From the Principal

Looking out for others

This evening will be a Presentation Night with a difference. We will have a face-to-face presence and will be joined by other members of our College community through live streaming. It has been that sort of year with flexibility and creativity being at the forefront.

Last weekend marked the end of the Church’s year and this weekend we begin a new year with Advent and the preparation for the coming of Jesus at Christmas. We have just celebrated the Feast of Christ the King and part of the message of that day is the presence of Jesus in the sick, the homeless, the oppressed and others requiring assistance.

I was forwarded a copy of Fr Tom Scirghi, S.J (Fordham University), reflection last weekend which included the beautiful story of an African American woman from last century. Fr Tom is a regular visitor to John XXIII College and his words are always meaningful.

The woman was a very kind-hearted woman living in the southern states of the where prejudice of various kinds was very evident.

She had a beautiful garden which was the envy of a very mean-spirited neighbour. The neighbour used to sneak over at night and dump manure from her chicken coop on to her neighbour’s garden.

Ultimately the mean neighbour got very sick. Because she was not very nice to people, she did not receive any visitors, so the African American woman decided to call in with a bunch of beautiful flowers grown from her garden.

The old woman asked, ‘how did you grow those flowers?’

She responded ‘that you helped me grow them. Every morning I would spread the manure that you dumped, and it was beautiful fertiliser for my garden’.

The old woman wept.

I shared this story with next year’s Year 12 Student Representative Council. It is a pretty good message for our young leaders to try turn bad situations into good.

Robert Henderson

Principal