Deputy Head of College News

A Step Along The Way

Graduation is in my top three favourite moments of the school year. It affirms why I decided to become a teacher. It celebrates the shared journey of students, parents and staff - the highs, the lows and everything in between. As we gathered at various celebrations last Friday, many memories were shared, laughs had and even a few tears were had. Crossing the threshold moments.

Of all the wisdom shared last Friday, a winner for me was Mr Anthony Mathison’s description of change as a threshold. 1700 students, 300 staff and hundreds of parents gathered on the McMahon Oval and John Eales Grandstand listened to Mr Mathison as he eloquently described what our Year 12s might encounter in the coming days and weeks – the crossing of a threshold. He went on to explain how a threshold has no definite beginning or end, no line in the sand or no clean break or easy pick-up. It’s a period of transition into the new and unknown. As such, it can be filled with an array of emotions, expectations and hesitations. Most significantly, and most truly, Mr Mathison affirmed the need to cross thresholds in our lives to experience the fullness of our humanity.

Educating for threshold moments is part of the fabric of a Marist tradition. We educate with the heart in mind. Does Act Courageously ring a bell? Through educating the heart we form young people to approach threshold moments with optimism, hope and humble confidence. 

As we conclude our school year together, may the approaching school holiday period and Season of Advent, enable us to appreciate our place in time today and the thresholds of tomorrow which await our response. Some words from Archbishop Oscar Romeo may assist you doing so.

To all in our Marist Family, have a happy and safe holiday period. May you experience the hope, joy, love and peace of Christmas.

A Step Along The Way

It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.

The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent

enterprise that is God's work. Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of

saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us.

No statement says all that could be said.

No prayer fully expresses our faith.

No confession brings perfection.

No pastoral visit brings wholeness.

No program accomplishes the Church's mission.

No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about.

We plant the seeds that one day will grow.

We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.

We lay foundations that will need further development.

We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.

This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.

It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an

opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master

builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.

We are prophets of a future not our own.

Archbishop Oscar Romeo