Mission and Identity
- Holy Week
- Project Compassion - Final Week
- Celebrating Easter with the parish
Holy Week - the greatest love story ever told
On Palm Sunday we commenced Holy Week with Palm Sunday, and a Youth Mass led by Mercy College and St Pius X College at Our Lady of Dolours Parish. The church was a flurry with palm fronds, reminiscent of the crowds waving palms as they triumphantly welcomed Jesus into the city of Jerusalem.
On Wednesday at the College Assembly, students from Year 9 led the College in a prayerful reflection on the importance of Holy Week:
Fr Tony Whelan SJ states that “Nothing is more practical than finding God, than falling in Love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything.
It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, whom you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.
Fall in Love, stay in love, and it will decide everything”
This most sacred week provides us the opportunity to fall in love with God in the deepest of ways. As Jesus dies on the cross, he offers his life as the greatest ‘I love you’ to each of us. As we contemplate the Stations of the Cross tomorrow, we have the opportunity to reflect on how we wish to respond to God’s offer of love.
Let our prayer this morning, lead us deeper into the mystery of God’s love during this week dedicated to stillness. Let us pray: In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
“Be silent (pause)
Be still (pause)
Alone (pause)
Empty before your God (pause)
Say nothing. (pause)
Ask nothing.(pause)
Be silent. (pause)
Be still. (pause)
Let your God look upon you. (pause)
That is all. (pause)
God knows. (pause)
God understands. (pause)
God loves you with an enormous love (pause)
and only wants to look upon you with that generous love. (pause)
Quiet. (pause)
Be still. (pause)
Let your God love you. (pause)
Blessed Edmund Rice, Pray for Us
St Pius X, Pray for Us
Live Jesus in our hearts, forever”
These words call us to stillness, in order to grasp the depth of love taking place on the Cross. As Term 1 continues in a hive of activity, it is all too possible to be swept away with the tyranny of the urgent, and miss the profound reaching out of sacrificial love from God to each one of us. That is why the College gathered in four different groups today to pray the Stations of the Cross.
The fruit of such a collaboration between Mercy College and St Pius X College can be seen in the videos below that unpack the first nine stations.
Zeroth Station - The Last Supper: https://vimeo.com/927808653?share=copy
First Station - Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane: https://vimeo.com/927808698?share=copy
Second Station - Jesus, betrayed by Judas, is arrested: https://vimeo.com/927808749?share=copy
Third Station - Jesus is condemned by the Sanhedrin: https://vimeo.com/927808792?share=copy
Fourth Station - Jesus is denied by Peter: https://vimeo.com/927808841?share=copy
Fifth Station - Jesus is judged by Pilate: https://vimeo.com/927808939?share=copy
Sixth Station - Jesus is scourged and crowned with thorns:
https://vimeo.com/927808984?share=copy
Seventh and Eighth Station - Jesus is Helped by Simon the Cyrenian to carry the Cross, and meets the women of Jerusalem: https://vimeo.com/927809030?share=copy
Each of these stations were followed by reflection questions, and a personal testimony from staff and students that highlighted how that particular station, resonated with an element of their life story.
The final stations were dramatised live, to bring a face to face encounter with the cosmic ‘I love you’ that unfolds on the Cross.
Project Compassion - Thank you!
The College wishes to sincerely thank our parents and students for their enormous generosity in fundraising to support the vital work of Caritas. Through the labours of Mr Balboa and the weekly compassion cake stalls, daily collections and the online appeal, the College is delighted to have raised very close to $11,000. There is still 48 hours before the close of the appeal.
Parents and families are invited to donate via the link below.
https://schools.projectcompassion.org.au/o/st-pius-x-college-chatswood
Thank you for continuing the dream of Blessed Edmund Rice to be the hands and feet of Christ to those on the margins.
Celebrating Easter with the Parish:
The Parish will once again be alive with beautiful celebrations and opportunities to worship and contemplate over the Easter weekend. In particular, the Parish is hosting an outdoor Stations of the Cross on Good Friday, with elaborate costumes and dramatizations as they transform the Concourse into a biblical set. All parents and students are warmly invited to join this wonderful initiative in taking the Easter story to the central business district.
Mr Daniel Petrie - Assistant Principal, Mission and Identity