Religious Education

Given the current global health crisis, the celebrations for Catholic Education Week have been subdued.

The annual St Patrick’s Mass for Schools, which is held at St Patrick’s Cathedral, has been postponed until later in the year. This annual celebration is a major event in the calendar of our Archdiocese and it is always a wonderful experience to share this occasion with students and staff from many Secondary and Primary schools of the Archdiocese. We have been invited to play a significant role in this year’s celebration given that in 2020, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of St James College.

The Year 8 students have spent time in Retreat, led spiritually and with a sense of fun, by our own Lasallian Youth Minister, Joel Harriss. These retreat days were also enhanced with the presence of a number of young men from Year 10 who worked as Lasallian Youth Leaders in order to offer practical guidance and assistance to the Year 8 students. My thanks go to Joel and all those Year 10 students, who demonstrated true Lasallian values and leadership as part of this retreat program.

Some of the young men of Year 9 had planned to spend time in St Patrick’s Cathedral participating in a liturgy which celebrated the completion of their unit, “Lasallian Service”. This program will now be catered for in small groups in our College Chapel. As part of this prayerful opportunity, the boys will be invited to share their own understanding of Lasallian Service. As each student shares his own experience, I will be looking forward to hearing them articulate the things they see as important in their lives.

Our special observance of the solemn season of Lent will also be commemorated with special Homeroom presentations of the Stations of the Cross Liturgy.

At St James College, we celebrate our Catholic Identity in a number of ways and in the coming weeks of Term 2, all our students will be still participating in prayer and meditation.

Large assemblies and of course, College Masses, will be put on hold until the health emergency abates.

I wish every family from our school community a safe, healthy and holy Easter break. In these extraordinary times, I pray that you may be able to gather together as a family and look after each other.

Martin Callanan

Religious Education Coordinator