Living with Strength and Kindliness
I saw an angel in the marble and I carved until I set him free. – Michelangelo
I was sorting through some files on my computer last week and it never ceases to amaze what I have kept over time.
I came across a story about the sculptor Michelangelo. It made me think about the excitement here at the College as we prepare to farewell our Year 12 students this coming Friday, as we announce our Year 12 Leaders for 2021 and as we prepare for the election of our Year 10 and Year 8 Student House Leaders for next year.
I will share the story with you here.
Being able to see the potential in others is about seeing people not just as they are but as they could be. It includes the ability to see in people what they may not even see in themselves. It is a great gift that God can give to a leader that they can discern the potential in others even before anyone else has seen it.
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarotti Simoni was one of the greatest sculptors of all time. You probably know his work; ‘The Statue of David’ and ‘The Pieta’ are two of the most famous. You perhaps also know that he painted the walls and the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. He lived during the 16th century. Michelangelo is renowned as an artist, an architect and a sculptor but historical records show that he thought of himself mainly as a sculptor.
Memoirs of Michelangelo’s life and work say that he often saw potential in things that others did not. On one occasion he was seen to be studying, in great depth what others saw as simply a big block of marble. When someone asked him what he was doing he told them that he was looking closely at the marble to study its grain and to see where its strengths may lay. He then went on to say that he could see that an angel had been imprisoned in the marble and he was looking for a way to set it free. Then, using his craftmanship, he went on to carve a beautiful angel out of that stone.
In thinking about it, we each have the great gift from God to seek the angel in the marble in our encounters with one another each and every day. There is greatness inside each one of us; it just needs to be carved out.
Best wishes to our Year 12 students who have shown great strength and resilience in 2020. They have faced many challenges and yet they have been able to navigate a strong path to the end of the years of compulsory schooling. Thanks for being great role models and leaders for our College community in 2020.
Congratulations to our Year 11 students who have been given the honour of becoming our Year 12 Student House Leaders for 2021. There was an awesome field of candidates who put their hands up for these important student leadership roles. It was a very difficult process for our House Leaders to choose only two students to lead them in the coming school year.
If you have a young person in Year 8 or Year 10 who may be interested in putting their hand up for one of our middle or junior leader positions for 2021 please encourage them to do so. The application process will commence on the 7th November – information will be delivered to students via SIMON and through House Assemblies.
“But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)
Kirrilee Westblade
Catholic Identity Leader
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