Dear Families,

Have you checked off the following from your list:

• Re-enrollment of your children for the 2023-2024 school year.
• Invite a family or friend to attend our Open House tonight from 6:00-7:30
• Buy your ticket to attend our annual school auction.
• Celebrate CSW by attending one of our weekend Masses. 
• Students that wear their uniforms to mass at Mary Queen of Peace and or at St. Louise will receive a bracelet from the St. Louise Staff at the end of Mass. That will be their ticket to free dress on Monday, January 30th, 2023.

St. Louise Open House – Share your St. Louise Story

Invite friends, co-workers, and neighbors to our Open House tonight. When they enroll, you will receive a Tuition Discount of one month's tuition. 

Catholic Schools’ Week

January 28th – February 4th

• Special fun-dress days during the week.
• Eighth grade student essays will be read at our January 28th and 29th parish Masses. 2nd graders will be leading CSW Masses.
• A week of Teacher Appreciation for Catholic school teachers.
• Auction Preview Week

School Auction: Saturday, February 4th, 2023, at the Bellevue Westin

Today is the last day to sign up for our school auction. We hope you can join us for a fun-filled evening celebrating our theme, “All the World is my School, and All Humanity is my Teacher”. For more information and to purchase tickets, please click HERE. 

Preview week will be January 30th – February 3rd in the Main Lobby. Here is a glimpse of some items to bid on during preview week and the auction:

• Class Art Projects
• Teacher Experiences
• Fun Packages
• Instant Wine Cellars
• Wonderful Trips
• International Dinners
• Father Phil Endowment
• Teacher for the Day

Partners in the Gospel

As many of you may have heard at mass this past weekend, or in the local news, the Archdiocese of Seattle is embarking on a plan to consolidate many parishes in Western Washington by grouping two or more parishes together in “families” that will share resources. In a Seattle Times article from January 22, Archdiocese Chief Operations Officer Caitlin Moulding says, “The purpose of this is a re-envisioning…” “How do we go out to those who need our help more effectively? How do we enhance our faith formation? How do we bring young people back into the faith?”

You can read more about the five-year plan – Partners in the Gospel – on the St. Louise Parish website, the Archdiocese website and  and in this overview and timeline, also from the diocese. I hope that you take some time to learn about Partners in the Gospel, and when the time comes, get involved to help revitalize our Parish and our Catholic Faith. 

Question of the Week

1. What is this year’s theme for Catholic Schools Week?

The first person to email me the correct answer will win a Charger Card.

Have a Blessed Weekend,

Mr. Fuerte

Principal

A Word From the Office

Fundraisers

Parish

Dear Friends at St. Louise,

On Thursday, January 19, I had the opportunity to bless the new water stations in our school that were donated by the 2022 graduating class. Our principal, Mr. Fuerte, Vice Principal, Mrs. Jaster, a few parents of that class and representatives of the teachers and students were there.

Why would a priest or deacon bless water stations? I frequently bless cars, houses and other such items that are important in people's everyday lives, and, even more frequently, religious objects and bibles. Our new water stations are important - even holy, in a way - because our students can now more easily refill their personal water bottles at the station instead of purchasing one-use bottled water. This is a great benefit to the environment and a way of caring for God's gift of the earth. 

Protecting the environment is a Catholic value. When I blessed each station, I pointed out to the students that I was using a green stole for the liturgical season of ordinary time, and I asked them what the color green means. Their response came: “Life!” When we look at God’s creation, we can see that plants and trees are very often green in color.  

We blessed the stations using holy water, and I asked the students what the use of water means. Again, the response came: “Life!” We all need water to live, and water sustains every living creature. The blessing of the water stations, which will help the school community reduce their use of plastic bottles, dedicated them to our efforts to protect our water and the planet.

Plastics, which are so convenient in our modern world, are also causing great harm. I was horrified to see how much plastic littered the streets and highways in the Holy Land when I was there in October. Too often, plastics that aren’t reused or recycled end up on our streets, where they can be carried to our waterways by rainwater; and from there they can end up in our oceans. Most of us have seen pictures of the huge amounts of plastics that float in our ocean waters. Endangered leatherback sea turtles die when they mistake floating plastic bags for their natural food, jellyfish. When plastics in the environment break down into smaller pieces, they can be ingested by animals, birds, fish and other creatures, and be passed up the food chain - including humans' food. Living bodies were not made to process plastics.

Three modern popes have written about the importance of being good stewards of creation: Pope St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis. Pope Benedict acted upon St. John Paul’s teaching by making Vatican City a carbon-neutral state. In 2015 Pope Francis wrote his encyclical letter Laudato Si’: Care for our Common Home, the Earth. This world-wide message (encyclical means to be sent to every bishop) makes clear that the pro-life teaching of the Catholic Church includes care for the earth. Even the small actions that we take, like installing water stations, can make a big difference over time.

This Catholic Schools Week, we are thankful for the St. Louise Class of 2022 for giving us a chance to reflect on the blessing of the good earth that our loving God has given us, and on our responsibility to be good stewards, not only of human life, but of all God’s creation.

With my prayers,

Fr. Gary Zender

P.S. Last week the Archdiocese of Seattle launched the “Partners in the Gospel” initiative, which will affect the life of every parish in Western Washington. If you missed seeing the kick-off video at Mass last week, I highly recommend that you view it on our parish website. More information, and invitations for you input, will be coming later this year.    

“I see in in my neighbor the Person of Jesus Christ.”

– St. Gerard Majella

The speech team held a special assembly yesterday and showed us that speeches can be funny and improvised. We learned about different kinds of speeches and three brave students performed their speeches in front of the whole school. Wishing you success in future competitions!

We love to be silly in kindergarten! We actually had all the students here for a couple of days last week. We had to get a new class picture. This class is such a blessing. I feel so grateful to come into work and teach them every day! ❤️❤️ - Mrs. McIntosh

We did a science experiment designing a hat to protect from sun and rain. 

-Mrs. McKenna

Widodo Karli Family

Morris/Herber Family

Antezana Garvizu Family



Coles Family