Newsletter 20/1/25

Dia duit a chara,

We hope that you are having a blessed Christmas season! In the Old Rite of the Church, Christmas celebrations continue until Candlemas Day at the beginning of February. Our manger scene will remain up in school until this day, and we ask Our Lord to continue to bless us throughout this joyful season!

The boys and girls were very thankful to be back in school after the extended Christmas break! It is good to have a rest but it is a wonderful occasion when children are able to return to school and to have fun with their friends, learn new things and to engage with their teacher’s lessons.

The children have much to look forward to this term. Catechesis will take place with the Dominicans, The Institute of Christ the King, and Fr Bernardino of the Franciscans. The children will also learn sewing and prepare for a St Patrick’s Day Concert with songs, drama, Irish dancing, and poetry. This is along with all of our usual lessons and activities. It will be a great term for learning and for fun!

Continuing with the exploration of our Music Curriculum, we will focus on an area that is important for children to have their aesthetic tastes developed and their souls beautified. That is the listening to and responding to great music. These lessons are usually conducted in the last term of the school year, but an additional lesson was undertaken last week, where the children visited the local parish church, St Joseph’s. Here the children sat with Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament and focussed on the beautiful crib scene that is in St Joseph’s. Christmas music and chant was played for the children while they looked at the figures of the crib, inspiring them to prayer.

We wish you all a blessed week. Please keep us in your prayers, and know that we keep all our benefactors in our daily morning prayers, too.

God bless you,

Richard Casey

Headmaster of Stella Maris School

Newsletter 17/12/24

Dia duit a chara,

We hope you are having a blessed Advent season. It will not be long until the celebration of Christ’s birth. The boys and girls have been preparing for the coming of Christ with their usual excellent catechesis, as well as much singing of beautiful hymns and carols. “To sing is to pray twice”, said St Augustine. Let us fill our hearts with Advent hymns in preparation for Christmas, before we rejoice in Christmas carols for many weeks afterwards. Did you know that, traditionally, Christmas is celebrated until Candlemas at the start of February? We will have lots of time to celebrate the birth of Our Lord and to enjoy the beautiful carols of our Catholic faith!

As promised, please see below some pictures of our wonderfully successful Christmas concert. This was undoubtedly our best concert yet. Thank you very much to all the teachers, parents and community members involved. We also wish to thank St Joseph’s Church who gave us the use of their hall for the occasion. We are very grateful to you all!

The concert began with the angelus, which was prayed by Fr Horgan, who was visiting from Cork. The boys and girls then began their performance with fantastic drama, carols and poems being performed. The boys and girls put in hours and hours of practise with their music and drama teachers since September; their Christmas play and carols lasted 45 minutes, with each minute being greatly appreciated by the great crowd that was in attendance! The beginning of the Gospel according to St John was also recited by the children; this was a very impressive recital, lasting 1 min 45 seconds! ‘Don Oíche Úd I mBeithil’, an ancient Irish carol, was performed by the children, with Ms Casey, who teaches Irish and music to the children, accompanying on her harp. Christmas jingles were performed before the wonderful spread of delicious hot food, treats and drinks were served to our guests, who had hearty appetites worked up after listening to the children’s performances! Festive wreaths, candles and decorations were on offer at the back of the hall as part of the fundraiser, and these were very well received. The event then proceeded with a raffle of generous prizes. Thank you to all the companies who donated prizes for the draw, we greatly appreciate your support. A special thank you must be given to the Lowe family, who worked heroically for weeks to make this fundraiser such a big success and the concert such a wonderful occasion. It was very heartening to hear such positive feedback from the people who came to support the children, and we look forward to another great concert next year!

We wish you all a blessed Christmas. May the peace of Christ reign in your hearts, and may the Holy Family bless you and keep you.  

God bless you,

Richard Casey

Headmaster of Stella Maris School

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Newsletter 9/12/24

Dia duit a chara,

We hope you have had a blessed feast of the Immaculate Conception! May our Blessed Mother watch and keep you and your loved ones during this time of Advent. O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

We wish to remind you that our Christmas concert is coming up this Saturday. It promises to be a wonderful celebration of the birth of Christ with carols, poems, scripture, songs and a drama to be performed. The boys and girls have worked very hard with their teachers on this project for many weeks, and they are very excited to share the good news of Christ’s birth with as many people as possible. Please come and support the students of Stella Maris School this Saturday at 12pm! Please see more details below!

We shall continue our exploration of our Music curriculum this week. Listening to quality music is an important way to develop our children’s tastes for what is beautiful and good. We were very blessed today to be invited by Patricia Kieran of Mary Immaculate College to a Christmas Carol recital in the Redemptorists’ Church. The exemplary singing and organ playing glorified God, honoured Mary and warmed our hearts on a chilly December morning. Please see a picture of this great recital enjoyed by the boys and girls, below. Thank you very much, Mrs Kieran, for this unforgettable experience!  

We will have an extra newsletter next week with plenty of pictures of the boys and girls celebrating the birth of Christ in their Christmas concert!

We wish you all a blessed week. Please keep us in your prayers, and know that we keep all our benefactors in our daily morning prayers, too.

God bless you,

Richard Casey

Headmaster of Stella Maris School

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Newsletter 25/11/24

Dia duit a chara,

We hope you have had a blessed weekend! We continue to pray for the holy souls this month, as we also begin to anticipate the start of Advent. This morning our senior students were learning about the origins of the word advent. Did you know it comes from Latin? ‘Veni’ means ‘to come’, and so Advent prepares us for the coming of Christ at Christmas time, but also for Christ’s second coming. We are called to have our lamps lit and to be waiting for the bridegroom when He returns!

Our new Irish teacher, Ms Casey, has been working with the children over the last number of weeks. She has been teaching them the beautiful Irish hymn ‘A Mhuire Mháthair’. It is wonderful to hear the children singing this hymn to honour Our Lady in our native tongue. I am sure that it is very pleasing to the Blessed Virgin to hear her children blessing her in Gaeilge class in Stella Maris School! Ms Casey has graced us with the playing of the harp during some of her lessons also, as you can see below. Thank you, Ms Casey!

Did you know that Stella Maris School will hold two fundraisers shortly? This coming Sunday, after Mass in Sacred Heart Church, at approximately 12pm, a number of businesses will sell some of their products in the hallway of the Sacred Heart Church. Stella Maris School will be selling some Advent and Christmas wreaths and decorations. Please come along and see the beautiful products that we have on offer!

Our Christmas concert is drawing nearer! The boys and girls have been practising very hard this year under the tutelage of their drama and music teachers. Thank you to all of our teachers for your tireless efforts, the concert will be best yet! Don’t miss the opportunity to enjoy the boys and girls’ performances and at the same time to support Stella Maris School! Please see details below!

We shall continue our exploration of our Music curriculum this week. As well as learning Gregorian Chant, the boys and girls in the senior classes in the Dominican’s catechesis group are also learning to chant in English at the end of some of their lessons. This chant complements the learning taking place in their Gregorian Chant lessons. Praying in English and in Latin can help the boys and girls experience different forms of prayer and can help them to engage their minds and hearts in new ways!

We wish you all a blessed week. Please keep us in your prayers, and know that we keep all our benefactors in our daily morning prayers, too.

God bless you,

Richard Casey

Headmaster of Stella Maris School

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Newsletter 11/11/24

Dia duit a chara,

We hope you have had a blessed weekend! As you are aware, it is the month of the Holy Souls. This is a very special time for praying for the souls in purgatory. These souls will be eternally grateful for our help in getting them to heaven. Let us not forget to pray and sacrifice for the souls in purgatory this month. We will make a special effort in school to pray for the Holy Souls this month.

We were blessed during the month of October to pray many rosaries! We went on a rosary run to many of the churches around Limerick over the course of the month. We visited Sacred Heart Church, the Redemptorists’ Church, and the Augustinian’s Church. It was a great joy to pray in these beautiful churches and to offer up our bouquet of rosaries to Our Blessed Mother. The children usually pray the rosary in Irish, although sometimes also in English. The beginning Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be are also sometimes said in Latin. I am sure Our Lady is very happy to hear her blessed rosary being prayed in all these languages! We also were blessed with a visit from Karen Clancy from the Children’s Rosary Initiative. She led us in our first official Children’s Rosary, which will be an initiative that we will take part in every month from now on. We will pray with millions of other children around the world in honouring Mary and seeking her blessings. Thank you, Karen, for your great help! Please see below some pictures from the month!

We shall continue our exploration of our Music curriculum this week. As previously mentioned, Canon Henry, of The Institute of Christ the King, teaches Gregorian Chant to the children of Stella Maris School each week. This is very important and beneficial to the children in a number of different ways. Spiritually, Gregorian Chant can help the children delve more deeply into their prayer lives. It can raise the minds and hearts to God in a uniquely beautiful way, helping them to know God better and to sing His praises. As well as this, it prepares children well for future participation in the liturgy. By being enabled to sing Gregorian Chant, the children can engage more fully in the liturgy, and can possibly take part in the choir in the future. Finally, learning Gregorian Chant gives children the chance to sing and pray in the beautiful tradition of the Catholic Church. To know that one is praying and chanting in the same way as our ancestors have been for over 1,000 years is a great way to grow in appreciation and love for our Catholic faith.

We wish you all a blessed week. Please keep us in your prayers, and know that we keep all our benefactors in our daily morning prayers, too.

God bless you,

Richard Casey

Headmaster of Stella Maris School

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Newsletter 14/10/24

Dia duit a chara,

We hope you have had a blessed weekend and that you are receiving many blessings from Our Lady of the Holy Rosary this month. There are so many blessings to be received from praying the rosary, and Our Lady of Fatima has asked us to pray this beautiful prayer every day. This devotion is especially pleasing to Our Lady since she is the queen who has bestowed this great instrument of grace upon us. Thank you, Our Lady! Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, pray for us!

The history of the rosary goes back a long time, but the Dominicans and St Dominic are especially famous for this devotion, and this being case, it is a fitting time to share some of the work being undertaken by the Dominican sisters with our students. The older children are learning about virtue this year with a new programme, ‘Virtues in Practise’; they are also continuing to learn about and practice Lectio Divinia, illumination of scripture by learning calligraphy, and chanting the Psalm of the day. The middle classes of children have been learning about the Holy Rosary, whilst the younger classes have been exploring the chasuble. Thank you very much, sisters, for the great catechesis that the children are being blessed with!

We shall continue our exploration of our Music curriculum this week. As previously mentioned, Music is a great way to promote culture. The promotion of Catholic Culture and Irish Culture are central to our school’s mission, and this is enlivened in a unique way by the celebration of Irish and Catholic music. We are blessed with many different teachers of Music in Stella Maris School. Some of our students are taught to sing by the Dominican sisters, Canon Henry teaches Gregorian Chant, whilst hymns in English and Irish are being taught by three of our new lay volunteers. This rich inculturation into the different musical traditions of the Catholic Church is of great benefit to our pupils, academically, humanly and spiritually.

We wish you all a blessed week. Please keep us in your prayers, and know that we keep all our benefactors in our daily morning prayers, too.

God bless you,

Richard Casey

Headmaster of Stella Maris School

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Newsletter 30/9/24

Dia duit a chara,

We hope you have had a blessed weekend and that the Archangels may bless you and your loved ones during this time after their feast. Did you know that we have St Michael the Archangel displayed in our classroom? He is our defender and a very powerful angel to invoke against the Devil. St Michael the Archangel, pray for us!

The boys and girls have been blessed to visit the park and the playground most days during September, despite some mixed weather! The boys and girls have had great fun playing, relaxing and socialising, which are all of great importance during recreation time in school. Friendships are formed during these times which may blossom into lifelong friendships in the faith. Socialising on a daily basis with good Catholic children is a wonderful way to grow in the faith and to develop in a healthy, happy environment.

We were blessed to have Mass celebrated by Canon Henry last Thursday. The boys and girls sang the ‘Salve Regina’ at the end of Mass to our Blessed Mother. This has been practised by the boys and girls in their Gregorian Chant lessons. It was a very beautiful and moving experience to see the pupils honouring our mother in such a pleasing manner.

This leads nicely into our next curriculum discussion, which is of the importance of the arts in our educational provision. We will begin by discussing music. Music is a vital way of transmitting culture. Songs and musical pieces are very enjoyable to listen to and we all know what it feels like to get a song ‘stuck in our heads’. This facet of our human nature can be used for good or for ill. If we fill our minds and hearts with good songs and beautiful hymns and music then our minds and hearts will be full of this goodness and beauty, or the opposite can also be true. This is why we pick beautiful music to focus on and memorise in Stella Maris School, so that our children can grow in goodness and beauty each day!

We wish you all a blessed week. Please keep us in your prayers, and know that we keep all our benefactors in our daily morning prayers, too.

God bless you,

Richard Casey

Headmaster of Stella Maris School

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Newsletter 16/9/24

Dia duit a chara,

We hope you are having a blessed summer, and that you have been able to have some time for rest and relaxation with family and friends! We are delighted to have returned to school and I am glad to inform you that our students are refreshed and were very happy to come back to Stella Maris School.

We were very blessed last week to have the great opportunity to visit the relic of St Bernadette. The boys and girls were told about Our Lady’s appearance to St Bernadette and how she prayed the rosary with her. Her self-declaration of being ‘The Immaculate Conception’ was taught to the children. We hope that the visit will help us all to grow in holiness and in the virtues lived out by St Bernadette and Our Lady of Lourdes.

Thank you very much to all those who donated to our recent Go Fund Me campaign. This was a huge help to pay for some of our essential start-of-year expenses. Thank you very much for your great generosity.

Before we return to our curriculum exposition, we will discuss some of the activities that the boys and girls will be engaged in this year. The boys and girls will continue their Catholic readers and grammar books this year in English, as they continue to develop their literacy skills in a way that encourages their faith. The boys and girls will continue to engage in their Maths programme this year which is complemented by our mental Maths and tables programmes to ensure their numeracy skills are as sharp as possible. Our Irish team will be added to by Ms Casey this year, her experience and singing ability will be a great blessing to our children’s Gaeilge and Irish singing! In Catechesis, the Dominicans, Fr Bernardino of the Franciscan Friars and Canon Henry of the Institute of Christ the King will be teaching the children about the faith. As well as the teaching of these four main subjects, we will continue to teach our other nine subjects: Geography, History, Science, Art, Music, Drama, PE, Latin and French.

We wish you all a blessed week. Please keep us in your prayers, and know that we keep all our benefactors in our daily morning prayers, too.

God bless you,

Richard Casey

Headmaster of Stella Maris School

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