Mission and Identity 

• Welcome Mass 
• Weekly Chapel Masses
• Ash Wednesday Liturgies
• Vale Br Peter Clinch
• Year Theme:  Seek to Serve - Stronger Together

Welcome Mass - All Year 5, New Year 6 Students and all Year 7 and their Families

All families and their sons of Year 5, new Year 6 and Year 7 students are warmly invited to the Welcome Mass that commences the Welcome Celebrations in Week 2.

The Mass will be celebrated at Our Lady of Dolours Catholic Church, next door to the College. This is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate who we are as a Catholic School in the tradition of Edmund Rice and to nourish the next step in the faith journey of each of our students. We are blessed that our celebrant will be the Very Rev Dr David Ranson, Vicar General of Broken Bay. Students are requested to wear full summer uniform.

Weekly Chapel Masses - Parents Welcome:

The College provides our students weekly Chapel Mass as part of the St Pius X College and Mercy Catholic College Mass Partnership. The weekly Mass is hosted by each College on alternate weeks and is held at 8:00 am on a Tuesday morning.

We warmly invite any parents who wish to attend our Tuesday morning Mass when it is hosted on campus here at St Pius in the Chapel. Please find below the schedule for 2024

Ash Wednesday Liturgies - Parents Welcome

Parents are most welcome to join any of our Ash Wednesday Liturgies that will take place in the College Gym on 14 February at:

• 9:45 am (Period 2)
• 10:58 am (Period 3)
• 1:24 pm (Period 5) 

Ash Wednesday commences the season of Lent which is a solemn season of preparation for Easter. During Lent we are called to fast, pray, give alms and to seek and give forgiveness in increased measure. Ash Wednesday will also mark the launch of our Lenten Appeal in support of Project Compassion.

Vale - Br Peter Clinch

A message from the EREA Council:

It with deep sadness that we share that Br Peter Clinch passed away yesterday in Rome. He was in the Tor Vegatta Hospital and suffered a heart attack.  Br Peter was the Congregation Leader of the Christian Brothers, the worldwide leader of the Order. 

Br Peter was a great supporter of EREA and our schools across Australia. An old boy of CBC St Kilda (St Mary’s College), Br Peter taught in a number of schools across Victoria and Tasmania, and thoroughly enjoyed his ministry of walking with, educating and forming young people, staff and parents.

Of more recent years, just prior to becoming the Province Leader of Oceania Province (his role prior to becoming Congregational Leader), Br Peter worked at Parade College in Melbourne.

He had a deep love of those on the margins of society and developed many initiatives throughout his life that enabled people to live with dignity and hope. He also continually promoted the importance of caring for the environment as our common home.  

As a Leader of the Christian Brothers, he guided both the national and global community with determination, love, and commitment, continually reminding all of the essence of the Charism.

As an EREA Community, we join with our global Edmund Rice family in offering our prayers, thoughts and support to the Christian Brothers and Br Peter’s family.

We give thanks for the generous and dedicated life of Br Peter to God and those in need, inspired by Blessed Edmund. May he Rest in Peace, having served and inspired so many across Australia and the world.

Seek to Serve - Stronger Together - Mark 10:45

The College theme for 2024 ‘Seek to Serve - Stronger Together’ as chosen by the student leaders, comes from Mark 10:45.

The core of this message is most profoundly demonstrated by Jesus while at the Last Supper, where he bows down and seeks to wash the feet of the disciples. 

Walking in sandals on the roads of Palestine in the first century made it imperative that feet be washed before a communal meal. People ate reclining at low tables, and feet were very much in view. When Jesus rose from the Last Supper and began to wash the feet of the disciples (John 13:4), He was doing the work of the lowliest of servants. This task was considered so lowly, even the servants were categorised into those who were considered lower than other servants to perform this task. 

The disciples must have been stunned at this act of humility and condescension—that Jesus, their Lord and Master, should wash the feet of His disciples. Washing feet was more properly their work, but no one had volunteered for the job. Jesus came to earth not as King and Conqueror but as the suffering Servant of Isaiah 53. As He revealed in Matthew 20:28, He came “not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” The humility expressed by Jesus’ act with towel and basin foreshadowed His ultimate act of humility and love on the cross.

Jesus’ attitude was in direct contrast to that of the disciples, who had recently been arguing among themselves as to which of them was the greatest (Luke 22:24). There was no servant present in the upper room to wash their feet, and it never occurred to them to wash one another’s feet. When the Son of God stooped to this lowly task, they were stunned into silence.

In this act, Jesus reminds us not only that Christian leadership is fully expressed as servant leadership, but also faith and service are inseparable. If we seek to worship God, we must serve all in need as they are made in His image. 

In this light, the College will be centering on this theme for our Commencement Mass at Oxford Falls on Friday on Friday 9 February.

Mr Daniel Petrie - Assistant Principal, Mission and Identity