Social Justice & Youth Ministry

• Social Justice
• -  Collection of toiletries and new non-battery small toys for Treasure House Orphanage in Fiji
• Youth Ministry
• -  Year of Youth Cross
• -  Year of Youth Prayer
• -  Praise and Worship event: SPREADING JOY! 29th June from 7pm in OLD church
• -  Pilgrimage Cross Walk this Saturday

Treasure House Orphanage Fiji Collection

The Edmund Rice Society is running a collection of toiletries and new non-battery small toys to donate to Treasure House Orphanage in Nadi, Fiji. These gifts will be taken to the orphanage by my wife and myself in the holidays as we spend a day with the children and staff of Treasure House.

Please place donations in the Edmund Rice Society collection box in the foyer during this week only.  I will share photos of the visit with you all next term.

Photo:  Members of the Edmund Rice Society Bailey Sutton, Matthew Starr and David Butler purchasing  toys to the value of $215 to donate to Treasure House Orphanage Fiji. The money was donated by the Edmund Rice Society through their chocolate stall sales.

Thank you.

Mr David Blake – Social Justice Coordinator

Youth Ministry

This week we are hosting the Broken Bay Diocese Year of Youth Cross at Chatswood Parish.  The Cross is making its way around the Diocese to parishes, schools and communities where it may remind all, and especially the St Pius X College Community, that Christ calls us to open new horizons to adventure, to joy and to a life of fulfilment.

The journey of this Cross marks in a significant way the 2018 Year of Youth in the Australian Catholic Church, a commemorative year instigated and supported by the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference. The Year of Youth was launched at the ACYF last December, an amazing gathering of over 20,000 young Catholics from around the nation. St Pius X College was represented by our student attendees at the festival, with Samuel, Lachlan, Tim and James in Year 11 and Taylor in Year 10 having an integral and inspiring part by combining with Mercy College in the unfolding three part Mary of Now drama.

The Year of Youth prayer (on the Acting Principal's page of this newsletter) asks for the Holy Spirit to inspire us and to fill us with hope, love and creativity; to be courageous, and for each of us to find God’s unique call to us in our hearts … our vocation … to let our light shine through our own unique gifts.

Find what your gift is, pour your spirit into it and contribute that gift back into community. Now is the time, whilst you are here at St Pius, for each student to try and find their gifts, to try different things and see what brings you joy … and it is most certainly the time to be giving fully of yourself back in to our College community.  Whether it be in sports, music, academia, outdoor education or in any one of the number of opportunities offered to you in this very special place, ‘get amongst it’ and ‘put in’ - leave your unique mark of participation on our St Pius X College community.

This week marks an ongoing invitation for our youth from Pope Francis, from the ACBC, from Chatswood Parish, from St Pius X College, and ultimately from Our Lord Jesus to live our lives in faith and hope and celebrate and share with one another as we find the JOY in our lives, remembering Pope Francis’s call “Your life is the greatest enterprise in the world, only you can stop it from going bust.” Only you can take control of growing and feeding your passion, your talents and skills and through developing these to open up a world of joy for yourself and those whom you encounter.

When we hold our College Masses and liturgies in Our Lady of Dolours Church, most of you would have noticed that there is a thirty foot canopy above our Altar. Inscribed on that Canopy are some ancient Latin words. In English it reads:  ‘And I will go to the altar of god, to God, the joy of my youth.’

I would like today to renew that invitation. I invite you all to the ever present choice of joy in your lives, and I invite you all to go to the Altar, to take up a part in the life of your church.  If you don’t know already, find out what is happening in your local parishes to celebrate the Year of Youth. Maybe you could find out when your local Youth Mass is on and go with a friend. Of course you will always be very welcome to our Youth Mass here at Chatswood at 5:30pm each Sunday.  We would love to see you - look for me and I will introduce you to Fr Jim and to our Acclaim Youth Group.  And you may just be enriched by the joy of belonging to a forward thinking faithful community.

A highlight of our celebrations this week will be on this Friday evening 29th June from 7pm in the church.  Students of all ages are welcome to our Praise and Worship night: ‘Spreading Joy’ which will be an amazing event; a fun and creative celebration of our faith through music and art, incorporating our senior drama students, again in collaboration with Mercy College, as they play out the theme of Joy. Open to all ages, it will be a fantastic evening with amazingly talented musicians, a real celebration of the Year of Youth.  Please consider joining us - come along and bring a few friends.  I guarantee there is no better way to start your holidays!  Details are in the flyer below.

This coming Saturday 30th June we will gather at the church from 10am and walk in solidarity with the Pilgrimage Cross to our local sister parish of Lower North Shore, St Thomas’s at Willoughby. You would all be most welcome at each of these events.

May God Bless our community and inspire us all with joy, consolation and uplift that faith in yourselves and in Christ brings. As students and staff of St Pius X College, may Jesus truly live in our hearts forever and may we always choose the path to joy in our lives, the path of participation and fulfilment in finding our place in life Through Faith and Hard Work.

Mr A Brannan - Youth Ministry Coordinator