Year 12 (2023) Commitment Mass

Last Wednesday, our Year 12 class of 2023 was led by Fr Jomer in celebrating their Commitment Mass. Our College Leadership team, teachers and support staff joined students as they made their commitment to their final year of schooling at Mater Dei Catholic College.

Our students contemplated their roles as ‘servant leaders’ in the areas of academic learning, faith and care, sport, culture and the arts along with their commitment to their relationships with family members, their peers and the College community. They reflected on the love God has for each one of us, along with the abiding love modelled by Mary, our College Patron.

At the conclusion of the Eucharistic Liturgy, our students declared their commitment to leadership and service to the Mater Dei Community, over the coming year.

Lord,

Be with us on our journey this year through Year 12.

We pray for Discipline, Wisdom, Patience, and Understanding.

Help us to grow our hearts and minds

as we face the challenges of each new day.

Send your spirit to guide us as leaders in our school community.

May we be supportive of our family and friends.

Mater Dei, Mother of God,

just as you nurtured Jesus in his life,

so nurture us in ours.

Through Mary, our mother,

Amen.

Year 8 and Year 10 Reflection Days

On Monday and Tuesday this week, our Year 8 and 10 students participated in their Reflection Days, run by Your Choicez. Students engaged in these sessions as gender based workshops, which allowed the diverse material to be shared in a most respectful and supportive manner.

Your Choicez resources are developed through the lens of Catholic - Christian Worldview and are presented in such a way to provide deep insight and moral guidance for our young people. This program supports students to engage in healthy relationships in the future that prioritise respect and love.

Empowering young people to understand the gravity of the decisions they make online and helping teens to navigate the digital world, considering how their decisions an affect both their current and future relationships.

Catholic Mission Month - Socktober

This year our school is partnering with Catholic Mission by participating in Socktober. We invite you to learn about how young people in Ethiopia are experiencing challenges associated with food security; gaining insights into how supply chain management and farming education is supporting local families. In a place where 37% of children experience stunted growth and 50% of childhood deaths are linked to malnutrition, the improvement of these issues is essential.

Please view this short video to learn more about the ways we are partnering with the Catholic Church in Ethiopia.

“We must restore hope to young people, help the old, be open to the future, spread love. Be poor among the poor. We need to include the excluded and preach peace.” - Pope Francis, 2020

In Homegroups during October, our students will continue to learn about the positive and sustainable strategies being utilised at the Deberety Farm in Ethiopia and how these are helping families like Neela and her baby Ajani.

We are lucky to have nutritious food, healthcare and education in Australia, so it is important for us to be able to reach out and support families in Ethiopia to access these things too.

This initiative allows us as a community to make a contribution to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals which form part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future.

Next Friday, 28 October, our Student Representative Council will host a mufti sock day and cake stall to contribute to the Catholic Mission - Socktober initiative. Year 7 Religious Education classes over the coming weeks are also getting creative, crafting their very own sock ball for the annual soccer shoot-out on the oval.

As a school community, our students, teachers and families can contribute in a real and practical way, by participating in our school based activities and engaging in online fundraising, via the Socktober Website. I invite parents / carers to take a moment to register your child/family. Setting up your own fundraising page takes only a few minutes. Please visit this link, and click the green 'sign up' button. Your own fundraising page will then be linked to our Community Page, so we can tally our collective efforts.

Pope Francis teaches us that evangelising is living a life of selfless love and service to others, reflecting the example of Jesus in all that we do and say:

“In evangelization, then, the example of a Christian life and the proclamation of Christ are inseparable. One is at the service of the other. They are the two lungs with which any community must breathe, if it is to be missionary.”

Jesus’ mission field stretches from his abiding spirit through to our hearts, to our families, to our local community, to our workplaces and schools, through “to the ends of the earth”. Constant prayer to enlist the power of the Holy Spirit and practical support (through fund-raising ventures and the promotion of awareness) are valuable strategies to equip each of us to become “witnesses” to the Word.

“May the Holy Spirit infuse our daily lives with this sense of mission.” Acts 1: 8

Let us pray…

Provident God,

you lovingly hold us all in the palm of your hands.

Inspire us to be people of mission, sharing you with others, not only in what we say,

but also in the way we live each day.

May God work within our faith community to make us authentic people of mission, witnessing to the Gospel in words, and reflecting it in our actions of generosity and care towards each other

and to people near and far.

May Christ walk with Christians who witness in difficult and demanding settings, to encourage and protect them and the people with whom they share the Gospel.

May the Holy Spirit continue to transform the lives of all people, as the words and actions of Jesus are revealed to us through various initiatives of mission.

We ask this in the name of Jesus, whose example you call us to follow. Amen

Thank you for your support of this valuable initiative by Catholic Mission to support global inequality, encouraging our children to be socially aware and act for justice!

Mrs Amelia Bright | Acting Leader of Mission

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