appeal for the month of September. We are asking everyone to contribute towards the appeal with educational supplies such crayons, paper, and pencils; clothing and shoes:; hygiene supplies such as toothbrushes, tooth paste, soap: and Jolly Rancher candies. We also need financial assistance to ship the boxes and your financial donations will be greatly appreciated. You can donate by clicking on DONATE. I wish to thank everyone for your assistance.

As part of the WCEA accreditation process for a school, the school is visited by a visiting team every six years. As part of the process the school has to produce a comprehensive document for the visitation. We are beginning the process now, and we will be evaluating our mission statement and our SLEs to begin with. We will also be administering surveys as part of the process. We keep you informed of the progress and when we will need your input for the reviews and when to complete the surveys. At parent conferences we will have computers available for parents to complete the parent surveys. The school board will be actively involved during the 18-month process of WCEA accreditation.

God Bless,

Vincent Riener

Principal

In a small example of sychronicity, I was not aware of the subject of this Sunday's Gospel when I prepared my journal entry for today. Both deal with "lost and found", but in completely different situations.

“Some times the things you’ve lost can be found again in unexpected places.”

– Daniel Handler

That which is lost is often found on the bench, on the yard, in the cafeteria, and all around the school grounds. The amount of items left behind on any given day is astounding. It is natural for students to misplace items, don’t get me wrong. When I return something to a student he/she is always grateful and polite in thanking me. I can only return items to students, however, if they are labeled.

The photo above shows items left on the bench and in the cafeteria on one afternoon earlier this week. This may not seem like much, but it happens almost every day, and the cost of the items lost is substantial. An average lunchbox or plastic water bottle at Target is $10, a thermos is $15, and a small uniform sweatshirt is $21. Add up these items from one afternoon and the total is close to $100! At that rate, with 180 days in a school year, you are talking thousands of dollars lost.

Please label your student’s sweaters, sweatshirts, lunch boxes, thermoses, and water bottles. School staff does their best to return lost items to their rightful owners, but we can only do so if they have a name on them. Thanks!

All the best,

Miss J

"

13 - 8th Grade Cluster Mass - 9:30am

15 - Catechetical Sunday - 9am Mass

16 - Arch. Staff Dev. Mtg. - 12:20 Dismissal

17 - School Board Mtg. - 6:30pm - Annex Meeting Room

17 - School Assembly - 2:30pm

Dear Families,

Below please find the free and reduced lunch application for the 2019-2020 school year.

One of our school parents is passing along this information about a free seminar regarding self-defense classes for children:

Sept 21 - 11:00am - 1:00pm Bullyproof Back-to-School Seminar (register at bit.ly/bullyproofetc)

Evolve Training Center

evolvetrainingcenter@gmail.com

Box Tops for Education was started by General Mills in California back in 1996, after the company decided they wanted to create a program to help support education and benefit America’s schools. All Souls has benefitted from this program over the years, receiving sports equipment, microscopes, and a variety of other educational items.

You can help by clipping the Box Tops off approved products you already have in your pantry. You don't need to clip the actual product UPC — just the Box Tops logo will do. From frozen foods to produce and household cleaning products, there are literally hundreds of opportunities to help, and each Box Top is worth 10 cents. Doesn't sound like a lot, but it adds up fast.

There are so many participating companies! Participating companies and product lines include General Mills, Green Giant, Totino's, Pillsbury, Old El Paso, Ziploc, Hefty, Juicy Juice, Betty Crocker and many more. For a full list of eligible items check the Box Tops for Education website at https://www.boxtops4education.com/earn .

Please see the flyer below for more details about new additions to the Box Tops program.

Email: info@ssfallsoulsschool.org
Website: www.ssfallsoulsschool.org
Location: 479 Miller Ave, South San Francisco, CA, United States
Phone: (650) 583 3562