St. Mary’s School
129 St Mary Street Phone 419.943.2801
Leipsic, Ohio 45856 Fax 419.943.3555
Website: ls.noacsc.org
Echoing God’s Love !
As a significant ministry of St. Mary’s Parish, St. Mary’s School exists to aid in the development of the whole child: spiritually, academically, socially and physically.
As part of a Catholic community living out the Gospel message, the school and family collaborate to nurture self-worth, respect, and an appreciation of the pursuit of knowledge.
Faith-Based ~ Hope-Filled ~ Gospel-Driven
Parent Newsletter February 13, 2015 #20
SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Jesus Challenges us to Reach Out to Everyone!
In Sunday’s Gospel, a person with leprosy comes to Jesus and asks to be healed. Jesus heals the person – and teaches us a very important lesson. We learn to see all human beings as children of God. Everyone is acceptable to God. Like Jesus, we are to reach out to all people with the love and compassion of God. Maybe we think we do this already. After all, we’re good people. We don’t hurt others. We help others when we can.
But the lesson in Sunday’s Gospel is about more than being a good person or reaching out to help others. It’s about accepting and reaching out to others who are not liked or accepted by others.
We can better understand this challenge if we understand just how much of an outcast a person with the disease of leprosy was in Jesus’ day. They were considered unclean and so were isolated from the entire community – even their families. To have an exchange with a person with leprosy was completely forbidden. But Jesus doesn’t care about what is “forbidden.” More than anything else, He cares about people – all people.
Who are the outcasts today? Well, today’s outcasts might be those who are called names like “weird” or “clueless” or “stupid” or “stuck up”; or those on our team who are clumsy and not very good at what they're doing; or those who don’t wear cool clothes or who have bad hair days.
So now can you see how challenging Jesus’ lesson is in Sunday’s Gospel?
WINTERFEST DINNER &
REVERSE AUCTION:
What a great time was had by all! We are proud to have been the first big event in our new Parish Life Center. The building space is very conducive for large events such as this. We had space to move around among the tables and plenty of space for all our activities. A big thanks to all the men and women who helped to make this building come to be. God bless each of you!
This past week our seventh graders, with the help of Mr. U, Sister Judith Mary, and Mrs. Schroeder, prepared the ashes that we will receive on Ash Wednesday. It was an activity that they had never witnessed before. Do you think they will forget it soon?
WHAT A YEAR!
Can You Believe It?
This past week was only the second week that we’ve been in school for all five days of the week since Christmas break!
Thursday, February 5th was our sixth free day – our first blizzard bag day! We still have two more “blizzard bag” days if we need them.
You may have noticed in the Leipsic Messenger this past week that Leipsic Schools will be making up the day they lost last week on May 26th – that does not apply to us because we have the “blizzard bag” system. HOWEVER, IF we have more than two more snow days, we will need to make them up at the end of the year. Two hour delays do not constitute a “free day.”
WINTERFEST WINNERS
Big Board Winners:
1st Place – Ellie Amador
2nd Place – Kevin Evers
3rd Place – Rick Lammers
Back Board Winners:
1st Place – Ann Meyer
2nd Place – Norma Rieman
3rd Place – David Schroeder
A big THANK YOU to all who joined us that evening! We think all the numbers are in and all the bills are paid. We are happy to report that our net profit is $16,645. That compares to $9,832 of last year! Yeah team! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
(as known at the time of this printing)
Sat. Feb. 14 -- HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!
Mon. Feb. 16 -- PRESIDENT’S DAY – NO SCHOOL
Wed. Feb. 18 -- ASH WEDNESDAY
-- Join us for Mass @ 8:30 planned by Gr. 7
Thurs. Feb. 19 -- Seventh Grade Archery
Fri. Feb. 20 -- Mid terms go home
February 21 & 21 – First Communion enrollment at each of the weekend Masses
Thurs. Feb. 26 -- Seventh Grade Archery
Fri. Feb. 27 -- Pizza Day
March 5 & 6 – External Validation Team will be at St. Mary’s School. What do they do? They will be working these two days to assure us that we are following all the state standards for an elementary school and will study our five-year plan to advise us on our
educational and Catholic Identity progress for the next five years.
Wed. March 11 -- Spring Pictures (optional)