Faith & Mission

With the VCE Unit 3 & Unit 4 final examinations looming, it can be difficult for students, teachers and parents to recognise that success in schooling is so much more than an ATAR score.

This thought is in no way intended to undervalue the extraordinary efforts that our students, our teachers and our parents have made to ensure that learning and study and exam preparation are as well tuned as they possibly can be.

The deeper definition of success for the VCE Class of 2024 is well reflected in the wonderful College theme that the Year 12 students chose: ‘Stronger Together’.

One of the great joys of my teaching career is working with students to prepare our College masses.  For our 2024 Graduation mass, the students chose two readings that beautifully caught the depth of their College theme.   From St Paul, we heard of the different kinds of gifts that individuals possess.  This is the Stronger Together bit. These different gifts come from the same Spirit.  In the Gospel passage chosen from St Matthew, Jesus spoke of wise people who build their homes on rock.  The foolish, He said, build their houses on sand and the rain and the winds just carry them away.

This wonderfully appropriate passage takes us deeper into the message of Stronger Together.  Human beings need community and they need their communities to be built upon solid values, such as the Mercy values that underpin our College Community. 

In his homily for the Graduation mass, Fr Michael McEntee referred to the great twelfth century scholar, St Thomas Aquinas.  Fr Michael said:

God made us for happiness.  God made us for happiness!  This is surely why we revolt at some of the things that leave us feeling unhappy; we were not made not to find happiness. 

Therefore, we can trust our deep desire to be happy.  To do this we need to safeguard our future happiness by keeping tabs on what we desire.  Is it or is it not purpose built for our happiness?

Our Year 12 graduates are moving out into a world that is increasingly intolerant of the search for the community good. Populist leaders that offer simplistic, sugar coated solutions to complex problems gain increasing popularity.  The Catholic tradition of our Mercy College calls to our graduates to look beyond cheap political slogans and to recognise the rich humanity of those the populist leaders try to denigrate.  Diversity is an essential element to communities becoming Stronger Together.

Social media and AI computing can be wonderful tools for making communities Stronger Together.  But we all need to be aware of the safeguards that we require.  Again, our Mercy values call to us to always maintain our respect for ourselves and for the humanity of those with whom we communicate on line.

As I write, Pope Francis is working to build a synodal church.  A church that is built on the Gospel values that bring genuine happiness to our communities.  A church that does not use doctrine and tradition to build fortresses that exclude.  The church that Pope Francis writes about is a community of dialogue and encounter.  A church community that can hear and respond to the cry of the poor and the cry of our earth.

There is a definition of teaching that claims that successful teaching involves a dialogue between the generations on matters of importance.

In wishing our VCE Class of 2024 every success, my blessing for them is that their life journey will experience all of the richness that dialogue and encounter can bring and that wherever and however they build their lives, they will recognise the solid rock that is the Mercy values of our College. 

Year 12 Graduation Mass 

This is a thank you to the many people who helped to make this year’s 

Graduation Mass a celebratory and joyous occasion.  Fr Michael McEntee has provided the College great support in the absence of Fr Peter Varengo, our College chaplain.  The Year 12 Student Leadership Team did a great job in preparing the readings and prayers for the mass.  The support of Ms Jodie Muller, the Year 12 Wellbeing Leader was greatly valued.  Ms Kerri Ruff and the College Administration Team helped put together the mass booklets and the symbols and decorations.

For me, the opportunity to play music with such a talented group of musicians and singers is a personal highlight.  Thanks are due to Ms Mirelle Morris, Ms Alison Hocking, Ms Marsali Slocombe and Mx Bianca Montagner for all their work in the preparation and presentation of the music for our mass.

Finally, thanks to all parents and teachers who joined us to celebrate the many achievements of this very special class of 2024. 

Mr Mark Hyland

Director of Faith and Mission