Director of Mission
Welcome to Mission news for Week 7!
A big congratulations to our Director of Mission Heath Neville and his wife Simone on the safe arrival of their beautiful boy Hunter!
During the last few weeks we have acknowledged the feast days of two of our House Saints, St. Brendan and St. Marcellin, whose feasts fall on the 16th May and 6th June respectively. As part of an initiative to improve awareness to the House groups and their Saints, House Captains along with their House Teacher organise fun activities or challenges for the College around the Saints feast date. Below Sam Rizzeri, House Leader of Brendan, will describe Brendans competition and announce the winner. In our next newsletter the Marcellin competition will be outlined and the winners announced.
In Week 10, our college community will acknowledge NAIDOC week. Through our Aboriginal Schools and Community Worker, Lorelei Wray, we have organised a few different events that will assist our community to gain a better understanding of NAIDOC. Due to covid restrictions, our national celebrations have been postponed, so an official poster has not been issued yet. Subsequently, we are inviting students to enter a competition to design our very own MCC NAIDOC poster based on the 2020 theme “Always Was, Always Will Be”. All students are invited to submit entries and the winning entry will be used to promote NAIDOC week throughout the College for the last week of term. Please see the competition poster for further details.
To conclude, I would like to offer the poem Footprints in the Sand. This poem has become an inspiration for many in difficult times or at times when inner strength and courage is needed. I thought it would be comforting for our community to revisit these beautiful words. In particular, to remind us that our God is always present – He mourns with us; He welcomes us all with love and He gives comfort and strength when we are most in need.
One night I dreamed a dream.
As I was walking along the beach with my Lord.
Across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life.
For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand,
One belonging to me and one to my Lord.
After the last scene of my life flashed before me,
I looked back at thefootprints in the sand.
I noticed that at many times along the path of my life,
especially at the very lowest and saddest times,
there was only one set of footprints.
This really troubled me, so I asked the Lord about it.
"Lord, you said once I decided to follow you,
You'd walk with me all the way.
But I noticed that during the saddest and most troublesome times of my life,
there was only one set of footprints.
I don't understand why, when I needed You the most,
You would leave me."
He whispered,
"My precious child, I love you and will never leave you
Never, ever, during your trials and testings.
When you saw only one set of footprints,
It was then that I carried you."
Belinda Aventi
Acting Director of Mission
Brendan Feast Day Competition
On the 16th of May we celebrate Brendan Feast Day. St Brendan of Clonfert was known by many names, one being Brendan the Bold. In light of that, we have adopted this name to not only commemorate our House Saint, but also to champion and typify our Brendan House members. Members of Brendan House are now known as THE BRENDAN LIONS, with our new slogan and motto, BRENDAN; BOLD & GOLD. Together with the Brendan captains we had a plethora of festivities planned for the special occasion, however it was not meant to be due to the recent COVID-19 restrictions. Instead, to celebrate our Brendan Feast Day we held a “COVID friendly” competition open to all students at Marian.
While undertaking online learning students were challenged to collect and photograph as many yellow or gold objects in their home. Simple right? Well our students (as well as
some staff) rose to the challenge and took it to the next level. Unfortunately, only one person could be crowned Brendan Feast Day champion, and it was Elise Munro in Year 7 a member of McAuley (Blue) House who won herself a $25 canteen voucher. Sadly she isn’t a member of Brendan House, but we don’t mind sharing some of the glory. Thank you to all our entrants for your participation and demonstration of fervent school spirit.
Until next time, God’s blessings to our Marian community and remember to Be BOLD & GOLD.
Sam Rizzeri
Brendan House Leader
