Veritas - From the APRIM

Veritas - From the APRIM

St Dominic’s Day

We must be grateful for all the winter rain Adelaide has experienced in recent weeks. Organising St Dominic’s Day activities involves significant logistics and enormous cooperation from many staff members. Having a ‘Plan B’ in the event of rain is essential but it impacts everyone enormously if you must revert to it. Hence it was a great relief that the rain cleared just in time for St Dominic’s Day activities. I think we have the intercessions of St Dominic and St Mary MacKillop to thank for this.

The day was enormously successful in terms of the Eucharistic Celebration, Curriculum Activities, Fun Activities, Food Stalls, Raffle and Fundraising for Dominican Charitable Works. The success is a credit to the generosity and commitment of staff and I thank them for this. I must also thank the businesses and clubs that supported our raffle with donations or discounted prizes and I encourage you to support them through your custom in return. They were Radio Rentals Prospect, Back in Motion Health Group Prospect, The Port Adelaide, Adelaide and North Adelaide Football Clubs, and the anonymous parent donor of games and balls. I also thank our guest speaker and 1992 Head Prefect Mr Dharmesh Raman, Managing Director of Peter Shearer Menswear, for his excellent keynote address.

Please check out the photos of the Mass and the activities below.

Confirmation

Congratulations to our six Year 4 Confirmation Candidates who were confirmed at Rosary Church on Friday night, 10 August. These are Antony Barresi, Nathan Bishop, Alessandro dos Santos, Marcus Gill, Hudson Page and Max Sampson. The liturgy was conducted by Fr Philip Marshal and it was truly beautiful. I hope this helped the students realise the incredible gift of faith their parents have passed onto them through full communion with the Catholic Church. It is now up to these young men to live life to the full in Christ.

Assumption of the Blessed Mother of God

Wednesday 15 August is the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, Mother of God. It is a feast that has arisen from tradition, but is also well supported by scripture. Mary is the exemplar of perfect discipleship, and pure enough to contain the Body of Christ. For this reason, it makes sense that she was assumed into heaven, uncorrupted body and soul at her death.

The readings for the Assumption include a curious one from Revelations (11:19-12:10), in which a coronated woman (Mary) is in the pangs of childbirth, with a dragon set to devour the baby upon his emergence. At that time though, the child (Jesus) is taken straight to Heaven to be with God, and Mary sent to safety in the wilderness. Meanwhile a war breaks out in Heaven between the angels of the dragon and the angels of God. God prevails, and the dragon is hurled down to Earth. Just prior to the story of the childbirth and the dragon, the Arc of the Covenant was described as open.

The great contemporary psychologist, mythologist and philosopher Professor Jordan B Peterson notes the presence and subsequent significance of dragons in mythology. To use his terms, they represent the archetype of chaos (or the unknowable) and evil. Our Judeo-Christian archetype includes the Logos – the word of God – and the Arc of the Covenant contained the Law of God, the Ten Commandments - the order that overcomes the chaos of disorder, lawlessness, lies and evil. Mary ‘contained’ Jesus, the Logos made flesh, so in ways she represents the Arc and the presence of God, and to use Peterson’s terms, Jesus represents the archetype of good. Jesus’ presence on Earth was to overcome the chaos symbolised by the dragon that was sent down to Earth.

This battle of good versus evil is clarified with genius through the visions of John in Revelations. It is timeless and apocalyptic. Our Earthly fallibility also includes a choice; join with the Truth of Christ - the Logos made flesh, or the dragon – the source of chaos and evil. Both are present today.

Honouring Mary – often seen as a curious practice to non-Catholics – is actually to honour the purity of the one that contained the Body and Blood of Christ. So, for us Catholics, the Eucharist also represent our opportunity to be pure like Mary – to contain the Body and Blood of Christ. Like in the story of Revelations, we are strengthened in our fight against the dragon when we are in Christ and Christ is in us.

Mr Matthew Crisanti

ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL: RELIGIOUS IDENTITY AND MISSION (ACTING)