From the Principal

Dear Parents, Guardians, Students, Staff and Friends of Mazenod College,

Honouring the past is an essential part of reinforcing and celebrating our sense of community at Mazenod College. Since the last edition of our newsletter, we honoured those who, through their physical labour, hard work, vision and determination, our College was founded. Fr Denis McCarthy OMI, Fr Ian Mackintosh OMI and Fr Don Hughes OMI, were at the ‘coalface’ on February 14 1966, the first day our College opened.

Our Foundation Day as we have come to call this special day, reminds us of the challenges of the times, but more importantly, the vision and leadership of the Oblates in building the opportunities for boys to attend a College imbued with the spirit and charism of St Eugene and the Oblates past, present and hopefully, of the future.

I have been very fortunate this week to be in Victoria, present with a small group of our Year 12 Student Leadership Team interacting with student leaders from the other Oblate Colleges around Australia namely; St Eugene’s College, Iona College and Mazenod College in Victoria. I thank Lachlan Scanlan, Wellington Chiwawa, Josh Mulcahy, Michael O’Shea and Oscar Uetake for representing our College with such prestige, class and integrity. The highlight has been how determined and passionate our young leaders are for sustaining our College as a place of value and support for our Mazenod students, staff and wider community.

Whilst the weather in recent days and weeks back at the College has challenged us all, needless to suggest, it would be difficult to fully appreciate what it must have been like back in 1966 in similar temperatures with the limited resources that bring comfort to us all on hot days such as these.

In a similar mindset, it is easy in such extreme conditions to focus solely on personal comfort, but days like Foundation Day and ironically in some respects, the beginning of the liturgical season of Lent, we are challenged to think of those less fortunate than ourselves.

Our Ash Wednesday liturgies held for all year groups introduced our entry to the Season of Lent and the various school activities and actions that happen through this important period in the lead up to Easter.

As Jesus did when he ventured into the desert for forty days to fast and reflect, we too look to this time for reflection on our own journey and on how fortunate we are. In the tradition of almsgiving, we give consideration to those that are poor and in great need, compared to ourselves. For us, to pass time in the desert really means to find occasions when we can create a little emptiness and silence around us, remove ourselves from the noise of external distractions and enter into strengthening the spirit within. We look forward to the weeks ahead, Project Compassion and the various facets of our Lenten season.

“Lent is the perfect time to allow ourselves to contemplate the pain of those who suffer without anyone to help them” (Pope Francis).

God bless.

Simon Harvey

Principal