Catholic Life and Reflection
What Staff are Learning About
I was lucky enough last week to attend an REC network day and a Key Leader Day. Both days were very insightful and interesting.
The Key Leader Day had an agenda that included presentations from Greg Sheridan (author and journalist) and Jacinta Collins (former Senator and current Executive Director of the National Catholic Education Commission for Australia). Both of these speakers brought a unique perspective on the challenges faced by Catholic, and in fact all, faith-based schools in the current climate.
Managing our unique faith perspective and providing excellent academic education to all students in our schools is a continuing challenge. Being able to discuss this with colleagues, Principals and clergy provided an opportunity to hear wider points of view and a renewed passion for being proud of our Catholic worldview. We can continue to make Jesus known and loved, which is our mission as Catholic educators.
What Students are Learning About
This week across the school students have been learning about the Feast of the Assumption. The Catholic Church celebrates the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary every year on the 15th August. On this Feast, Catholics traditionally celebrate Mary being assumed into heaven. The tradition is that ‘God took Mary, body and soul, to heaven after her life on earth had come to an end'.
The students were reverent and respectful during Mass. They sang beautifully and responded clearly. Celebrating Mass with 350+ students and teachers is always a tad demanding but yesterday was pure joy and I found myself with time to pray and engage properly in the liturgy. Well done St John's!
Catholic Life and Reflection
In this current climate teachers are very much sought after. Not my experience when I first started teaching as there was an excess and I didn’t find permanent work for 10 years after graduation. I took any job I could.
Now I have a choice, and I choose to work in a Catholic school. Not just any Catholic school but this one. There are many reasons why St John’s is my place, but the overarching one is the MSC charism. The simple but profoundly complex notion of being on earth the heart of God.
I am both equally challenged and inspired by this mission. By always holding it in constant tension, I have been moved forward in my faith journey. I hope as a school community we have moved forward too.
The following is the prayer from MSC founder Jules Chevalier.
The Word,
Coming from the Heart of his Father,
made the world emerge from nothing;
and from the Heart of the Incarnate Word,
pierced on Calvary,
I see a new world emerging, the world of those he has chosen.
And this creation,
so fertile, full of grandeur, and inspired by love and mercy,
is the Church,
the mystical body of Christ
which makes this new creation
present on Earth
until the end of time.
(Le Sacre-Coeur de Jesus, Quatrieme ed. Paris 1900, pg 145.)
Founder of the Missionaries of the Sacred Hert Jules Chevalier, 1824-1907
May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be everywhere loved...forever.
Stephanie Stewart
Religious Education Coordinator
