St Mary's School
'Everyone knows what it is to hope.' - Pope Francis
Kia ora e te whānau,
Welcome back! We're stoked to have everyone back and we're into the swing of things again, in fact it feels like we haven't even been away. I hope you all enjoyed a fantastic summer break and your 2025 has started well.
This year the Catholic Church celebrates a special Jubilee Year - a centuries-old tradition rich with spiritual significance. This special time is dedicated to promoting renewal, spiritual growth, mercy, and forgiveness. This comes about every 25 years and the theme chosen by Pope Francis this year is 'Pilgrims of Hope'. 'Pilgrims of Hope' will also be our theme for our 2025 school year.
In the words of Pope Francis: 'Everyone knows what it is to hope. In the heart of each person, hope dwells as the desire and expectation of good things to come, despite our not knowing what the future may bring. Even so, uncertainty about the future may at times give rise to conflicting feelings, ranging from confident trust to apprehensiveness, from serenity to anxiety, from firm conviction to hesitation and doubt. Often we come across people who are discouraged, pessimistic and cynical about the future, as if nothing could possibly bring them happiness. For all of us, may the Jubilee be an opportunity to be renewed in hope.'
As you know, 'Hope' is one of our school values taken from the Gospel and words of our Foundress, Mother Catherine McAuley which fits nicely with this years Jubilee theme. Even better than that, our values of 'Love' and 'Faith' also fit beautifully with the Pope's chosen theme.
Faith - 'Put your whole confidence in God'
Hope - 'Good today, better tomorrow'
Love - 'We belong to God, all in us is His'
As pilgrims of hope we recognise that life has its ups and downs, its challenges and joys. We know we will experience a variety of adventures with each other and with our students this year! We HOPE to guide our children to look at challenges in a new light.
As this new school year begins, we HOPE to rediscover the value of silence, effort and the simple things in life. We want to be true pilgrims of HOPE who journey together, supporting and encouraging each other in the smallest of ways.
Our world is filled with so many resources and the goods of the Earth have been gifted for everyone, not just a chosen few. We HOPE to recognise the needs of others, be it physical, emotional, social or spiritual. We HOPE to have strength and belief in ourselves to answer the call to reach out to these people.
HOPE can give us inward direction and true purpose to our lives. We HOPE to anchor ourselves in this, to lead HOPE filled lives, to be influenced by HOPE in our beliefs and our relationships, in order to feel stable and secure, anchored to God, ourselves and each other. We HOPE to live our lives to the fullest.
We HOPE for the 2025 school year to be one of faith, hope and love where our tamariki deepen their relationship with God and each other and flourish academically, spiritually, and socially.
Ma te Atua e manaaki - God bless,
Mallory
Principal | Tumuaki
Contact Us
Email: admin@stmarys.school.nz
Website: https://stmarys.school.nz/
Location: 14 Ardwick Street, Gore 9710, New Zealand
Phone: +64 3-208 7733
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1407464649522913