Mission News

Prayers

We ask God to welcome into eternal life John Boustead, much loved former Marist teacher and son of current staff member Laurie. We keep Laurie and the Boustead family in our prayers as they mourn John’s loss and celebrate his life. May the memory of our departed loved ones inspire us to live wholehearted and hope-filled lives.

Community Mass

We will celebrate Mass on Monday 1st Break, Wednesday 8am and Friday 1st break. Throughout this week and next, our Year 9s will gather with their RE class for Mass, reflecting on the theme of ‘vocation’.

Gospel

Excerpt from Sunday’s Gospel, 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time C - Luke 12:49-53 (JB)

Jesus said to his disciples: 'I have come to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were blazing already! There is a baptism I must still receive, and how great is my distress till it is over!

This is not the gentle Jesus we often imagine. Here, He speaks with urgency and intensity. The fire He refers to is the fire of divine love, purification, and transformation—a fire that consumes complacency and ignites hearts with passion for truth. It’s the fire of the Holy Spirit, the fire of mission, the fire of justice.

Jesus warns that following Him will not always bring peace in the worldly sense. In fact, it may cause division—even among those closest to us. Why? Because the Gospel demands choices. It confronts us with truth, and truth is not always welcomed. When we choose Christ, we may find ourselves at odds with a culture that values comfort over conviction, popularity over principle.

This passage invites today’s Catholic community to reflect deeply: Are we willing to be set ablaze by the Gospel? Are we ready to stand firm in faith even when it costs us approval, ease, or unity? Jesus doesn’t promise a smooth path—but He does promise His presence, His Spirit, and the joy of living in truth.

Let us not fear the fire. Let us welcome it, and allow it to refine us into bold witnesses of Christ.

We pray:

+ Lord Jesus,

You came to set the world ablaze—

with truth, with love, with holy fire.

Kindle that fire in our hearts today.

Burn away our fear, our indifference,

and anything that keeps us from fully following You.

Give us courage to stand for what is right,

even when it divides us from comfort or consensus.

Help us to love fiercely, speak truth boldly,

and live faithfully in Your light.

May Your Spirit ignite our Church,

our families, and our communities,

so that we may shine with the fire of Your love.

Mary our good mother – pray for us

St Marcellin Champagnat – pray for us

St Mary of the Cross MacKillop – pray for us

And may we always remember – to pray for one another

Amen.+

Feast of the Assumption

Last Tuesday was a wonderful celebration of the Feast of the Assumption with our whole college Mass. We were delighted to have present at the Champagnat Centre several parents and family members of our students receiving MATES awards as well as those being recognised for their shortlisting to college captaincy. As our presentation of the MATES awards demonstrated, our students’ active involvement in the MATES program—from Stationery Aid to the Environment Group, Boarders’ Blitz to Rosies—is at the heart of what being Marist and Catholic is all about: putting our faith into action and building community through solidarity and fraternity.

Our joyful celebration at Tuesday’s announcement of our 2026 captains extends to each one of the 16 young Marist men who had the vulnerability and the courage of their conviction to put themselves forward for captaincy. It is a testament to their quality of character that each one of them was focused on leading the college through service with humility.

Marist College Ashgrove is in good hands with our 2026 student leaders!

Year Primary and Years 7-8 Dances

It goes without saying that Tuesday 12 August was a HUGE day! Following the Feast of the Assumption Mass and the City-Country clash came the Marist Dances – a Primary and Year 7/8 double header! By 4:45pm, Year 5/6 Marist students began arriving along with students from surrounding all-girls’ schools. It was a high-energy event with approx. 600 students enjoying themselves. Our Year 7/8 event kicked off at 7:30pm, with our Marist students once again welcoming girls from neighbouring schools, culminating in over 1,000 students mingling in the Champagnat Centre! 

We are still calculating costs, but preliminary estimates show a fundraising effort over $25,000.00 which is just outstanding! 

Events like these annual dances rely heavily on the generous efforts of staff and student volunteers, not only on the night, but in the lead up too. To Mrs Kelly Byrne – thank you for your organisation skills. Thanks go to Mr Connolly and his team of helpful staff who ensured the Primary dance ran smoothly. To our services staff and tech staff for your skilful assistance. To Mr Enrico Le Mura & our incredible DJs – you rocked!! To our Year 12 Vice and Mission Captains who ran the “bar”, ensuring our young patrons had sufficient snacks and drinks. To all who helped make this a smooth evening, we thank you sincerely! 

Proceeds from the Marist Dances – where do they go?

The proceeds from the ticket sales across our two Marist dances go directly to Australian Marist Solidarity (AMS) and their on-the-ground project work throughout the Marist Star of the Sea Province. As our Year 11 students who visited the Quelicai region of Timor-Leste saw firsthand during their immersion in the June/July holidays, AMS’ school rebuilding projects lead to high quality facilities ensuring staff and students have a safe and welcoming environment in which to teach and learn. The Marist vision and mission first expressed by Marcellin Champagnat’s zeal to provide education and faith formation for all, especially those missing out, is lived out practically through the work of AMS. Every time we contribute to AMS, we continue Marcellin’s work. Not only this, but we do so in a spirit of solidarity and subsidiarity, knowing that AMS listen to and work closely with local tradespeople and local communities.

Our immersion students dancing with the students of St Terezinha’s Primary School, which received AMS funding to rebuild. Marist College Ashgrove has been the single largest school contributor to AMS for the last two years.

Sony Foundation Camp 

Sony Camp is quickly approaching, and the Mission Team is in full swing finalising the program! This Friday to raise funds we will be selling Soft Drinks from the CLE in Break 1. Charge up your monitor cards and come and support the Sony Camp this Friday. 

Donations

If you would like to donate to this year’s Marist Sony Foundation Camp visit the following LINK. All donations over $2 are tax deductible.

Stationery Aid Fundraising Event

A reminder that Stationery Aid’s major fundraising event will be held on Friday 29th August and all are invited! Tickets can be purchased via this Humanitix link. Final ticket sales by 21st August. 

The evening will be a great celebration of salvaged student art and stories, and repurposed functional art from Stationery Aid’s charity partners. It also marks 5 years since Stationery Aid started.

Artist David Hinchliffe https://www.davidhinchliffe.com.au/  is the special guest speaker with Anna Reynolds, Chair of Brisbane Festival and Brisbane Portrait Prize as MC for the evening.

The aim is to raise $82,500 by the end of the year to support 1,500 disadvantaged students with full student booklists to start 2026 school year (and resources for one year of learning). To help Stationery Aid achieve this important goal, we encourage our wonderful Marist community to get behind this event.  

Stationery Aid Friday mornings

Join us in Room 801 on Friday mornings between 7:30am - 8:30am as we continue giving stationery a second life! 

A reminder that donations of good quality unwanted stationery is always welcome and can be placed in the blue bin outside the Mission Office. 

To find out more and to check the list for what can be donated, please visit: https://stationeryaid.org/ 

Treadlightly

Do you have old sports or school shoes lying around the house? Donations of unwanted shoes can be dropped into the blue bin outside the Mission Office. These shoes will be delivered to our local Rebel store where they’ll be collected by Treadlightly, an organisation that recycles them to be turned into new products. To find out more about Treadlightly, visit their website: Tread Lightly – Together we can step into a better future​