Catholic Identity & Mission News

In the last newsletter, I wrote of how we celebrated Catholic Education Week as ‘Pilgrims of Hope’ and asked how we could enact the Reconciliation Week theme of ‘Bridging Now to Next’. Students and staff were invited to complete slips with their hopes for themselves, their families and friends, and their world. It took a couple of hours (surprising but true!) to fold all the slips but then I took them to our Cranbourne Campus Chapel where now, our College community’s hopes are held in our sacred space. There wasn’t nearly enough room to ‘display’ them all, but there is a full box, and bag of ‘hopes’ (just out of view) that accompany the display photographed below, so all are included. 

While the Chapel is still available for RE classes and House gatherings, its use had been a little diminished this year with the relocation of the House Feast Day masses to St Agatha’s. However, through the initiative of our Cranbourne Campus Liturgy Captain, Anthony Krotwaar, and others who hold this space with reverence, the Chapel has this year become host to a Tuesday lunchtime rosary group, a place of daily prayer at recess, and as the venue for ’10 Minutes with Jesus’ – a lunchtime prayer group on a Thursday. The Clyde North campus has hosted this Thursday lunchtime prayer group for many years, but it was not something that had ‘caught on’ at Cranbourne, until this year. It’s just ‘baby steps’ at the moment but it’s been terrific to be able to provide the space and opportunity for students to take some time out in their day to gather and to give thanks, and ask for what they need, in prayer at school. Further to this, a staff member asked if we could re-introduce the Blessed Sacrament into the tabernacle, and have holy water in the font, and we’ve been able to do both these things with the support of our parishes, St Agatha’s and St Thomas the Apostle. While we are temporarily without such a space at our Clyde North Campus, we continue to be resourceful about where and how we gather, knowing that whenever we gather in God’s name, there too is God. 

Ms Fiona McKenna

Deputy Principal – Catholic Identity & Mission