Deputy Principal

Year of Service

In 2024, our College community will reflect on our guiding value of Service. We believe that service is the demonstrated expression of who we are as Franciscan people. We use our gifts and talents to serve others with compassion. Through our action for justice locally and globally, we seek to transform the world for good.

Our College patrons - Saint Francis, Saint Clare and Elizabeth Hayes - entered into a life of service, not only within their own religious communities, but to the poor and excluded of their time.  By moving to the margins of their societies, they openly challenged the political, social and economic power structures so at odds with the vision of the Kingdom of God.

For these Franciscan people, service was the expression of a faith in a loving God. Through the birth of Jesus, God came amongst us and lived a fully human life in all its beauty and joy. Through the crucifixion and death of Jesus, God experienced the suffering of a fully human life. In striving to live as God wants us to do, we are called to recognise our interdependence with all people and all of creation, to empathise with the suffering and to extend compassion to people and creation in need.  It requires a transformation of the heart that turns self-interest to selflessness, apathy to empathy, and passivity to empowerment (Epperly, 2023).

Consequently, we are called to live out our Franciscan spirituality through our service to others. Last Wednesday, all students had the opportunity in their House liturgies to reflect on how they can use their gifts and talents in the service of others. While there are many ways each day that we can commit to the service of others, it does require an attitude of concern that notices when people need help and a generosity of spirit that gifts our time without the expectation of receiving something in return.

Here at Mount Alvernia there are also a number of structured ways that we serve others:

1. Delamore Outreach is open to all students from Years 7 – 12 and is offered once per month. Students visit the residents at Delamore Retirement Community to offer hospitality and conversation.
2. Molly’s House is open to students in Year 8 and offered once per week during term time. Students visit the children at Molly’s House and assist Molly’s House staff to facilitate activities.
3. Samaritans is open to students in Year 9 and offered once per week during term time. Students visit retirees at the Parish Hall to offer conversation and participate in activities.
4. Saint Anthony’s School is open to students in Year 10 and offered once per week during term time. Students visit the children at Saint Anthony’s School to provide mentoring and/or to assist teachers to facilitate activities (such a reading).
5. Rosies Friends on the Streets is open to all students from Years 11 & 12 and offered once per fortnight in Terms 2 and 3. Students participate in an outreach at Nundah and the Brisbane CDB to offer hospitality and conversation to patrons who access the service.
6. The DV Care Pack Project is an initiative of the Outreach Committee (open to all students from Years 7 – 12) and offered once per term. Using funding from Catholic Religious of Queensland, students pack care packs that are donated to the Queensland Police Service’s Vulnerable Person Unit. Students prepare approximately twenty packs per term, a total of eighty packs per year.
7. The Birthing Kit Project is an initiative of the Z Club (open to all students from Years 7 – 12) and offered twice per year. Using the proceeds of fundraising and the sponsorship of the Zonta Club of Pine Rivers, students pack birthing kits that are distributed by the Birthing Kit Foundation Australia. Students pack approximately six hundred birthing kits per year.
8. Our Environmental Committee, Sprout Squad, initiatives a number of sustainable activities around the College that any student in Years 7 – 12 can take part in.
9. The delivery of Christmas Hampers is open to all students from Years 7 – 12 and offered once per year (usually the second Monday of December). Students and families assist to deliver the Christmas hampers packed during Term 4 by each Homeroom.

This year we have some additional service opportunities available to students:

1. The Sony Camp is back in 2024 and available to students in Years 11. It is held during the first weekend of the September holidays. Students companion differently abled children with the supervision and support of a nursing team and College staff. The Sony Camp is hosted by Marist College Ashgrove.
2. Over the September holidays this year, the College will participate in an immersion to Borneo. Students will trek through rainforest, work on a reforestation project and visit organisations working to support threated and endangered species such as the orangutans.

Information about these service opportunities will be promoted to students in the coming weeks and published in upcoming newsletters.

So, as we commence our year, let us do so committed to the service of others. Let us pray:

God of justice,

give us hearts like the heart of Jesus, 

hearts more ready to serve than to be served, 

hearts moved by compassion towards the silenced and oppressed, 

hearts set upon the coming of your Kingdom in our world.

May we continue to extend our concern and care to people on the margins, just as Jesus did:

For those who are poor;

For the sick;

For the lonely;

For the differently abled;

For prisoners;

For refugees and asylum seekers;

For all victims of violence;

For the homeless, and all the lost of our society;

Grant, O God, that your grace in our lives 

may not make us less sensitive to the needs of others, 

but rather move us to lay their burdens on our own hearts. 

May we take time to serve, with compassion,

those who need your love and justice. 

Amen.

800th Anniversary of the Stigmata of Saint Francis

2024 will be another significant year of celebration for Franciscan people as it marks the 800th anniversary of the Stigmata of Saint Francis, the miracle experienced by Francis towards the end of his life while he was praying on Mount La Verna.

As he was in deep contemplation, Saint Francis saw a vision of Jesus crucified on the cross, accompanied by an angel with six fiery wings. When Francis saw this, his whole body was flooded with joy and sorrow, and he developed on his own body, ‘stigmata,’ the “bodily marks resembling the wounds of the crucified Christ.”  

This is a significant celebration for our College as this feast day is reflected in our College name and our College crest.

We will hold our Feast Day Mass on the final day of Term 3: Friday 15 September. The Feast of the Stigmata of Saint Francis is celebrated by the universal Church each year on 17th September.

2024 Franciscan Calendars

The College has a small number of Franciscan calendars available to families, left overs from a supply that we purchase each year. If you would like a copy, you or your child can collect one from Reception.  

Ash Wednesday 

Wednesday 14 February is Ash Wednesday. This day marks the beginning of Lent and calls us to reflect upon our lives – both what we do well and what we could improve. The season of Lent itself, is a preparation for the most significant event of the Christian calendar: the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Mount Alvernia College community will mark Ash Wednesday with a liturgy during Homeroom time. During the liturgy, ashes will be distributed as a symbol of our mortality, humility and sacrifice. All members of the Mount Alvernia College community are invited to receive the ashes.

Going Meat-Free during Lent

On Ash Wednesday and every Friday during Lent, La Cucina will be meat-free. Abstaining from meat on these days is an old tradition within the Catholic Church. It is like fasting or not eating particular types of meat common to other religious traditions (such as Judaism and Islam). Franciscan people are also aware of the justice dimension of going meat-free for one day per week. For some years now, we have heard that forgoing meat one day each week minimises our impact on the planet. In addition, abstaining from meat is an act of solidarity with the poor majority world. Firstly, the global poor simply cannot afford to consume a meat-based diet and experience hunger when they cannot afford or access food. Secondly, it is the global poor that is the most affected by the effects of climate change. Reducing food waste is another behaviour that can allow us to walk more gently on the earth.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Families

If your daughter identifies as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander student, please contact me at the College by phone or email, rogur@staff.mta.qld.edu.au. While the College seeks this information from families at enrolment, it does not always reflect the most up-to-date information. Accurate information will assist the College in ensuring communication of events for Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander students reaches our students and their families.