Catholic Identity & Mission News

Welcome back to Term 2 – I hope the holiday feeling is still with you! 

We were so fortunate to have a longer break after such a busy Term 1 and of course the holiday period started with the celebration of Easter. We reflect a lot on the ‘passion’ (suffering) of Jesus in the lead up to Easter but now is really the time to celebrate because Jesus has Risen from the dead! Our faith tells us that death could not end God’s plan to teach humanity about God’s infinite love and how we are called to love God and each other. Jesus overcame death so that we may know that as Mary Glowrey so beautifully put it, ‘With Faith, all things are possible’. 

Yesterday we celebrated the Feast Day of Mary Glowrey, the patron (not yet saint!) of Glowrey House. She was born in country Victoria in 1887 and was a dedicated and ambitious student who went on to become a successful Melbourne doctor. In 1920, she left her professional life, her loved ones and Australia itself to move to live in Guntur in India. She left for an important purpose: to join the Society of Jesus, Mary and Joseph and to become the world’s first nun-doctor of modern times. 

Mary was the only Catholic, let alone female, doctor in that region of India. For more than 36 years she treated or oversaw the care of hundreds of thousands of patients, most of whom were very poor women. She also brought about significant changes as a visionary medical educator with an eye to a sustainable future for Indian healthcare. She founded a network of hospitals and hospices in India designed to care for as many of the poor and needy in India that they could. These medical facilities flourished and continue to be a big presence in Indian health care today. 

Dr Sr Mary Glowrey is on the path to becoming a saint. She is currently known as a ‘Servant of God’ which reflects that she is in the first stage towards canonisation. We could all assist in enabling this recognition of her magnificent life by praying for her, and through her intercession (not TO her!), asking her to intercede for us in heaven for any special needs we may have. Our Glowrey House staff and students are certainly very blessed to have such an amazing woman as their Patron. 

Finally, next week our Year 10 students will participate in their Year 10 Reflection Days. CLN students will gather together on Tuesday, May 9 and CRA students on Thursday, May 11. At preparatory assemblies this week, I encouraged them to embrace the time out that these kinds of day offer. Students will be invited to enjoy some fun together while thinking about their journey in faith so far and their own identity and sense of belonging. They’ve been asked to bring an ‘artefact’ of some importance to them, and a baby photo – I think those two things give a bit of a hint of what’s to come but I’ll make sure I give a full report in the next newsletter! 

Fiona McKenna

Deputy Principal - Catholic Identity & Mission