Mission & Identity

See, I have God for my help.

The Lord sustains my soul.

I will sacrifice to you with willing heart,

and praise your name, O Lord, for it is good. (Psalm 53:6,8)

Welcome to Term 3. May it be one filled with God’s blessings. 

Our current Strategic Vision, a document that expresses the constant mission of St Patrick’s College in contemporary language, has as its centre the following proclamation of what we do: 

Educating hope-filled, compassionate and confident young men for their place in the world.

The Catholic Church has long preached the three theological virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity. Our vision takes up the joy and excellence of this Tradition. 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines Faith as “the theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that He has said and revealed to us, and that Holy Church proposes for our belief, because He is truth itself.” (CCC 1814) 

Confident young men are men of faith. People of faith trust in God’s guarantee that our questions, expressing our unrestricted desires to know, will be satisfied by answers constituted by truth. Our hearts, and our search for meaning, desire more than mere appearance and opinion. God – loving creator of all there is – guarantees our faith, our fundamental trust in God, grounds our knowledge in the reality – the loving gift - of God’s creation. 

 “Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit.) (CCC1817). 

A St Patrick’s education is the invitation to hold fast, to be filled with the courage that endures all things for Jesus, for God’s love is the guarantee that all challenges will be met. A St Patrick’s education is hope-filled.  

Finally, “charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbour as ourselves for the love of God.” (CCC 1822) Jesus said: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” (Jn 15:9,12) 

Compassionate young men do not allow others to endure challenges alone. They are just men. Their place in the world is to witness the transforming love of God through being fully present to their neighbour, and by freely choosing to be the person meeting the needs of others: needs known through faith, hope and charity. 

St Patrick’s College continues to take seriously our responsibility as a Catholic School in the Edmund Rice Tradition. I invite you into further reflection on the way the Strategic Plan expresses the objectives of Faith, Life, and Culture at SPC. 

We aspire to teach for the love of wisdom, inspiring each student with the desire for learning so much he will delight in becoming a life-long learner. We endeavour to interweave faith and reason at the heart of all our endeavours, witnessing the truth, goodness, and beauty of the Christian vision of life, culture, and history. 

Specific priorities in Faith, Life and Culture include: 

1. To inspire all in the community with faith’s transcendent and transcending vision of God’s Kingdom. 

2. To develop all that is human, founded on the Christian knowledge that all people are made in the image of God. 

3. To cultivate human values animated by the person, life, teaching, death, and resurrection of Jesus, who gives life and meaning to our every adventure. 

4. To advance relationships through communion and community, where joy-filled collaboration between the College and the Ballarat Diocese, staff and students, College and families, 

5. Church and society, humanity and God’s creation, are defining characteristics of the College. 

6. To embrace the Catholic worldview and Catholic Social Teaching throughout our curriculum, enabling the College to share in the integral formation of young men capable of making free and responsible choices, open to the truth, goodness and beauty that informs the meaning of life. 

7. To grow and endure as living witnesses to the Gospel of Jesus, so the community deepens its love of wisdom and its passion for truth. 

8. To flourish in the faith that perfects knowledge, the hope that perfects freedom, and the charity that perfects justice.

May the rest of our year together be blessed, inspired, motivated, directed, and grounded by the Faith, Hope, and Charity that are the gift of God’s love.