Principal's Message

Br Garry Coyte

The recent tragedy of MH 17 where 100's of lives have been lost in a moment of madness has touched many of us. It is hard to comprehend how such devastation is allowed to happen. When we look at the situation in Israel and Syria we are again faced by destruction and the senseless inhumanity of person to person. Do these things occur because of greed, the desire for territory or wealth or possibly cultural differences. The answer lies somewhere on the horizon. However, in these difficult moments I am led to reflect more on the question as to how I respect myself as a person and how I give respect to another. Do I value the “sacredness’ of my own body, as gift given, from my parents and my God? Do I take pride in how I present myself to others in dress, language and in general overall presentation? Do I respect the sacredness of the other person with their many and varied differences. For me these are important questions and the answer somewhere lies in that word ‘sacred’. Something which is sacred is not touched or abused but is revered and held up to all to admire and respect. It is something which seems separate to our world but very much a part of it. The challenge in these difficult times I think is to rekindle our thoughts as to what is sacred and holy and to respect it. It needs to be held gently in our hands and not destroyed. These difficult times remind me to respect the body that is God given and that given to another. We are given a wonderful variety of persons which we need to honour and uphold. If we can develop this attitude in our small world perhaps it may over flow to a large world and we have less wilful and senseless destruction.

I often think of the words of a good friend of mine who was separated from his wife, didn’t practice his religion but was clearly able to say, that he would never doubt the existence of God because in that sacred moment of the birth of his first child he experienced the sacred and understood that God existed. In these difficult times let each of us rediscover the sacred.