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As students progress through the grades, they eventually reach a point where they???re independent enough to use a bible on their own for scripture reading and research. That point of independence is reached by grade 4 when they receive their own personal bibles – the ???Good New Bibles??? – during the school???s October Liturgy.
Receiving the Good News Bible is an important event for the grade 4???s. It???s a requirement for their religious program, and is used by the students throughout their stay at IHMS. For most students, it???s their first personal bible, so in addition to being a useful tool for religion classes, it also carries a lot of sentimental value. When they finally leave IHMS at the end of grade 8, the graduates take their bibles with them.
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The Good News Bible is a modernized English translation that does not follow the vocabulary and style of historic versions of the Bible. It???s written in a simple, everyday language with the intention that everyone can appreciate it, and so is often considered particularly suitable for children. |
The grade 4???s were presented with their Good News Bibles on Wednesday, October 24th during the school???s monthly Divine Liturgy at Sts. Vladimir and Olga Cathedral. It was an important day for the grade 4???s – they had practiced and anticipated this day for weeks.
Mrs. Halayda and the grade 4???s spent a lot of time preparing for the October Liturgy. First of all, they made a list of intention topics for each class from grade 1-8. Each homeroom teacher then choose and wrote an intention based on the topic selected (this is typical for all monthly Liturgies). Also, a student from the class responsible for the Liturgy usually reads the Epistle, but in this case, the entire grade 4 class recited the Epistle together, and sang the lyrics to the song ???Good News??? completely from memory!
The presentation of the bibles took place after the Epistle. Mr. Picklyk, the school principal, called the students individually to come forward to ???receive the Good News of Jesus Christ???. Father Isadore Dziadyk, OSBM then blessed and presented the bibles to each of the students.
Since the presentation of the bibles is such an important and solemn event, there were a lot of parents and grandparents present at the Liturgy. Every bible was personalized with an individually created bookplate on the inside listing the student???s name and date of presentation.
The grade 4 students enjoyed preparing for the special occasion, and at the end of Liturgy, the entire class posed on the altar to have their photo taken with their Good News Bibles.
