Greetings! As you read this newsletter, we are moving into the final three weeks of our academic year. I know we keep saying it, but you do wonder where the year has gone. Our grade 6 students will be getting excited about their graduation from primary school and edge closer to their first day at Mazenod on Friday 31st January.

There is still a sense of nervousness around the college as our students continue their exams, however, it is a valuable undertaking as they receive an update on their academic progress. It is important to remind them that whatever career they are aiming to pursue in the future begins with the foundations they are willing to set now.

Deceased Old Boys and Staff Remembrance Mass

On Friday November 8, we witnessed a near capacity college chapel of family and friends celebrate our November Mass for our deceased old boys and staff members. Following the Mass, we gathered in the staff room for a cuppa and social time together. Since the beginning of the college in 1967, 168 former students have passed into eternal life. It is a great reassurance to the families that their son/s are remembered and prayed for each day in our college chapel.

Adore - De Mazenod Family Advent Program

The De Mazenod Family Advent Program for 2024 – Adore is approaching. This program has been designed so that you can use it privately, in a group or you are most welcome to join other people from our De Mazenod Family online. The online component will run on four Thursday evenings leading up to Christmas, beginning on Thursday 28th of November with a starting time of 8.00 pm AEDT. Details can be found at the website: demazenodfamily.com.au. This program allows you time and space to forget about the busyness of our daily lives, and to stop and prepare our hearts for the coming of the Lord!

Missionary Fundraiser

Students from Year 11 Vocational Education Class volunteered to hold several car washes to raise funds for the Oblate Missions. Thanks to Mr Ray Ellwood, Ms Lydia St Ange, Tony Rolfe and Mr Leigh Harris for their support of the students. Thanks also to staff who entrusted their cars to our students. An amazing $610.00 was raised for the Oblate Missions. On behalf of the Oblates and the people who will benefit from this fundraiser I thank our students and staff for their generosity.

National Oblate Youth Encounter 2024

The annual National Oblate Youth Encounter brings together young people from around Australia who want to share their Catholic faith in tandem with the Charism of St Eugene De Mazenod. NOYE is a great opportunity for new friendships to be formed and for old friends to catch up. The National Oblate Youth Encounter is for young people (Year 12 - 30 years old) and will be held from Friday January 3, 2025, 12.00pm till Monday, January 6, 12.00pm at Mazenod College, Victoria. This year’s theme "Leave Nothing Undared!” will explore the charism of St Eugene de Mazenod. The cost is $100.00. Contact Email: erice@oblates.com.au or oya@oblates.com.au. I ask that parents encourage their son or daughter to consider attending this event. It might break the boredom of the holidays.

Vinnies Christmas Appeal and MAMI Christmas Cards

As we approach the end of the year, we know that Christmas is not that far away. Christmas in our Christian tradition is a time to celebrate God's love for the world through the birth of the Christ child: Jesus. It is also a time of giving to others. Most of our giving is to close family and friends. However, as Christians we are also called to care for our neighbour, the people we will never meet. Our Mazenod community has two final appeals.

The first is the Vinnies Christmas Appeal. Donations of food items (or Christmas gifts) and cash will be collected and then distributed to our local Parishes to enable the generous St Vincent de Paul volunteers to assist the needy. More details can be found on MAZCOM. Appeal closes December 5.

The second is the Oblate Christmas Gift Card. The idea behind this giving is that you purchase a card or cards from various amounts to assist the Oblate Missions. The card you purchase explains to your family or friends that you have purchased this gift card on their behalf in place of a material gift. These cards can be purchased from the Front Office (via cash only) or on online through MAZCOM or mami@oblates.com.au

Generous responses like yours make this world a better place for our unseen neighbour. This is a gift that keeps on giving.

Christ The King - Advent

This Sunday we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King and is the last Sunday of the liturgical year. The following Sunday will be the first Sunday of Advent, the beginning of the new liturgical year with the Sunday readings from Year C. This feast can be difficult to understand. The history of this feast was introduced in 1925 by Pope Pius XI. Interestingly, as the Pope points out in his encyclical (letter of the Pope) that accompanied the introduction of the feast was a warning against the totalitarian governments of the 20th century. It was a statement against the situation of Europe between the two World Wars. Today we are still aware that there are Kings in this world who terrorize, over tax, humiliate, over exploit, and abuse those they are to lead and care for.

Christ the King and His Kingdom are unlike any other in this world. Jesus followers were expecting a Messiah who would liberate them from the domination of foreign powers and here comes Jesus who is doing the opposite of what they expected. He shows them a different kind of king – humble and servant King. The great Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, used to say to himself every morning when he woke up: “Today you will meet all kinds of people; they will hurt you and insult you and injure you, but you cannot live like that, you know better for you are a person in who the spirit of God dwells”.

Rosies 50th Celebration

This Sunday November 24 at 10.00am at St John Vianney Parish, Springvale North we will celebrate a thanksgiving Eucharist for 50 years of friendship and service through the Rosies Oblate Street Mission. Rosies has played an important role in making tangible the message of Jesus’ love to the vulnerable of our Melbourne society. Our year 12 students and staff members have always been generous in supporting this Oblate Mission through their participation on Friday evenings. All welcome.

Two Sides!

Yours in Jesus Christ and Mary Immaculate

Fr Harry Dyer OMI

Community Notices