The Page
Weekly Newsletter - December 13, 2018
Happy Second week of advent - Faith
Our Motto: Teaching the Mind...Nourishing the Soul
Theme for the Year - TRUTH
At St. Joseph Catholic School, we are striving to become missionary disciples by revealing the Truth of Christ to others through our actions.
Our Mission and Vision Statements
Mission:
St. Joseph Catholic School provides students with a safe and prayerful learning environment, enveloped by an intimate community of active and faithful families.
Vision:
Catholic schools in the Diocese of Fort Worth are committed to opening the doors so that our students can reach further than the walls that would otherwise enclose them and therefore are able to recognize and cherish the eternal and transcendental goods of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness.
From the Principal
Here we are in the Second Week of Advent. I have learned the word "advent" is derived from the Latin word, "advenio" which means "coming to." We are preparing for Jesus to come to us at Christmas. Are we ready? We hear the phrase, "Prepare the way of the Lord," often during this season. How are we to prepare the way? During this second week, we acknowledge we have come even closer to His birth.
One suggestion would be to take a moment and refocus our mind and our heart. Consider saying this prayer from the The Essential Advent and Christmas Handbook:
“O holy, patient, and loving God, in this season of grace-filled longing, we await the coming of your Son and our Savior. It is difficult for us to remember that this is a holy time. There are many distractions: commitments seem to pile up, and expectations are high. In the midst of our busy world, our busy lives, we need your help to remind us of what is important and necessary. While many of those things that we do not need will come to us in packages gleaming and bright, the one gift that will last comes from you alone, gracious God, as we grow in our awareness of your love. Bless us, our family and friends, and the food and the company that we share. Increase in us a growing urgency to celebrate the birth of your Son, in whose name we pray. Amen.”
Go, Knights! Live in the Truth.
In Christ's service,
Diane Price, M.Ed.L.
Truth Bible Quote for December
NEW Saintly Truth Quote to ponder
"True happiness is to rejoice in the truth, for to rejoice in the truth is to rejoice in You, O God, who are the truth. Those who think there is another kind of happiness look for joy elsewhere, but theirs is not true joy" - St. Augustine
Latin and Greek Roots Challenge
Reminders and Upcoming Events
- Cookies with St. Nicholas! Stop by the school this Saturday morning, December 15th, from 10:00 am to noon and have a cookie with St. Nicholas in the school cafeteria! See the Thursday Folder for details.
- Third Sunday of Advent is this Sunday, December 16th.
- Student Council is still selling candy canes. Be looking for order forms around the school. The due date for the grams has been extended to December 17th!
- Book Fair begins after school on December 13th.
- Spelling Bee certificates and medals will be awarded at Prayer Service on Monday, December 17th.
- First Grade Las Posadas Reenactment at next Monday Morning Prayer Service, December 17th. Hope you can make it!
- Annual Christmas Program time! - This coming Wednesday, December 19th, at 7:00 pm, come see what makes St. Joseph so amazing - Our students!
- Students should be wearing coats and sweaters to school this time of year. We will play outdoors as long as the temperature and/or wind chill is not 32 degrees or lower.
- If you are an Amazon customer, please use Amazon Smile! We receive a donation from Amazon when you shop. Go to: smile.amazon.com to participate. It is a very easy way to support the school! Thank you!
- If you know a St. Joseph Catholic School alumni, please let them know we are looking to stay in contact, and would love to hear how they are doing. See the notice in our alumni section of below.
- Las Posadas Reenactment at St. Vincent de Paul: December 14, 2018 The play begins at 6:30 pm in the Church, followed by a delicious tamale dinner in the JAC. Mariachi, Folklorico Dancers, Drawing for Prizes, Piñatas for Children, Tickets $8.00, Children 6 and under eat free.
It's back! Elf Me Contest 2018
H2O For Life - Water Walk
A lovely thank you note for your generosity!
Annual Fund - Quest for Excellence!
Don't forget to participate in our Annual Fund - Quest for Excellence! You've Got the Power! With 100% participation in 100 days, we hope to raise $100,000 to help with campus security enhancements, tuition assistance, construction of another storage facility, and bonuses for our teachers. Any amount is appreciated.
A huge THANK YOU to everyone who has already participated! We have created a display in the school foyer to celebrate our participants. If you do not wish for your name to be shared in any display or in any publication, please email me (dprice@stjosephtx.org) and your name will be kept anonymous.
Home and School Association (HSA)
- Our January Spirit Knight will occur at Chick-fil-A located at 4700 S. Cooper St. from 4:00 to 8:00 pm.
- The next HSA Meeting will not be until January 16th at 7:00 pm in the school cafeteria. There is a free dress day on Friday, January 18th, for the children of HSA members in attendance that night. We do not meet during the busy months of November and December.
- Please bring in your box tops. Be sure to check out the bulletin board display in the cafeteria to see which homeroom is in the lead! Thank you for all the hard work cutting and collecting for the school!
- Looking for uniform pieces? Need to sell some pieces your child has outgrown? There is a Facebook page for that: SJCS Online Uniform Resale.
car line observations
- Please do not move or disregard the cones that are placed around the parking lots. These are provided to help keep our students safe.
- Do not make a left turn at the long line of cones upon entering the parking lot (the TCP area on the map). Please move up the drive, go around the small island, and come back down to the front of the school building. This keeps traffic off of Green Oaks.
- It is very important that cars are not left unattended in the car line. Please park your car in the large lot beside the field if you need to leave your vehicle.
- Please remember that if you are walking your child into the school building, you are to park in the large lot in front of the field. Foot traffic should not be occurring in the parking lots to the left, unless you have a physical need for a shorter walk. It is dangerous to be walking between the car line.
- For the safety of all, please be aware of your speed as you move through the parking lots, and be watchful and courteous.
- Please be patient with friends and extended family members who drop off and pick up students. Many times they have not been informed of the proper way to navigate the car line. We do reach out to families after arrival and dismissal who seem to not understand the car line pattern.
- If you have a friend or extended family member picking up your child, please take a minute to explain the procedures to them. Please reference the diagram. Thank you!
- We would ask that a cell phone not be in your hand while driving in the car line. We all know it only takes one sudden distraction to alter lives forever.
Setting aside time for family
What memories do you treasure from the holidays of your youth?
Here I sit trying to remember the cool gifts I received and the spectacularly entertaining things we did as a family. I don’t remember much about the stuff… or the entertainment. I do remember the people.
I vividly remember Christmas when I was four. Grandma Marie was there. By the following year, cancer had taken her away. How thankful I am that we had time… sweet time where we were quiet and still and just enjoyed being together. Isn’t it sad that it sometimes requires a great illness for us to still ourselves and truly connect with the people we love?
Be with the people you love… not just under the same roof.
The greatest holiday gifts we can give our kids are limits… mostly limits on ourselves and the other adults in our lives.
The limits we set with ourselves mostly involve curbing the natural inclination to do the impossible… make the holidays a perfect experience for everyone. We all know what happens when we attempt to make everyone happy.
The limits we set with the other adults in our lives involve taking good care of ourselves and our kids. (Here are some example limits). Caution! Some of these may cause severe shock:
We can’t wait to see you guys. We’ll need to leave by six so we can spend some quiet time with the kids before bedtime.
We love you and want to spend time with you. We are trying to help the kids be more relaxed and rested, so we’ll need to do this on another day.
We want to spend relaxed time with everyone, so we’ll be ordering pizza.
from Dr. Charles Fay
President of the Love and Logic Institute, Inc.
Knights in Action!
Our lady of guadalupe play
Saints, and more saints!
Christmas Band Concert
Lego Advent Wreaths
Moments around campus
The Miracle of Nature
Beauty!
Groups
All Eyes on the Stage
Book Fair!
One Act Play
The Journey
Jesse Tree
St. Nicholas
Displays Around the school
Please enjoy this Advent message from Preschool!
Wonderful message, Mrs. Do's class!
STREAM: Catapult Challenge
Roboknights in Action!
Alumni news this week
Do you have any information you would like to share with the entire Knight Community? We would love that as well! Please send your news to mhurtado@stjosephtx.org.
Once a Knight - Forever a Knight!
Are you in need of prayers?
Meet our parish priests!
Rev. Daniel Kelley
Fr. Tom Kennedy
Fr. Peter Opoku Ware
St. Joseph Roman Catholic Parish
- Be sure to look into FORMED.org. The parish has paid for your subscription to this vast library of inspiring videos and essential reads to help grow your faith. Just go straight to the "Enter Code" button and enter 4BDX9H to begin the process. You may also access this through the parish website link below. Enjoy!
- Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is occurring after daily Mass in the Chapel until 5:45pm. Come spend some time with our Lord.
- Please enjoy this link to a lovely article in the North Texas Catholic about the pastor of St. Joseph Parish, Fr. Kelley: https://t.co/3ItrotxIyf
Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth link:
Contact us at (817) 419-6800
ST. JOSEPH, PROTECTOR OF FAMILIES, PRAY FOR US.