St Kevin's Primary School Cardiff eNewsletter

Religious Education News

Advent

Last Sunday we celebrated the first Sunday of Advent. Advent marks the beginning of the liturgical year. Our sacred spaces around the school and in the church are now covered in purple cloth as purple of the colour of Advent. Advent is a time of waiting in joyful hope for the birth of Jesus. Normally, St. Kevin’s gathers as a school community to celebrate each of the four Sundays of Advent with a liturgy. As we are unable to gather during Advent 2021, we will be celebrating with beautiful classroom liturgies.

On Monday, we enjoyed our first Advent liturgy, lighting the first purple candle around our classroom Advent Wreaths and reflecting on the message of HOPE. In a year where things have sometimes felt hopeless, we must always remind ourselves that hope is never gone, God is always there for us. Each of our beautiful teachers shared a personal reflection of hope in their lives and the children were encouraged to think about the relevance of hope in their own lives.

Next week, we light the second purple candle. This is the Bethlehem candle or the candle of FAITH. In our liturgy, we will recognise the great faith of Mary and Joseph when they were asked to bring the Son of God into our world and raise him as their son. Imagine the faith it must've taken to believe the Angel Gabriel and to accept this huge responsibility!

We will celebrate the third Sunday of Advent by lighting the pink candle on our wreaths, the candle of JOY which is also known as the Shepherds candle. We are reminded of how joyful the shepherds must have felt when the angels announced the arrival of the baby Jesus. We will reflect on the joy we feel waiting and preparing for Christmas and how joyful we feel as we share these last weeks of school with our classmates.

The final candle is lit on the 4th Sunday of Advent and is called the candle of PEACE or The Angel’s Candle. It reminds us of the message of the Angels who announced ’Peace on earth and goodwill to all. ‘

As we head into the last two weeks of school for 2021, we look forward to Christmas, the holidays and the new year filled with JOY and HOPE and we share a deep FAITH for a Christmas season of PEACE and LOVE.

May God’s Spirit be with you all each day and may you all be blessed with a restful and rejuvenating holiday. I look forward to seeing you in 2022!

Mrs Jasmina Boudan  

Religious Education Coordinator  