On Sunday, six of our St. Therese Eagles joined their fellow Catholics at the table - they received their First Holy Communion.

You should have seen the joy on their faces! I was watching them before mass outside, dressed up in their suits and dresses, hair done up, slicked back, and smiles that lit up their faces. The pure excitement that they felt at joining the table for the first time can't be replicated, but it should be.

We should always approach the gift of our Lord's sacrifice with excitement and reverence, embracing each time the mystery that is the Holy Eucharist. Sunday, when I was preparing to receive communion, I took a cue from my young friends and it transformed the entire experience for me.

I approached as a mother, appreciating the sacrifice and pain that Mary experienced as she watched her son suffer. I approached as a child of God, knowing how loved I must be in order to have access to such a gift. I approached as a sister in Christ, surrounded by my Christian family who gather to share in this meal.

So often we get lost in the routine - we stand, sit, and kneel with muscle memory. I urge you to watch our youngest Christians as they approach the Host and follow their lead - look at their faces and do your best to embrace this gift as if it were the very first time. I bet it changes the way you experience the eucharist in the most incredible way!

Blessed Virgin Mary, pray for us!

God bless you all,

Rosemarie El Youssef

Principal, St. Therese School

503-253-9400 ext. 122

Savannah Britton, 2nd grade

Daphne Martinez, 2nd grade

Braylon Maxie, 3rd grade

Sam Ntahobari, 2nd grade (baptism and first communion)

Hannahlee Ngo, 4th grade

Ameer Akroush, 2nd grade

If your student received sacraments at your home parish recently (baptism, first communion or confirmation) please send us a photo so that we can share with our community.

Commissioning mass: Friday, June 11th at 10 a.m.

Graduation Ceremony: Tuesday, June 15th at 6 p.m. in the church

We will keep you posted as we nail down final details, but as of now, it looks as if we can host students and immediate family in the church. We will be live-streaming so that any family members unable to attend can still watch!

Please send photos of your graduate to elyoussefr@stthereseschool.org and we will put together a slide show of photos celebrating them. Please send a baby photo, as well as photos of your child from kinder-8th grade. If you have photos of other students in the class we would love for you to share them! The slide show will be played at the graduation ceremony.

Check out all the cool prizes Mehki Morris (first grade) got for earning points in SchoolStore Fundraising! Once your student reaches a certain prize level, the company ships the prizes to the school and we turn those awesome prizes over to our students. He received a Chromebook, a drone, and some other big ticket prizes - way to go Mehki!

If family members are unhappy with the emails and reminders to participate, please let them know that they can scroll to the bottom of the email and unsubscribe from future emails.

Go to https://www.schoolstore.net/sid.t?119532 to learn more about how this program can support our school!

We have enjoyed the cards and beautiful flowers from students this week!

Monday: Handmade note from the student to the teachers/staff

Tuesday: Flower from the yard
Wednesday: Sweet snack (Must be store bought and individually packaged)
Thursday: Healthy snack (Must be store bought and individually packaged)
Friday: Pizza lunch

I will email parents with information from staff wish-lists by Friday afternoon.

See the attachments below for some templates you can use for the note to a teacher or staff member.

Thank you for your support!

You can look at the books offered this spring by clicking here .

Thank you for your support, and a BIG thank you to Mrs. Chong for being such a gracious host!

You can find our virtual book fair by clicking here .

https://www.jesuitportland.org/athletics/athleticcamps

We will do something fun for our kiddos, but we won't be making it a fundraiser event. As a result, the school has decided to close out the budget year. We are so grateful for everyone who pitched in to help us raise funds towards the Parents' Club goal, and we will not be billing our families. We don't think it would be fair, given that we've only had one major fundraiser. If you or anyone in your family would like to make a voluntary contribution to our school, we will gratefully accept!

It's been a difficult year for us all, and we are still here! Please come to the Parents' Club meeting on Wednesday May 19th and share your ideas for the coming school year.

We are better together!

Case rates in Multnomah County fell significantly, and we are at 201/100,000 cases, with test positivity down under 6% at this time. Clackamas County is also falling, back down around 251/100,00 with test positivity at 8.2% - we need to continue to be vigilant and use all safety precautions so that our trends continue downwards.

If ANYONE in your household has symptoms of COVID-19, you MUST keep all students at home. This limits exposure to the cohort/class at school and without that exposure, we can keep our classrooms in session here on campus.

The impacts of COVID-19 are hitting a little closer to home now, and we just want everyone to be safe. Please support our efforts by reminding your students to wear their masks properly, wash/sanitize hands, and keep a safe distance from their peers. We encourage you all to continue to practice safety when you are out and about with your family and friends.

Thank you for all that you do to help keep our students and families safe!

You can find more information by clicking here.

We require that anyone who travels outside of Oregon for any reason plan for being away from school for 14 days following their return.

If you or anyone in your household travels, you won't meet our health requirements and will need to learn from home for 14 days following your return. St. Therese staff follows these same safety rules and will likewise quarantine at home following any travel outside of Oregon if they are unvaccinated.

Schools in Multnomah County are advised to consider travel for K-12 sports to be non-essential, regardless of the update from the Oregon Health Authority. This has to do with the case rates tied to sports teams, and the variance of restrictions between states and counties - we can't guarantee that other states will follow the same rules we do in Oregon, and we have a responsibility to keep our community safe.

Please call the office as soon as possible to notify us about any plans for travel that will include your student accessing distance learning for a period of time so that we can inform teachers and make arrangements to get you the necessary learning materials.

We appreciate all that you do to keep our community safe, and our students learning at school with us.

If you have any questions, please give us a call! You can find information about tuition for our programs on our website, https://www.stthereseschool.org/little-flower-preschool - we look forward to a full group this fall!

We have so much to offer children and their families - please help us get the word out!

If you would like to join the School Advisory Council (S.A.C.) please send Rosemarie an email at elyoussefr@stthereseschool.org and she will send you information regarding how to apply, along with an invitation to attend a meeting to observe.

Thank you!

Please join us for our final Parents' Club Meeting TONIGHT at 6 p.m.

A special thank you to Melanie Reyna and Anne Herold for all of their hard work this year on behalf of our Parents' Club! We will be voting on next year's committee at the meeting tonight so please attend if you can! The Zoom link was sent in an email Tuesday night.