Mission and Identity
- Movement for Change
- Year of Prayer Meditations
- Year 11 Formation Day - Broken Vessels
- Edmund Rice Hours Log and Reflection Book
Movement for Change
Today St Pius X Year 11 representatives had the privilege of attending the St Gabriel’s Movement for Change Mass in Castle Hill, as part of their launch of the Movement for Change campaign.
As a Catholic school in the Edmund Rice tradition for children with special needs, their core focus is enriching the lives of their students and enabling them the same opportunities afforded everyone their age, in school and in the community. From K-12, St Gabriel’s programs cover social skills, life skills, financial literacy and vocational education and training. St Gabriel’s seeks to make a difference in the lives of their students, and know that in order to do so they also need to make a difference in the world in which they live.
Movement for Change is a social awareness and fundraising event to support their school. To take part, individuals can walk, run, roll, ride or dance to raise funds. It can be held as a group event for your workplace, community organisation or school over a few hours, or as an individual setting goals over the month.
You can find out more about St Gabriel’s Movement for Change 2024 on their website and attached school brochure.
Year of Prayer Meditations by Fr David Ranson
Pope Francis declared this year as a ‘Year of Prayer’. It challenges us to really consider how we approach prayer and what image of God do we truly hold. Is prayer a request at a vending machine where we expect God to dispense what we have ordered, or a call deep relationship as we seek accompaniment as we walk the trials of the human condition?
Below are the next three instalments prepared by Fr David. I have personally found these meditations powerful reflections.
Please enjoy these powerful experiences - they are well worth the investment of time:
Video: ‘The Body of Christ’: The fourth meditation on prayer by Fr David Ranson, leads one deeper into the exploration of Christian identity.
It’s provocation calls one to realise that the fulfilment of Christian identity is found in the Body of Christ. Like any living body, it is oxygenated and for a Christian, such oxygenation is liturgy.
This meditation calls one to step out from the safe harbour of purely personal prayer and to embrace a prayer ecosystem that is balanced between a rich inner prayer life and a thriving communal prayer life.
This meditation is a profound platform from which to explore our prayer life through the lens of sacrificial love.
Video: ‘Prayer and the Word of God’: The fifth meditation on prayer by Fr David Ranson, leads one beyond scripture as a source of information to scripture as ‘a school of prayer’.
This meditation beautifully provides the ‘why and how’ behind the skill of Holy Reading - ‘Lectio Divina’, so that we can ‘sift between and beneath each word in scripture for the pearl of encounter with divine love’.
Just as the Word of God came to life within Mary, this meditation calls us to be equally open to the surprise of God that awaits beneath the surface of scripture through prayerful exploration.
Video: ‘Prayer of Intercession’: The sixth meditation on prayer by Fr David Ranson, leads one to the source of prayer that arises from the ‘intersection of desire and hunger’.
This meditation skilfully highlights that such prayer reveals our ‘creative interdependence’ - our creature-hood - as it reveals our innate understanding that we are ‘part of something far greater than ourselves’.
This mediation will reveal the hidden gifts of sharing such prayer in community; in the gathered fragility of the human experience by the suffering love of Christ - what greater response could there be to our prayer but one of accompaniment by the God of sacrificial love.
Year 11 Formation Day - Broken Vessels
On Friday of Week 3, Year 11 students will engage in their second formation day. This formation day is designed to explore the role of choices and pain in one’s life, what each has to teach us, and avenues to healing that include a deep relationship with God.
The scriptural impetus for the day is: 'This is what the Lord Says: I have heard your prayers and seen your tears. I will heal you,' 2 Kings 20:5 which is supported by the theological focus: 'All great spirituality is about what we do with our pain.' Fr Richard Rohr, Adam's Return: The Five Promises of Male Initiation. As Year 11 draw closer to the completion of their preliminary studies and the commencement of the final chapter of their High School learning journey, exploring such themes are an integral part of their holistic development.
Please keep them in your prayers for this important experience.
Edmund Rice Hours Log and Reflection Book
Students in Year 10 and Year 11 have received an updated log and reflection journal to assist their processing and tracking of their 20 hours service.
This document will assist the students in taking the necessary time to reflect on what has transformed within them as a result of serving those in need, and where, when and how have they witnessed the face of God in those they serve.
Students have received a hard copy. Please find a soft copy attached here.
God bless,
Mr Daniel Petrie - Assistant Principal, Mission and Identity