Falcon Newsletter
December 14th, 2023
Advent Baptism
Good Afternoon,
I hope you and your family are having a great Advent. The Advent season is very fitting with our school calendar. As our students are preparing academically for the end of the semester, we are continually reminded of the true meaning of Advent. The academic preparation is an important part of our school day, but it pales in comparison to our preparation for the coming of Christ. In Mass today, Father Wood so eloquently stated that "Advent awakens within us a sense of urgency to intentionally pursue God's kingdom." As students we do pursue excellence in the classroom, but more importantly as beloved sons and daughters of the Father we pursue excellence by humbly emptying ourselves before Him so that He can fill and nourish us.
We hope that you will take advantage of the Advent Confessions going on tonight in the Family Life Center from 5:00pm - 6:00pm. This is a great opportunity for our families and students to take part in the sacrament of reconciliation as we prepare for Christ's coming.
Also, reminder that the church is re-opening this weekend! Father Wood will have a re-entry event on Saturday, December 16th at 10:00am. This will be a simple but significant procession to bring our statues of Mary and Joseph, and most importantly the Blessed Sacrament back into the church. We will meet in the Activities Center, then process into the church for Liturgy of the Word and a description from Father Wood of all the work done inside the church.
It was a great day here at SPN. We had the honor of having two of our students receive the Sacrament of Baptism at our school Mass! Our entire parish school community was in attendance for Max (2nd grade) and Kaylee (PK3) Greif's Baptism's. Thank you to members of our PTO for setting up a reception for Max, Kaylee, their family, and classmates after Mass. It was a great celebration! Congratulations to Max, Kaylee, and their family!
Our annual Falcon Elf Factory is going on this week. The kids have been able to do some Christmas shopping for their families. Our middle school students have been helping the elementary school students with their shopping. We have also had many volunteers stocking shelves and wrapping presents. Thank you to all of our volunteers and to our middle school students!
We had a busy week last week. Due to the Parental Choice Tax Credit application window opening on Wednesday, we moved our Saint Nicholas Day parties to Friday. Our PK students woke up from nap time to find candy in their shoes! All of our classes enjoyed celebrating Saint Nicholas parties in the afternoon. Thank you to the many parents who helped organize the St. Nick parties!
Our middle school students took part in a friendly challenge amongst their Houses (St. Dominic House, St. Augustine House, St. Joan D'Arc House, and St. Maria Goretti House) to see who could donate the most food for our St. Vincent dePaul Society. I honestly do not know who won, but what I can tell you is that we donated over 1500 pounds of food! Great job middle school! This will impact a lot of families in our community.
We had our middle school "Lock-in" last Friday. Needless to say, the students had a blast! They stayed the night in the school from 8pm on Friday to 9am on Saturday. They spent time in prayer, playing hide and seek, capture the flag, and many other activities. Thank you to Mrs. Schmidlkofer and Mr. Daly who stayed awake the entire time and shepherded their flock well. It was a great experience!
We hope to see you at our Christmas Program on Wednesday, December 20th. The program will take place in the Activities Center at 10:00am. Our PK3, PK4, and Kindergarten students will be putting on a great display of Christmas songs for you to enjoy! We will also have early dismissal that day. Our PK and Kindergarten classes will dismiss at 11:00am, and 1st - 8th grade will dismiss at 1:00pm.
REMINDERS:
- December 20th Christmas Program (PK3, PK4, Kindergarten) 10:00am
- Early Dismissal on December 20th
- PK & Kindergarten (11:00am)
- 1st - 8th (1:00pm)
School Mass & Rosary
There will be no school Mass next week since our last day of school for the semester is on Wednesday. We will resume our normal schedule of School Mass at 9:00am on Thursdays & Rosary on Wednesdays at 2:30pm. Please join us for Rosary and Mass after Christmas break!
Your prayers are coveted. We will be praying for you throughout the Advent and Christmas season. On behalf of everyone at St. Philip Neri Catholic School, we sincerely THANK YOU for your continued support, and for reading our newsletter. Have a Merry Christmas!
Peace,
Corky McMullen
Principal
