Rector's Report
Greetings to you all!
Welcome to the final newsletter for Term Three. For our students, staff and families there have a variety of experiences including our annual musical, Winter sleepout, Vinnies Appeal, Winter Music recitals, Rosies, Year 7 information night and interviews for 2027. Moreover, there were great results in our various sporting fields. I am sure you will all enjoy the break from the college routine and return refreshed for the final term of the year when the highlight will be the farewelling of our 2025 Year 12 cohort. Keep safe and relax.
This Sunday's Gospel
Jesus’ words in this Sunday’s gospel remind us that faith is not just lived out in the “big” moments – at Easter, Christmas, or in times of crisis – but in the small, ordinary moments of daily life. What does this mean for us individually and as a family. For families, being “faithful in little things” might be sharing a prayer before meals, pausing to thank God for the small blessings of the day, encouraging a family member who is struggling, attend Mass with joy.
As individuals being “faithful in little things” might be choosing kind words when we speak to each other, seeing the good in others, quietly serving the needs of the poor. These small acts create a family and a community where God’s presence is felt. When we keep God at the centre, everything else finds its right place.During the holidays make the effort to choose small acts of kindness and faithfulness each day. The college motto, ‘Leave nothing undared for the Kingdom of God’ is built one prayer, one kind word, one generous act at a time – and we are all part of this ‘daring’.
Annual Oblate Retreat
Last week, September 7 – 12, Fr Dominic and I, together with our brother Oblates from around the Australian Oblate Province, gathered at Panorama Retreat Centre near Kalorama in the Dandenong Ranges for our annual retreat. Our retreat Master was Fr Paolo Archiati OMI Superior of the Oblate community house in Aix - en – Provence (pictured below). This Oblate community is the oldest community and is known as the "cradle" of the Congregation of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI). It was founded there, by the then, Fr. Eugene de Mazenod, on January 25, 1816, and has been central to the Congregation's history and life ever since.
On Tuesday night, September 8 of our retreat, we were joined by our seminaries from St Marys Sminary when Fr John Sherman OMI celebrated the 60th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood. Fr John Sherman OMI is currently at Iona College in Brisbane. Fr John was Rector at Mazenod College, Victoria from 1996 – 2001. At the same celebration Br Som OMI, recently arrived from Vietnam renewed his temporary vows within the congregation for 12 months.
Victoria Police Funerals & Police Remembrance Day
On Friday September 5, as a volunteer Police Chaplain, I attended the funeral service of Senior Constable Vadim De Waart’s at the Victoria Police Academy in Glen Waverley. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the funeral of Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson on Monday September 8 as I was attending our annual Oblate retreat. Both Police Officers were killed in the line of duty whilst attending to a call out on a property in Porepunkah, Victoria.
On September 29 we will observe National Police Remembrance Day which honours the 177 dedicated Police Officers who have died in the line of duty since the foundation of Victoria Police in 1853. Our community especially remembers Constable Steven Tynan who was ambushed and killed in 1988. Steven was a former student of Mazenod College having graduated in 1983.
Yours in Jesus Christ and Mary Immaculate
Fr Harry Dyer OMI