Patty Bajek / Thursday, November 30, 2023

Saints Speak from Mrs. Marshall - 11/30/2023 - Doing Better with the Help of the Lord

Take a few minutes to reflect on these words from Pope Francis:

“You could say to me, ‘But the Church is made up of sinners; we see them every day.’ And this is true: we are a Church of sinners. And we sinners are called to let ourselves be transformed, renewed, sanctified by God.”

This message from Pope Francis reminds us of the Lord’s saving power. Even as sinners, we can change, be saved, and do better with the help of our Lord.

Advent

This Sunday we begin the Advent season as we prepare to celebrate the birth of our Savior. Many of us are busy preparing our homes for Christmas, buying presents for one another, baking cookies, and hanging decorations. While these Christmas traditions are beautiful and important, we must also prepare our hearts for the Lord’s coming. This Advent season, we will be asking each of our students to reflect on a way that they can bring their hearts closer to Jesus, through prayer or acts of kindness. Their plans will be shared on stepping stones throughout the hallways, creating a path to our creche in the front of school to provide a visual “pathway” to Jesus as we prepare for His birth.

Click here for some ideas of how you can celebrate Advent as a family! There are weekly kid-friendly prayers, Scripture, activities, and more. Consider using this resource to try something new this Advent!

As a school community, we will be doing an Advent collection for Hesed House again this year. Click here for more information on Hesed House and how you can help. Collection bins will be available all of next week.

Lastly, we hope to decorate our school lobby with ornaments from our ASCA families this holiday season. Consider loaning us an ornament that is important to your family – perhaps it represents your culture, a favorite place, or a special memory. Click here for more information on how to send in your ornament!

Upcoming Events

As we begin the busy holiday season, please make sure you have the following upcoming dates on your calendars!

Tuesday, 12/12/23: Mass 8:15am for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe; this will replace our regular Friday Mass that week.

Wednesday, 12/20/23: Preschool Christmas Concert 8:30am in the gym

Wednesday, 12/20/23: Kindergarten-5^th grade Christmas Concert 6:00pm in the gym

Thursday, 12/20/23: Class Christmas parties 10am, followed by 11:30am dismissal for all students as we begin Christmas break. There will be no after care, no bus home, and no lunch on this day.

December Virtue & Social-Emotional Learning

Our virtue for the month of December is patience. What an important virtue for us to focus on this time of year, when we are often busy and rushing from one thing to the next! Click here for some suggestions of how you can practice the virtue of patience at home as a family.

Due to the holidays, our social-emotional learning lesson schedule is changing a bit. The first week of December will be used to finish up November’s lessons on mindfulness. In the second week of December, lessons on growth mindset will begin, and will continue into January. Click here for more information on growth mindset.

November: Native American History Month

On Monday, Gina Roxas from the Trickster Cultural Center spoke to our students. She used stories to share her experience as a member of the Potawatomi tribe, how she sees and respects the diversity of nature, and how we can use this to recognize the diversity in each of us. We are grateful to Ms. Roxas for her visit and for sharing her culture with our students and staff!

Benefit for Mr. Dulik

Please join our ASCA family on Saturday, January 6^th, for Bags of Love, benefitting our athletic director Mr. Dan Dulik and his cancer treatment. This family friendly event is hosting by ASCA and Dan’s family and friends. It will include a bags tournament, bingo, food, and more. Click here for information or to sign up to play in the tournament. Thank you for your support of the Dulik family!

Honor Roll

We are proud to recognize nearly 90 junior high students who earned a place on the Honor Roll by achieving academic excellence in the first trimester this year. Click here to view their names. Congratulations!

Saintly Acts

Congratulations to these students who earned Saintly Acts this week: Payton M. (8^th grade), Jack M. (Kdg), Isabella C. (4^th grade), Ian M. (5^th grade), Drake K. (1^st grade), James C. (2^nd grade), Beau W. (2^nd grade), Mia G. (5^th grade), Luke B. (3^rd grade), Aiden K. (3^rd grade), Alexa L. (3^rd grade), Karen O. (3^rd grade), and Michael P. (Kdg). Keep being Saintly!