Faith and Mission
Today our College community gathered in reverence and gratitude to observe Anzac Day. We commemorated the courage and sacrifice of those who have served our nation, and we remembered all who have suffered and continue to suffer through war.
Anzac Day marks the landing of Australian and New Zealand forces at Gallipoli in 1915. While that campaign was marked by great loss, it has come to symbolise qualities that continue to shape our national story: courage, loyalty, service and care for others. These qualities are not confined to the battlefield. They speak to the everyday choices we make about how we treat one another and how we respond when faced with challenge or uncertainty.
Engaging with Anzac Day as a school community is important. Ritual and remembrance help us to understand that peace is never accidental. It is fragile and always in need of protection. By pausing together, we form a bridge between past and present, ensuring that the lessons of history are not forgotten and that gratitude is formed alongside responsibility.
This year, our reflection takes place amid ongoing global conflicts and a widespread sense of uncertainty. News of war, displacement and division can feel overwhelming. In such a context, Anzac Day invites us not to glorify conflict, but to recommit ourselves to peace. It challenges us to ask how we might become people who resist indifference and choose compassion, courage and dialogue.
As a Catholic community, we place this reflection within the wisdom of our faith tradition. Pope John XXIII, whose name our College proudly bears, spoke directly to a world overshadowed by conflict in his encyclical Pacem in Terris (Peace on Earth). He reminded us that true peace is built on truth, justice, love and freedom, and that peace is not merely the absence of war but the presence of right relationships among people and nations. His words remain strikingly relevant in our own time and call each of us to be active peacemakers.
This vision has been echoed in statements from Pope Leo XIV, who has called for a renewed global commitment to peace grounded in human dignity and shared responsibility. His emphasis on justice, solidarity and care for the vulnerable reminds us that peace begins in the human heart and is sustained by courageous action.
Our Anzac Day ceremony today reflected these convictions. It reminded us that remembrance is not passive. It is formative. It shapes the kind of people we are becoming and the kind of world we hope to build.
May we honour those we remember not only with silence, but with lives committed to service, reconciliation and peace. In the spirit of John XXIII College, may we continue to grow as people of competence, conscience and compassion, people for others, confident that even in uncertain times, hope remains possible.
Janeen Murphy
Deputy Principal Faith and Mission
Community Mass
Thank you to Year 7 students who prepared their first Community Mass this morning, as we proclaimed this Sunday’s readings for the 5th Sunday in the Easter season.
Students in Loreto House will be preparing our next Community Mass on Friday, 15 May. All Loreto students and families are especially welcome.
Next Friday, 8 May, the Mass will commence at 7:30am in the St Louis Sports Centre as the College honours mothers and mothering figures. Please RSVP here.
Do not be afraid to ask if you have any questions regarding Community Mass. Contact: Mary-Anne Lumley: mary-anne.lumley@johnxxiii.edu.au
Sacraments
Do you have a child in Year 3, 4 or 6?
Families are encouraged to enrol their child in their parish without delay. Next week, many parishes will be closing their enrolments for 2026. The College website has links to sacrament program information from some of our local parishes.
Students will be preparing for the sacraments of Reconciliation in Year 3, First Holy Communion in Year 4 and Confirmation in Year 6.
Preparing for the sacraments is a three-way collaboration of family, parish and school. This means that parents exercise their right in choosing to enrol their child in the parish; the school provides the learning experiences to prepare the children, and the parish arranges the celebration of the sacrament. Parishes require that students be enrolled.
Parents often have questions about the Sacrament program, so please don’t hesitate to ask. Below are some useful points of contact:
- The priest or sacrament coordinator in your local parish
- John XXIII College website
- The Archdiocesan website: Parishes & Mass Times
Mary-Anne Lumley: mary-anne.lumley@johnxxiii.edu.au or via phone on
08 9383 0513
Good News for the 5th Sunday of Easter
THE GOSPEL
Jesus said to his disciples:
‘Do not let your hearts be troubled.
Trust in God still, and trust in me.
There are many rooms in my Father’s house;
if there were not, I should have told you.
I am now going to prepare a place for you,
and after I have gone and prepared you a place,
I shall return to take you with me;
so that where I am you may be too.
You know the way to the place where I am going.’
Thomas said, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’ Jesus said:
‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.
No one can come to the Father except through me.
THE REFLECTION
For many people ‘going home’, means a return to comfort and security. When we reflect on our childhood homes many of us can say of it what Jesus says of himself. It was the first place almost all of us learnt about ‘The Way’. The earliest Christians were called people of The Way. It's a rich image denoting that Christianity is not an idea, it's a way of living, a path to follow.
For better or worse one of the distinctive features of most of our homes is that it's also where we are told ‘The Truth’. Sometimes that deflates our egos or means we hear things we would rather not listen to. But hopefully the comfort and love which accompanies this truth telling comes from the ease and care in the relationships at home. Our family doesn’t pull any punches with the truth because they know us too well and love us too much.
Most adults also remember their childhood houses as lively. ‘The Life’ in our homes was about the buzz of children going to and from school, various friends calling in, the reign of organised chaos where space was claimed and a position defended. Minor dramas were never far away and life was lived to the full.
It's not by accident that the image of Jesus preparing us a house and being the Way, the Truth and the Life are put together in today's Gospel. In another part of John's gospel Jesus goes further in describing himself as our master builder, as our home and even our lodger. We are told to make a home in him as he makes a home in us. What a terrific image of the intimacy Christ wants to share with us, and we with him!
The best homes, however, do not just protect and keep their occupants safe for eternity. A home is a means to an end, which is to give us the stability and sanity we need to keep going out to the world beyond it. In the same way, our home of faith with Jesus enables us to keep going out to a sometimes hostile world and share with others the Way, the Truth and the Life that sustains us. In a world where 70% of all people have substandard housing and millions of displaced people have to create homes wherever they are, we have our work cut out for us.
The Way we follow is about justice, development and peace for all people everywhere and not just the select few who can build the biggest mansions on earth. We are invited to keep speaking the Truth even if that makes us unpopular or different or at odds with the majority. And we have to keep living the Life which sees that our greatest joy comes from human dignity being celebrated everywhere.
If all Christians lived out this Way, Truth and Life we would fulfil Jesus’ extraordinary prophecy that we could, through his grace, do greater works than he did. Now that’s a challenge to take with us!
Reflection from Fr Richard Leonard SJ.