Catholic Identity & Mission News

I am privileged to represent St Peter’s College on the St Agatha’s Parish Pastoral Council. We meet every second month and as part of the proceedings, I am asked to present a 1–2-minute report on what’s been happening at St Peter’s. Well, this past week, I prepared a full page of notes, and they didn’t even cover half of the activities that took place in Term 1! I emailed them to the minutes secretary and tried to cover just a few ‘greatest hits’ in the meeting but it was very challenging to stick to time! 

One of the highlights I mentioned was our recent celebrations of Romero House Feast Day on March 27. The Clyde North Campus again joined the parish community of St Thomas the Apostle at morning mass. Our Music Ministry students provided divine music, and the parish warmly welcomed us and allowed us to lead the readings and prayers. Even though we’re now well practised at celebrating our CLN House masses at St Thomas the Apostle, each celebration hold its own sense of gratitude, joy and hope. 

This was also tangible at our Cranbourne Campus Romero celebration which for the first time, was celebrated with midday mass at St Agatha’s, followed by a luncheon back at school. As much as we love our CRA campus chapel, we have just outgrown it for our House mass celebrations. Fr Prabhu kindly made himself available for a midday mass and we - Romero staff and students, and Music Ministry staff and students - bussed to St Agatha’s for our own special Romero mass. It was a beautiful liturgy where, in the celebration of the Eucharist, we could reflect on the life and lessons of St Oscar Romero and how they can enhance our own faith. Our students conducted themselves magnificently and were a credit to themselves, their families and their Romero House – I was so proud of them. One student commented to me how nice it was to have the time and space to just ‘relax’ and enjoy mass! In the busyness of school and everyday life, I agree! And I very much hope that these House celebrations at St Agatha’s will continue long into the future! 

At both of these masses, some of our Liturgy Team volunteers had their first practice at setting up for mass, guiding the readers in their roles, and operating the PowerPoint. They were enthusiastic, reliable and used their initiative and it was great to have students practise student leadership in this way for our community. My thanks to those students who have volunteered to lead and serve in our community in this capacity.  

As Easter approaches, we also wind up our work for Caritas’ Project Compassion campaign. Enormous thanks for our Social Justice Coordinators Melanie Bell (CLN) and Cathy Michael (CRA) who, with the Social Justice groups and Clyde North House groups, have led the charge for greater advocacy and fundraising than ever before. The Vocational Major students have also used their talents to plan, build and cook up a storm to raise funds for Caritas too – thank you all! Which leads us to the most holy time of the Christian calendar – Easter. 

At Easter we remember the arrest, ‘trial’, crucifixion, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Throughout this term, our Year 11 Ministry – Youth, Music and Art – classes have been working to prepare their interpretation and depiction of the Easter story through the ‘Stations of the Cross’. These are then presented to the College in the final assembly of term on Holy Thursday and while the ‘story’ doesn’t change, because different students approach it annually, the Stations are presented in a unique way and reflect the recontextualisation of each group. While at the time of writing this, the Stations have not yet been presented, I have been privy to some of their planning and preparation and know that facilitated by their RE teachers, these Ministry students are going to present thought-provoking and prayerful presentations for us all. As a school community, we are very grateful for their efforts.

I wish all in our school community all the blessings, hope and joy that are promised through the resurrected Christ and hope all have a very safe and happy holiday period. 

Ms Fiona McKenna

Deputy Principal – Catholic Identity & Mission