Mission News

Prayers

For those in our community who are unwell or suffering at this time.

We pray for the repose of the soul of Pat Moloney (past staff member, and grandmother to three Ashgrove Old Boys) 

May our loving God, with Mary and Champagnat, walk with all members of the Marist family. Amen

Reflection 

Mary,

Marcellin was chosen, as we are today,

to carry the message of Jesus to our schools, families, and community.

Help guide us to always be of service to those in need.

You give us your name as Marists,

to show us that you walk the path of life with us,

and share in our humanity.

We pray with you, our guide and Good Mother,

to help renew our mission to education to make your son, 

Jesus Christ known and loved to the ends of the earth.

Amen.

Champagnat Mass 

We were honoured as a Community yesterday to have Archbishop Mark Coleridge celebrate our Mass for the Feast of St Marcellin Champagnat. The Mass and indeed the day at the College is a special celebration of thanksgiving and support for this Marist community. Special thanks to all our invited guests, parents and friends of the College, the Music Department who animated the liturgy with music and the Tech Department who worked the magic on screen. During the Mass we took time to acknowledge and thank staff members who have given time of service, 10, 20, 25 and 35 years to Marist mission and life. 

Champagnat Awards 

As is tradition we presented our annual Champagnat awards. Within these awards we want to celebrate the lives of people from our community who exemplify in some way those Marcellin characteristics of being faithful, encouraging, persistent, trusting, caring, hardworking, generous and respectful.

Below are the citations to accompany the awards. In this the sesquicentenary of Marist Education in Australia we were pleased to have an additional award presented to our Head of Mission Mr Luke McMahon – honouring a lifetime of service to Marist life. 

Presenter:  Br Jeff Barrington – Community Leader Marist Community Ashgrove and Provincial Councillor 

Our first Champagnat Award marks commitment and contribution to the broader life of our College community. The award this year is unique because it marks not the striving of an individual but the gift of a team to College life. Our recipients quite literally serve our whole community – the Boarding community, the Brothers’ community, the social and cultural life of the school, the liturgical life of the school, to name some. The joy and humour, hard work and generous service of our recipients typify that essential Champagnat quality of love of the work they do and done always in unseen and unheralded ways. Work where nothing is too much trouble, where an open, inviting and friendly environment is nurtured, and where care for the practical needs of others is taken seriously and done well. Our recipients witness the Marist way by the joy of their daily living, by their authentic way of relating to others, especially the boys, and by the care they invest in their work on our behalf. We are very pleased to present the Champagnat Award for Community to our Services Laundry Staff, Mrs Heather Ryan and Mr Les Brown. 

Presenter: Mark Elliott – MSA Regional Director QLD/NT

Our second Champagnat Award is made to a staff member. St Marcellin regarded the work of the teacher very highly. For their academic knowledge and excellence in communicating, certainly. But because Marcellin saw the whole purpose of the Marist school as being about making Jesus Christ known and loved, the very best teacher in his eyes was the one who lived and worked with and among young people and whose life, in word and action, was the Gospel that brought people to a knowledge and love of Christ and the very best of what it is to be human. Our recipient is in these terms, a born teacher, a living gospel to use Marcellin’s idea, whose sacred task and divine work are revealed to students and colleagues through unfailing kindness, patience, compassion, endurance, gentleness and joy. In our school this is Christ-life come to birth. A love of subject discipline and commitment to its practical expression make our recipient an exemplar of the craft of teaching. Nurturing the goodness and self-belief of students is our recipient’s focus. Hard work and generous service, humility and patience, insight and creativity, are the traits of our recipient about whom St Marcellin would say, it is their “love, faith and purity of heart that is read by their students”, and by teaching colleagues as well I might add, and which is what make them the most effective of witnesses to the Marist way of making Jesus known and loved. We are very pleased then to present the 2022 Champagnat Award for Staff to Mrs Christine Larsen. 

Presenter: Michael Newman – Head of College

In thinking about what I might write about our third Champagnat Award recipient made to a Year 12 student I went to the College website and to Mr Newman’s welcome to new Parents page. There I found these words: “We challenge young men to live lives where Marist values are lived, not just spoken……..we strive to work with parents and the community to build confident and capable young men of strong character with gentle hearts and with a willingness to make a positive contribution in our church and our world”. Here it seemed to me was incontrovertible evidence that in the case of our Year 12 awardee, the College in partnership with family and community, had achieved exactly what it is we say we set out to do. As is sometimes the experience of boys who come into a large secondary school from a small primary school, life can have its challenges. And so it was for our recipient. Over his time here though a great many people have been impressed with our recipient’s steadfast and enduring nature, his persistence, his growing confidence in his own self, his embrace of Marist values and willingness to live these out. Through sheer hard work, strength of character and striving for personal best outcomes our recipient has come to Year 12 as one of the best known and respected young men. Respected for being true to himself, for his support of and empathy for others, for his perceptive nature. Above all, this young man is unfailingly positive and constructive, wanting always to make a mark and always for the better. Commitment to the service of others in groups such as St Vincent De Paul and to his own Christian faith in each of his years here is evidence of a generous and self-sacrificial nature. As a teacher and I know I speak for many other staff here as well, it has been a wonderful thing to witness our recipient’s journey to manhood and maturity, to see the confident, capable young man of strong character and gentle heart that we hope to see emerge in all our students. Making the most of what we have, doing good quietly, living the virtues of humility, simplicity and modesty, and becoming “good citizens and good Christians” to use Marcellin’s words, are all in some way expressed by our Year 12 Champagnat Awardee for 2022, Jack Christensen.

Special award to Mr Luke McMahon. 

Presenter: Michael Newman, Read by Br Jeff Barrington. 

In this particular year we have an additional award to present. It will come as no surprise to the gathered community but perhaps, we hope, to the awardee who by nature would never look for such an award. 

In this staff member we have a person of deep faith, firmly committed to following Jesus Christ in the way of Mary. 

This recipient has been an important communicator of the ideals of Marist Education and how it can make a difference to the way we live our lives. This message is a steadfast and constant presence to all in this College and has been for the last 26 years. 

While the staff member joined the Ashgrove staff 26 years ago this in no way reflects the lifetime of commitment and service, dedication and faith in the Marist way of living. The recipient has lived and worked within Marist life in Mittagong, St Greg’s, Campbelltown, St Joseph’s Hunters Hill, Trinity College Beenleigh, St Augustine’s College, Cairns to name some but for us here at Ashgrove for all of the time since our awardee has been at the College he has been an epi-centre of College organisation and decision-making. 

In the role at Marist College Ashgrove this recipient has encouraged, animated and sustained the Mission of the College – to make Jesus known and loved. This is his mantra – this is his vocation. 

Apart from the role as Religious Education and Study of Religion teacher this staff member has overseen the introduction of a number of programs and initiatives to engage the parents, staff and students in social justice and faith-based activities. Working tirelessly with the St Vincent de Paul group of the College many years of sleep outs have happened because of this dedication. With the introduction of the Sony Camp for children with Disability many lives of students, staff and families have changed forever. And these are just examples of the many activities and initiatives that can be credited to our awardee. 

This awardee animates the celebration of all liturgical occasions and celebrations at the College, today, for example, with the voice and the presence that comforts, supports and sustains this community in significant occasions of this very nature. He oversees and delivers professional development for staff and is mentor to many. 

The co-ordination of the fund and awareness raising activities of the College happens because of the wisdom and thought given to the needs of others by this recipient.

Traits of deep spirituality and reflection make him an invaluable member of the leadership of the College. All this is done with a deep sense of humility and humour.

For those that know the awardee well, it will come as no surprise that the Gospel story that captures the heart and animates the work of this recipient is the story of The Road to Emmaus, the heart of the Resurrection story. Seeing, knowing, walking with the resurrected Christ into the world with strength and gentleness, with faith and joy. 

Our recipient has done this for our College and will continue to live his life as this role model of Christ life but as a Marist – known and loved and in so knowing making Jesus known and loved to others. 

Without surprise – our additional award for 2022 goes to Mr Luke McMahon.

Chaplain’s Corner 

Reflection for Friday 10 June, Week 10 of Ordinary time. One detail that connects today’s two different readings is the presence of a mountain. In the first reading, Elijah is on the run from his enemies and goes to Mount Horeb. In the Gospel, Jesus teaches about the sanctity of marriage on the Mount of the Beatitudes. Both mountains are places of powerful teaching.

Elijah’s victory over the pagan priests of Baal angered Queen Jezebel. She is hunting him down and Elijah, in flight for his life, goes to Mount Horeb to seek God’s revelation and protection. He awaits God’s Word. In this famous scene, God’s Word is not in the earthquake, fire or storm but in the small breeze. That is how most of us receive God’s Word, in the quiet moments.

God tells Elijah to go back, anoint the next king as well as a successor to himself. In other words, deal with the present but prepare for a different future. That can apply to all of us in so many different ways. We may have to deal with a present we profoundly dislike, but we should prepare for a different future.

In the Gospel reading, Jesus teaches us about fidelity in marriage. Our culture has dramatically fallen away from the Gospel teaching about fidelity and the sacredness of sexuality. The message given to Elijah applies here as well. Deal with the present but prepare for a different future. We certainly need to speak about what is wrong in our culture today. But we also need to be as active in teaching the next generation about the holiness of marriage, sexuality and fidelity.

What do our words and example say to our children and grandchildren about commitments and the sanctity of marriage? Simply lamenting the present is a dead end. We must hold up the vision of a different tomorrow. We need to sow seeds of a different future in our life and in our culture.

That is one message of the two mountains. Deal with the present but prepare for, sow the seeds of a different future.

Mary, our Good Mother, pray for us.

St. Marcellin Champagnat, pray for us.

St. Mary of the Cross, pray for us.

And may we always remember to pray for one another.