Third Sunday of Advent
In recognition of the third Sunday in Advent, we lit the rose coloured candle this weekend. The rose candle is a stark contrast to the deep purple of the other three candles around the wreath. Advent is a time of expectant waiting and the three purple candles represent the symbols of peace, hope and love. During the third week of Advent, also known as Gaudete (Rejoice) Sunday, we light a different coloured candle to remind us of the impending joy associated with the birth of Jesus. With the commercial hustle and bustle of the Christmas season, we are challenged to find the true meaning of this time of year. Our All Saints staff and students will be celebrating Advent liturgies this week at the school.Our students were reminded of the true meaning of Christmas through their participation in the readying of our Christmas Hampers for our community. As a school, we were able to prepare dozens of baskets of food and household items to help compliment the special season for those who might be experiencing a difficult time. We appreciate the work of all of our students and staff who contributed to this task. I extend wishes of hope, peace, joy and love to all of our school families for the remainder of our advent season and through your celebrations of Christmas.Cooperative Education Corner
All Saints has a large number of students who enrol in cooperative education courses to pursue some practical work opportunities. In the coming weeks we will feature some of our students and the experiences they are having. This week: Featured Co-op Student: Misha Azaranka Misha Azaranka is a grade 11 student who is interested in working in the Information Communication Technology field. His placement is at Ericsson in the Kanata Tech business park.Misha commented that “The experience at Ericsson is fascinating, a lot of fun and I am happy to be part of the team. We get to write trouble reports, record it to a table and show the staff what progress they had made for the past week. Another duty as a network technician is responsible for is field testing. This requires a person to walk outside and have a laptop that would collect all of the data, a phone and antenna for the main test. And the last thing the network technician is responsible for is to send all of the collected data to Sweden where it would be picked up by one of the other Network Technician, organize it and send it to China.”Additionally, Misha is able to demonstrate how the Catholic values he is learning at school are serving him well in the workplace as a Network Technician is teamwork. Misha says that “We have meetings to come up with solutions to solve problems together and need to help each other. Each person has their own task to do and when someone fails the other fail too. So everyone are having faith and trust to one another that they will accomplish their task together.”
There is a great deal of information on the CSPA website regarding information for parents and upcoming sessions. You can visit the website here.South East Ottawa Community Health Centre is offering a free parenting workshop to parents who would like some information about how to support their children who may still be experiencing some negative effects from the tornado. See the poster for more information.Communications:Check out our blog – allsaintschs.blogspot.ca and our twitter @AllSaintsOCSB (Mr. Kelly’s - @seankellyottawa) as well as our website ash.ocsb.ca for all that is happening at All Saints!
Second Week of Advent: Hope
The word “Advent” has a Latin root that means “coming.” The pre-Christmas season of Advent is a time of preparation to celebrate the first coming of Jesus Christ at Christmas: “the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” (John 1.14) Soon, a joyful feast will mark the reality that heaven came to earth that first Christmas. (from Terrence Prendergast, S.J. Archbishop of Ottawa - Advent message)We light a second purple candle on the second Sunday of Advent to represent the hope of Christ coming to the world. The word "hope" has two meanings in the Bible. The first, tiqvah, contains the sense of eager anticipation or waiting. The second, elpis. depicts a sense of confident expectation based on certainty. Biblical hope is secured by God's faithfulness to His promises. For the Old Testament leaders, their hope was in the Messiah's arrival. For us, it is the hope of the Messiah's return.God's plan for humanity unfolded in the town of Bethlehem, the birthplace of the Messiah, joyously fulfilling a long-awaited promise. Today we confidently wait for the Messiah's triumphant return. (http://www1.cbn.com/devotions/celebrate-second-week-advent)European Historical Trip - May 2020All Saints is inviting students to register for a European Historical adventure to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands in May 2020. The trip is filled with amazing activities and visiting educational and historical sites as we travel to England, the Netherlands and Belgium.Please contact Ms Power at the school for more information at christine.power@ocsb.ca or pick up an information package in room 215.www.explorica.ca/Power-4844Cooperative Education Corner
All Saints has a large number of students who enrol in cooperative education courses to pursue some practical work opportunities. In the coming weeks we will feature some of our students and the experiences they are having. This week: Featured Co-op Student:Madison Brown Madison Brown is in Grade 12 working at Mercury Filmworks. She is also involved in the Arts and Culture SHSMMadison is being exposed to many behind the scene details, literally. She commented that her duties are almost different every other day. “I get moved around from show to show depending on which shows setup is needed first. For instance I could be working on Tangled the series, and then once I finished my work from that episode I could move to Lion Guard and do the same task I just finished for Tangled, but for Lion Guard. An example of a duty is to turn background files into smaller PNG files. What I enjoy most about my placement is the opportunity I have been given to seen all the different teams and tools they use to create amazing shows and motion pictures, such as Tangled and Lion Guard.”Madison is able to demonstrate how the Catholic values she is learning at school are serving her well in the workplace. She demonstrates Hope. She hopes that one day she could be in a workplace like this for the rest of her life, and creating something everyone would like. 
There is a great deal of information on the CSPA website regarding information for parents and upcoming sessions. You can visit the website here.Communications:Check out our blog – allsaintschs.blogspot.ca and our twitter @AllSaintsOCSB (Mr. Kelly’s - @seankellyottawa) as well as our website ash.ocsb.ca for all that is happening at All Saints!
