From the Headmaster

Dear Members of the Marist College Ashgrove Family,

The culture of modern-day life leaves very little downtime.  Our 2020 ‘changed experience’ has created more option for time to be spent with family. In his book ‘Tuesday’s with Morrie’, author Mitch Albom writes about his old university professor Morrie Schwartz who died of ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, an unforgiving illness of the neurological system.  Mitch chose to spend the last fourteen of Morrie’s Tuesdays with him.  Morrie taught Mitch many things .. the eleventh Tuesday was about culture.  Here’s what he said:

“The big things – how we think, what we value – those you must choose yourself.  You can’t let anyone or any society determine those for you…   the biggest defect we human beings have is our short-sightedness. We don’t see what we could be.  We should be looking at our potential, stretching ourselves into everything we can become … Invest in the human family. Invest in community”.

Saint Marcellin valued family.  He wished for a family spirit to pervade the schools where his Little Brothers of Mary were.  Water from the Rock (the book of Marist spirituality) states: 

32.  Wherever the followers of Marcellin are present, working together in mission, a ‘family spirit’ is the Marist way of communal living.  Its wellspring is the love that Jesus has for all his brothers and sisters – all of humanity.  Through this spirit we offer an experience of belonging and union in mission. 

Family’s share relationships, possessions but perhaps most importantly, time.  Robert Fulghum writes in his book “All I Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten”:

“Share everything/play fair/don’t hit people/put things back where you found them/clean up your own mess/don’t take things that are not yours/say sorry when you hurt somebody/wash your hands before you eat/flush/when go out into the world watch for traffic, hold hands and stick together/be aware of wonder: remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup – the roots go down, the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that”.

Good simply advice! And just maybe this COVID-19 time is trying to teach us to slow down and embrace the simple things.

Our beautiful golden retriever Molly went to sleep on August 24 aged 15 years and 7 weeks.  I miss her because she taught me about presence (a Marist trait) and unconditional love … simple virtues that mean a lot. 

Yours in Jesus, Mary and St Marcellin.

Peter McLoughlin

Headmaster