Welcome to the end of another week!

Today on assembly marked our first ‘Whole School Meditation’ that we’ve been able to have this year.  The students did a wonderful job in entering the Hall in a calm, peaceful, quiet manner, and were able to sit in relative stillness and silence for the allocated time.  It is clear that this is a practice that our students understand and undergo on a daily basis and forms the centre of our contemplative practices.

To celebrate bookweek this week, it was planned to have an author/illustrator visit of the book, ‘Frankie the Still Fox’.  The author happens to be my father, Ernie Christie, who was unable to attend due to the birth of his newest grandson (my nephew), so I was fortunate enough to attend 2 sessions with the Prep and Year 1 students and share the words he’s written with them.  Frankie teaches our students about the value of stillness, silence and simplicity and the skills involved in Christian meditation (although not explicitly stating that).  The students seemed to really enjoy the book, and some even started meditating when Frankie did in the book.  

In the book, Frankie talks about his special word, MARANATHA, which also happens to be the word which we use in Christian meditation.  I explained to our students the meaning of the word, and thought that you may be interested as well.  Maranatha is an Aramaic word, which is believed to be the language Jesus spoke.  It’s translation is simply, ‘Come Lord’, so when we say this word during meditation, we are welcoming Jesus and God to be with us and guide us.

You can’t purchase Frankie in stores in Australia just yet, however, if you jump onto the following website, you are able to order it in from the UK https://mediomedia.com/products/mtfra2.  It will also be available for our students to borrow from the library, and is sitting proudly on prayer tables in Prep and Year 1.  

I must also extend a big thank you to Mary Hosking, the illustrator of Frankie, and also the librarian at St Clare’s here in Townsville.  She shared some of the original drawings of Frankie and even brought along with her a special Franki puppet, which the students loved.  It was great that this could be a part of book week!

Pax

Nick

Contemplative Corner 

Over the next few weeks, I intend to give a range of different mantras and sayings  which you might like to use in your daily life.  The ideas are that these mantras and sayings are for you - read them, sit with them, take what you need out of them.  You might see something that you love and sticks out in your mind - it might become your theme for the week.  You may choose to pray with it or say it to yourself each morning before starting the day.  Enjoy.

“Be still and know that I am God” - Psalm 46:10

Be still and know I am

Be still and know

Be still

Be - Ernie Christie in Frankie the Still Fox