Faith and Mission

As we move into November, two significant days in the Christian calendar invite us to reflect on the deep connection between the living and those who have gone before us: All Saints' Day on 1 November and All Souls' Day on 2 November.

All Saints' Day is a celebration of all the saints, known and unknown, who have lived lives of great faith and virtue. This feast reminds us of our own calling to a deeper relationship with God. The saints, as our spiritual ancestors, inspire us to strive for justice, compassion, courage, and love in our daily lives.

All Souls' Day follows as a day of prayer for all the faithful departed. On this day, we remember and pray for those who have died, especially our loved ones, that they may find eternal peace.

Both days provide an opportunity to reflect on life, death, and the hope of resurrection. As a school community, we are encouraged to come together in prayer, remembering those who have inspired us, both living and deceased, and to recommit ourselves to the values of justice and compassion that connect us to the wider Church and the world.

Janeen Murphy

Deputy Principal Faith and Mission

Vale Sr Ellen

Loreto Sister Ellen Moran died on Friday, 25 October 2024. She was 94 and well-known in Western Australia. Ellen attended school at Loreto Claremont and graduated in 1947.

After Ellen joined the Loreto Sisters, she taught at Loreto Claremont from 1962 to 1970, and she is remembered for her kindness and gentleness by many of her past students. She also taught at Normanhurst, Ballarat, Portland and Brisbane.

Ellen lived at Loreto Nedlands from 1987 to 1992, then worked in the Three Springs Parish from 2000 to 2004.

She retired to Success and then moved to Mercy Village in Leederville in 2013.

Community Mass

Thank you to Year 8 students and teachers for preparing and participating in today’s Community Mass, for the Feast of All Saints. We concluded with the song, ‘They’ll know we are Christians by our love’. See reflection below from Jesuit, Fr Andrew Hamilton.

Next Friday, it is the College alumni who will be preparing our Community Mass, and all alumni are welcome! As November is the month when the Church especially remembers loved ones who have died, we will include prayer for deceased alumni as well as for our family and friends who have passed.

As always, all are welcome to Community Mass, followed by coffee and conversation in the Circle of Friends Café.

College Chapel
Fridays in term time
Starts: 8:00am and concludes 8:30am.

All Saints

THE SCRIPTURE – 1 JOHN 3: 1-3

Think how much the Father loves us.

God loves us so much

and lets us be called God’s children, as we truly are.

But since the people of this world did not know who Christ is,

they don’t know who we are.

My dear friends, we are already God’s children,

though what we will be hasn’t yet been seen.

But we do know that when Christ returns,

we will be like him, because we will see him as he truly is.

This hope makes us keep ourselves holy, just as Christ is holy.

THE REFLECTION – FR ANDREW HAMILTON SJ

In the New Testament, all Christians were called saints. There were the saints of Ephesus, of Corinth, of Antioch and so on. The name showed that when people were baptised and became Christians, they came close to God, and so were holy. Their faith in Christ made them God's family. Christ would gather them with him when he came again at the day of judgment.

Being called saints did not mean that they had led remarkable lives or had been very pious. They were saints because God had called them and had made them holy. They were members of Christ's body, Christ's brothers and sisters, and children of God.

They formed the communion of saints. This phrase implied that Christ had joined them together in his body. It also implied that they shared the body of Christ in the Eucharist. Holy things were given to the holy. So to be saints was a gift. It was not an achievement.

But for Christians, to be saints was a gift to be displayed and given to others. The Christian community attracted people to Christ by the ways in which Christ had changed their lives. When people looked at the Christians they were amazed by what God had done in them. They said, for example, 'See how these Christians love one another'.