Faith and Mission

As we entered the final week of Term, our community also moved into the most sacred time of the Church’s year, Holy Week. Through a series of liturgies, students and staff were invited to walk prayerfully with Christ, reflecting on his journey from the Last Supper, through his Passion and death, and towards the hope of the Resurrection. These moments of shared prayer created space for stillness, contemplation and renewed attentiveness to God’s presence among us.

During the week, our Year 12 students participated in their Manresa Retreat, a significant and formative experience in their final year of schooling. Named after the town of Manresa in Spain, where St Ignatius of Loyola underwent a period of prayer, reflection and conversion, the retreat is grounded in the Ignatian tradition of noticing God at work in our lives. Guided by the words of the Prophet Isaiah, 'I have called you by name; you are mine,' students were invited to slow down, reflect deeply, and attend to their own stories, relationships and sense of purpose.

True to the Ignatian spirit, Manresa was not about providing answers, but about creating space for honest reflection. Through prayer, silence, conversation and shared experience, students were encouraged to listen carefully, to themselves, to one another and to God. And to consider how they might respond to God’s invitation in their lives.

As we now prepare to celebrate Easter, we are reminded that faith is lived not only in prayer, but also in action. Families are encouraged to consider ethical choices this Easter, particularly when purchasing chocolate. Supporting initiatives such as ACRATH’s chocolate campaign allows us to align our celebrations with our Gospel values, standing in solidarity with those affected by exploitation and injustice.

Please click on the link to ACRATH if you would like additional information: Sweet Solution to a Bitter Issue - ACRATH

May the journey of Holy Week and the hope of Easter continue to shape us as people of reflection, compassion and justice.

Easter blessings to you and your families. May the risen Christ bring hope, peace and new life.

In the lead‑up to Easter, our school is also promoting the Slavery Free Chocolate campaign, encouraging families to shop ethically and make informed choices. Easter is the busiest season for chocolate, yet many cocoa products are linked to child labour and unfair working conditions, where children are denied education and safe childhoods.

Choosing slavery‑free, ethical chocolate is a practical way to live out our school's call to seek justice. It reminds us that justice means caring about how our everyday choices affect others, standing in solidarity with children across the world, and choosing fairness over exploitation. Ethical choices also reflect care for creation, as many responsible producers prioritise sustainable farming practices.

Janeen Murphy

Deputy Principal Faith and Mission

Community Mass

Thank you to students, families and staff, as well as Chapel Choir, who prepared this morning’s community liturgy, which was a shortened version of the Way of the Cross.  Praying the Way of the Cross helps us walk with Jesus through his suffering, death and resurrection. It also gives us the opportunity to look with the eyes of Jesus at the suffering in our world and in our lives. 

FIRST COMMUNITY MASS OF TERM 2  

Friday, 24 April is the day that John XXIII College will be host to the Migrant Jubilee Cross. 

The Cross is a gift to the Church by migrant communities and symbolises the Church as a place of refuge, welcome, integration and solidarity. Our liturgy will celebrate in tangible ways the faith, gifts, contributions and resilience that migrants have brought and continue to bring to the College, the Church and the wider community. Families will lead prayer and proclaim readings in their mother tongue, and all will be invited to pray the Lord’s Prayer in their own language. 

After Mass, the Cross will be processed to the Library, where it will be on display for the day. All who can stay are welcome to morning tea in the Library. 

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 Palm Sunday

Two of the most powerful Catholic women in the twentieth century saw the connection between service and hospitality, between the washing of feet and the feeding of the poor.

As a young Loreto nun teaching at a private girls’ school in Calcutta, Mother Teresa came to see that her real vocation lay with caring for those who were dying from malnutrition in the streets… Dorothy Day’s work in a Manhattan soup kitchen led her to become a Catholic and found the Catholic Worker movement, which continues to feed the poor and advocate for a more just society.

These two saintly women met in Calcutta on Holy Thursday in 1955. Dorothy Day recalls, ‘…when I visited Calcutta I saw an unknown woman, vigorous and purposeful, feeding and caring for skeletonised human beings carried in from the streets by city ambulances. She fed them slowly and carefully and would talk consolingly to them in Bengali, Hindi or English. As I stood behind her some of them held out imploring hands to me, seeking, I supposed, some consolation. I turned away in revulsion. I could see helping such a person in an emergency situation, but to do it every day? So, I asked the nun, whom they called Mother Teresa, and she told me, '…each one is Jesus in a distressing disguise'. We became life-long friends that day.’

Holy Thursday calls each of us to see the connection between service and hospitality. If the Eucharist has any impact on our lives, then at least it should leave us conscious of the injustices in the world and should give us a desire to want to get down and get dirty in fixing up the problems.

There are often two blocks that stop us from doing this. The first block is that when we get down to work on the world’s problems, we believe that our efforts won’t make much of a difference. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to discover that Mother Teresa and Dorothy Day both had great devotion to Saint Therese of Lisieux’s ‘little way’, where everything is valued and no contribution, prayer or thought is considered unimportant. Something is always better than nothing. The second block in our path is the belief that we are too powerful to get dirty. Mother Teresa and Dorothy Day had plenty to say about how personal power corrupts the human heart. Both thought that it was impossible to be a true follower of Jesus and have no practical contact with ‘Jesus in a distressing disguise’.

And the reason we bother with this Christian social work is not that it makes us feel good. It’s because it’s what Jesus did for us. He saw us in our poverty and welcomed us to his banquet. He got down and got dirty washing our feet and told us that if we want to follow him then this is how we should spend our lives.

And to help us do it Jesus left us the Eucharist, the meal for saints and sinners, where we gain the strength to get down and get dirty with Christ as we help him make the world ridiculously hospitable and radically just. ‘On this Holy Thursday may Dorothy Day and Mother Teresa, who understood what today’s feast is all about, pray for us that we may be found worthy of the example of Jesus the Lord. Amen.’

©Richard Leonard SJ