Dear Parents/Carers

Happy Easter

In our Year of Service, our Easter Liturgy this year focussed on the story of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples at the Last Supper, the night before his crucifixion and death. We also explored the influence of this event on the Early Rule written by Saint Francis and on the leadership of Saint Clare among the Sisters who joined her community. During our liturgy - as a symbol of the service we extend to others through our within our College community and through our service learning and outreach programs - some of our staff and student leaders washed the feet of those in our school community whom they are called to serve.

Foot washing is an ancient hospitality custom. As people of the ancient world often wore sandals and walked on dusty roads, the host at the home they were visiting would provide water for guests to wash their feet, provide a servant to wash the feet of the guests or even serve the guests by washing their feet. Such customs are recorded in the Old Testament, as well as other religious and historical documents.

The account of the foot washing in John’s Gospel (John 13:1-17) immediately precedes Jesus’ final meal with his disciples and his arrest. By washing the feet of his disciples, Jesus demonstrates what it means to love another. It is an action symmetrical to Jesus’s crucifixion, an example of God’s love for us.

The instruction to love one another is part of the Great Commandment. For this reason, Holy Thursday is also known as Maundy Thursday. The word "Maundy" is derived from the Latin word mandatum, which means "commandment.

While foot washing was practiced by the Early Church before the Eucharist, the Maundy Thursday ceremony first appeared in the Spanish liturgy of the 7th century and later, became widely observed in Rome by the pope and locally in parish churches.

For Saint Francis and Saint Clare of Assisi, foot-washing became a central metaphor for the daily lives of the Lesser Brothers and Poor Sisters. Francis and Clare were drawn to the gospel life of poverty. This commitment brought Francis and his brothers not to lofty mountain tops or quiet cloistered monasteries, but into the forests and caves where the lepers dwelt abandoned and isolated and into the hovels where the poor and the destitute longed for food and comfort. It brought Clare and her sisters to serve the poorest of the poor and to see themselves as “minoras” or little ones, servants washing the feet of others, as Christ did.

In his Earlier Rule, Francis urged his brothers: “Let no one be called ‘prior,’ but let everyone in general be called a lesser brother. Let one wash the feet of the other” (Earlier Rule, 6.3).

In The Little Flowers of Saint Francis, there is one account of Saint Francis washing the feet of another. In Chapter 16, Saint Francis sends Brother Matteo to visit Brother Silvester and Sister Clare to ask them whether Francis should continue to preach or only keep to praying. On receiving their answers – that Francis should “go into the world to preach” – we are told, “Brother Masseo hastened to Saint Francis to bring him these answers; and Saint Francis received him with great charity, washing his feet, and serving him at dinner…”

Clare, as abbess of the community of San Damiano, wanted to be seen above all as one who humbly served her sisters. In The Legend of Saint Clare it is written:

“Rarely would she give an order, instead she would do things spontaneously, preferring rather to do things herself than to order her sisters. She herself washed the commodes of the sick… She frequently and reverently washed the feet of the serving [sisters] who returned from outside and, after washing them, kissed them” (The Legend of Saint Clare 12:7-9).

Reflecting on the story of Jesus washing of the feet of his disciples, Sr Margaret Magee writes:

“As Franciscan people today, the gospel call has not changed. Our life, prayer and spirituality must… move us into imitating and embodying the presence of Christ as humble servants for others. Our gospel call should lead us more deeply into Divine Love and then outside of our shrines and churches into the marketplaces and streets where those who are lost, abandoned, and poor still struggle from the loss of their human dignity and the basic needs for living.”

As a Franciscan community, we at Mount Alvernia College are called into the loving service of others. Inspired by Saint Francis, Saint Clare and Elizabeth Hayes, we believe that service is the demonstrated expression of who we are. Through our action for justice locally and globally, we seek to transform the world for good.

This Easter, in the words of Sr Margaret, may our encounter with Christ humbled and broken but risen again, “move us beyond our narrow views of ourselves, our church and our world, to be a transforming reality that heals, comforts and brings new life and relationships to birth in our world.” In humility, may we take the vow that, day after day, we must take up the basin and the towel.

Let us pray:

Lord, by your grace, grant us the humility

to emulate the love of Jesus in our world

through our service to others.

Move us beyond the security of only serving

those we already love so that we accept your

challenge of achieving justice for our world.

Lord move us, change us, make us into your image.

Amen.

Project Compassion

Each year during Lent, the College supports the Project Compassion Appeal. Project Compassion is the major fundraiser of Caritas, the Catholic Church’s agency for global development. This year, the Project Compassion Appeal highlights the stories of three women from the Philippines, Malawi and Samoa. Though they face very different challenges in their day-to-day lives, they are all united by their dream of creating a better tomorrow for themselves and for all future generations. In our Year of Service, our challenge is to respond to these stories courageously, and to act for social and ecological justice. By putting our faith and compassion in action today, we have the power to create lasting change for generations to come.

The money raised through this appeal is used to develop long term development programs in partnership with some of the world’s most vulnerable communities for whom poverty and injustice is a daily reality.

All donations can be made through the Mount Alvernia College Project Compassion online portal. Please support your child’s House team by donating to her House. For more information, visit the Caritas website.

ANZAC Day

The Kedron-Wavell Sub Branch RSL has extended an invitation to our College community to attend its ANZAC Day services on Thursday 25 April 2024.

5.00am: Assemble for the Dawn Service at War Graves Section, Lutwyche Cemetery, Kitchener Road, Kedron. Students are to enter via the gate opposite Glentanna Street and check in with Mr Rogusz for roll marking purposes. The Dawn Service begins at 5.30am and concludes around 6.30am.7.45am: Assemble on the oval near the Chermside Historical Precinct, 61 Kittyhawk Drive, Chermside, for the March.

The March begins at 8.00am. 8.30am: The Main Service at Kedron-Wavell Services Club, Kittyhawk Drive, Chermside. Concludes around 10.00am. Students and families are welcome to participate in any or all of these services. In order to register your child, please complete the ANZAC Day Registration Form.

It is important that this information is completed by a parent/carer, specifically the consent for students to participate. Please ensure you indicate which services your child, or your child and family members, will be attending. Please complete a registration for each Mt A student from your family who will be attending these services. Students are required to wear their College uniform with hat and blazer. Students attending the morning service (8.30am) are encouraged to bring a water bottle.

Please note: The College will not be providing transport for students on this day. If your child is attending the Dawn Service and the March/Main Service, transport must be provided or arranged by your family from the Lutwyche Cemetery, Kitchener Road Kedron to the Kedron-Wavell Services Club, Kittyhawk Drive Chermside.

Ponytail Project

Next term, Thursday 16 May, the College will be raising funds for the Cancer Council and people living with cancer by participating in the Ponytail Project.

Every year an estimated 4000 ponytails are needed just to make enough charitable wigs for those suffering from cancer or alopecia. One wig requires 20 ponytails and can cost thousands of dollars.

Sustainable Salons collects all ponytails 20cm or longer, both coloured and uncoloured, and sends them to charitable organisations and wigmakers. Uncoloured ponytails 36cm+ are the holy grail for charitable wigs.

A number of students are keen to donate their hair to this worthy cause. All students interested in Rocking the Chop are required to submit an expression of interest before the end of Term 1. Expressions of interest can be submitted using the Ponytail Project Registration Form.

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