Mission News

Prayers

We pray for all in need in our community.

We pray for the repose of the souls of 

• John Meehan (Father to Old Boy and staff member David Meehan)
• Peter Apps (Father to staff member Ryan Apps) 
• Glenn McCloud (Grandfather to Charles and Thomas Davis)

Mary our Good Mother                            Pray for us 

St Marcellin Champagnat                       Pray for us 

St Mary of the Cross                                 Pray for us 

And may we always remember               To pray for one another 

May our loving God, with Mary and Champagnat, walk with all members of the Marist family. Amen

Reflection 

A Prayer to the Creator

Lord, Father of our human family,

you created all human beings equal in dignity:

pour forth into our hearts a fraternal spirit

and inspire in us a dream of renewed encounter,

dialogue, justice and peace.

Move us to create healthier societies

and a more dignified world,

a world without hunger, poverty, violence and war.

May our hearts be open

to all the peoples and nations of the earth.

May we recognize the goodness and beauty

that you have sown in each of us,

and thus forge bonds of unity, common projects,

and shared dreams. Amen.

College St Vincent de Paul Group

The College St Vincent de Paul Group meet each Tuesday during break time and is back serving our community BBQ on Thursday mornings in the yard. Students are very welcome to join ‘Vinnies’, all they need to do is come to the Mission Office for a meeting to register interest.

Acting Head of Religious Education 

It has been a very busy start to the year for the Religion Education Department. 

A highlight from the curriculum aspect of Marist’s religious formation in Term One is always the theological training the Year 11 cohort is immersed into. The focus for the start of Studies of Religion is the importance of ancient texts, and how they can be deciphered using specific theological tools that help the reader better understand the intended meaning of Sacred Scriptures. 

To complete the assignment of this unit the young men choose a specific Old or New Testament character or story and analyse it through three specific lenses.

• First, they look at the history surrounding the composition of the specific text they have chosen. The students are given a great range of scope to choose an event or character that will interest them specifically. 
• They then draw on taught research skills to do good historical investigation into the very foundations of the earliest Catholic communities. Following this is a close reading of the character or event in question. The boys use the skills of literary analysis to deconstruct the text and mine for the deeper meaning the author has tried to convey to the reader.
• Finally, the students use aspects of literary theory to analyse the meaning of the work for Christians today, and how the foundational stories of our tradition can inform our contemporary actions. 

The task is a very holistic endeavour, drawing on cross-disciplinary skills used in Ancient History and Literature to produce a substantial piece of analytic work. It is a great opportunity for the boys to develop competency in research and essay writing, skills that will help them across all subjects, while at the same time training them to be better men, and hopefully, more faithful Christians. This is just an example of the sort of work being implemented throughout the religious education curriculum at Marist. We are proud of the work the young men do it this space. 

Chaplain’s Corner

Reflection for Wednesday 15 March - Third week of Lent. Faith is a spiritual reality. How do we grasp it? How do we live it, keep it and teach it? Because faith is a condition of soul, we have rules, regulations and traditions to help us give shape and expression to our faith. 

In today’s first reading from the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses is speaking to the people of Israel as they are poised to enter the land of promise. The Promised Land, however, was also peopled with tribes who do not know the God of Israel.

Moses tells them to observe the laws of the Lord in the land they are about to enter. That is how they will remember their special vocation. That is how they will keep their identity. That is how they will live their faith. That is how they will teach their faith to future generations.

What was true for the Israelites is true for us. We are living in a rapidly secularizing culture. Our culture has a way of trivializing faith by making it marginal as economic and political concerns dominate our lives. Even the symbols of faith can become commercialised as crosses become jewellery, religious images become objects of art and ceremonies become props in movies.

In such an environment, we need to cherish our rules, regulations and traditions as Catholics and Christians. We need to preserve our times of prayer, our customs throughout the Church year, and the religious practices that give us a badge of identity. These rules and traditions are how we will keep our identity, how we will live our faith and teach it to future generations.

The traditions and customs of our faith are the vessels that help us preserve, protect and defend our faith. As we start to drop them we find our faith becoming diluted, weakened and eventually lost.

Lent is a good time to renew respect and care for the religious traditions and customs of our Catholic and Christian faith. They are the vessels that link us to each other and help us keep our faith strong.

Mary, Our Good Mother, pray for us.

St. Marcellin Champagnat, pray for us.

St. Mary of the Cross, pray for us.

And let us always remember to pray for one another.

Marist Youth Ministry Forum Days 

Thanks to the young men of the College who ably represented the College at the recent Marist Youth Ministry Forum Days. 

These days hosted by the Marist Youth Ministry team aim to bring young Marists from the local Marist Schools together to engage in community, to learn about Marist life and to deepen their understanding of our Christian story. 

Wednesday 8 March saw our Year 7s reflect on community and welcome and our Year 8s on leadership and the middle ground in middle school.

Thursday 9 March saw our Year 9s learn that our Marist way of life is more than just words and is about a sense of Spirituality and reflection also. On the same day our Year 10’s explored matters of Social justice and the solidarity effect not only in our own space but more broadly in the Marist world. 

While all the students attending enjoyed the pizza lunch they also welcomed the opportunity to meet students from other schools and engage in activities and reflection. 

Tuesday Morning Reconciliation

Students, parents, staff, and other members of the College community are welcome to participate in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Fr Tini is available every Tuesday morning in the College Chapel.

Wednesday Morning Community Mass 

Students, parents, staff, and other members of the College community are warmly invited to Mass on Wednesday mornings in the College Chapel (every week during term time). Mass commences at 8:00am.