Faith and Mission

Faith and Mission 

On Tuesday 18 July, our College staff were offered an opportunity to work with Fr Elio Capra from the Catholic Theological College in Melbourne. Fr Elio’s unique and engaging presentation led our teachers through an exploration of religious art through the ages. Fr Elio then delved into ways this beautiful art could be used throughout the Religious Education curriculum to bring scripture to life through a visual representation. 

Teachers were posed with the question: How can we teach the meaning and challenges of the parables of Jesus using art to gain greater understanding of the scriptures and the popular stories. 

Teachers were not only introduced to various art forms, but were given time to contemplate and deepen their understanding of the challenging nature of the parables of Jesus and how to represent these to their students. 

Fr Elio’s session took our teachers on a journey in the discovery of how art has been ‘recontextualising’ sacred stories for many centuries. 

One example is as follows: The Good Samaritan by Jacopo Bassano. Image source: The National Gallery. https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/jacopo-bassano-the-good-samaritan

Fr Elio highlighted many aspects of the Parable of the Good Samaritan depicted in this artistic masterpiece. One compelling example was the presence of the two dogs that were not mentioned in the original parable. It is believed that Jacopo included the two dogs as a theological symbol of Jesus’ message to love your God and your neighbour.  

We thank Fr Elio for joining us today and presenting new insights into religious art. 

Teachers gained insightful new learnings from the day’s presentation with some commenting as followed:

I feel the workshop has enabled me to relate the parable stories to my own life experiences and empower students to live a Gospel way of life. Ms Casey.

It’s amazing with Spiritual art that there is so much beneath the surface. We need to take time to reflect and understand the message of the author. There is dark and light in everything which can be linked with scripture, creation and ourselves. Ms Attard.

Fr Elio was very engaging and enabled us to see beyond what was right in front of us. Ms Stafford.

I've never seen art through the eyes of scripture and how amazingly messages are portrayed through images,  tones of darkness and light and colour. A sensational presentation. Ms Matejin

It was enlightening, very informative, interesting… there is so much I can say about Fr Elio’s engaging presentation. Ms Despina.

Bernadette Casey

Assistant to the Principal - Faith and Mission