Director of Mission
This Sunday marks the first day of Advent and the beginning of the celebration of the coming of Christ. One candle is lit each Sunday until all four candles are lit, and sometimes a fifth candle is lit on Christmas. As Christmas draws nearer, each candle brings a little more light into the darkness, the light of Christ burns brighter and stronger as Christ’s birth approaches. With this in mind there is an opportunity to reflect on the following quote and what the ‘light’ may mean to us as individuals.
Be a beacon of hope in this turbulent world …form homes that are a light on the hill.
- The XXII General Chapter
Marist Student Leaders Gathering.
Last Monday and Tuesday of this week, our 4 captains, Brooke Aloisi, Connor Bourke, Amanda Harrison and Imreet Singh all took part in our annual student leaders gathering. This would normally take place in Mittagong in a retreat style setting with every Marist School in NSW invited to attend. As with most of this year it took place with a difference this week and the students attended via zoom. They spent two days learning about leadership from each other and the Marist Youth Team. They learnt how the 5 pillars of Marist life should be present in our schools and our students. The pillars of simplicity, presence, in the way of Mary, family spirit and love of work were all discussed and then students were challenged on how to build on these in their school settings as leaders.
On the second day they had formed goals for 2021 as a team and presented them for feedback to the College Leadership team. They were incredibly impressive and they spoke with passion and clarity. It is exciting to see how they will develop and what they will achieve for themselves and the school. They have already proven to be a beacon of light for our future.
Project Samoa Awareness Week
It is unbelievable to think that this time last year we were in Samoa in the middle of a measles pandemic with the whole country in lock down (Our live blog of that trip can be found here). We thought that was something we would never see again and it seems only like yesterday. In came 2020, and we watched as the whole world went into lock down!
Change has been a common occurrence in our lives this year, which has also resulted in a different approach to our annual Project Samoa Day. In Marian style we have not focused on what we can’t do but what we can. Ms Lole and I discussed many alternatives to our usual celebration and have come up with a unique way to celebrate our immersion program and cultural connection to Samoa.
For the whole of next week (week 8) we will be running a Project Samoa awareness week. This will include a display that has been created by Ms Lole in the foyer of our language centre that celebrates our connection to Samoa and in particular, our two sister schools of St Paul VI College Leulumoega, and St Peters Falefa. We have been taking students to Samoa and supporting these schools since 2013 with our next trip planned for 2021 (fingers crossed).
The bishop of Samoa has stated to us that without the Marian connection of care and service, these two schools would no longer exist. It is this reason that we choose to make this week so special. It will also feature an academic pastoral cares session on Wednesday where each student in the school will watch a video that showcases every trip we have made so far. It will also challenge them on how they can be involved in future immersion experiences. We hope to finish the week with a cultural performance of our pacific island students on Friday lunch which we will broadcast live for all to see. All of this will feature in our next newsletter so stay tuned as it will also have a review of our entire year of 2020.
It is going to be a great ending to the term and we are also working on some Christmas celebrations for the final week to spread joy and love in the special time of Christmas. This will also allow us to showcase the effort of our staff and students with the 2020 Christmas hampers.
That is it for me this week. Have a great weekend, look after yourselves and each other.
Heath Neville
Director of Mission