Faith, Justice and Formation 

Prayers for Year 12

As Year 12 commenced their final assessments yesterday, the whole community was and continues to be behind them. Year 7, in particular, are keeping them in their prayers and have sent messages of support.  Below is a prayer dedicated especially to Year 12 at St Patrick’s College that all of us can use.  Good luck and God bless Gents!

National Call to Prayer

All Christians have been called to a focus on prayer from 16 - 22 August for the health crisis. This link will take you to an article explaining the initiative and contains a link to the National Day of Prayer and Fasting on 22 August - CathNews - Christians called to pray for those affected by pandemic.

I commend this to you as prayer is often the only real thing we can do in times like those we are experiencing now. Time and again, we see the power of communal prayer, so please do not discount it – you have nothing to lose from it. As is often said, prayer can only bring you peace and hope.

St Patrick's College Celebration of Fathers’ Day

While we sadly cannot gather in person, we can gather online to celebrate our fathers and father figures. For your forward planning, the Friday Morning Liturgy on Friday 3 September will be dedicated to Father’s Day. We hope that as many boys as possible and their dads hop online to celebrate together.

The Liturgy will commence at 8:00 am instead of 8:15 am and will conclude at 8:35 am.  It will allow you to have some time together, to reflect on your relationship, and to look at the role of fathers in the lives of their sons. All are still welcome to join the liturgy.

Please use the link below to join:  

Join on your computer or mobile app 

Click here to join the meeting

Gillian Daley

Director of Identity

Keeping our Faith in Difficult Times

"Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you." (Psalm 33:22)

It is no secret that many of us have been feeling a sense of uncertainty, anxiety, and concern during this ongoing lockdown. For some of our boys, it is the uncertainty of their return to school and a normal life. For others it may be centred around their academic progress during this extended period of remote learning; a period that they were not anticipating and were somewhat blindsided by. Amongst the adults in our extended community, the sources of these concerns are countless – the wellbeing of the boys, other children and family members, work situations, financial stress, nervousness about the seemingly endless lockdown period. 

Whilst it is so easy to keep listing examples of points that are causing us this anxiety and apprehension, it is in these moments that we should be turning to our faith most. These difficult times prove to us that God’s grace and love can be exhibited in the smallest of moments in the day - we must make time to be able to see these and acknowledge them.

The Faith in Action Team has recently reunited, albeit in a virtual forum, and the team would love to collate some images of our community’s prayer spaces at home to keep our faith alive at this time. This could be a small altar in a bedroom, a dedicated space in a living area or even outside. Any dedicated, prayerful or holy space that contains a crucifix, statue, holy images, candles, rosary beads and/or the bible that is special to your family. We hope that through sharing our precious spaces, we can be reminded and comforted by the power of prayer and reflection during these testing times.

If you would like to share your beautiful prayer spaces with us and be a part of the final collated project, please send through a photo to katherine.sinadinos@spc.nsw.edu.au, including your name or your son’s name and their class/homeroom group.

The Faith in Action Team thanks you in advance for sharing your prayer spaces with us! 

Katherine Sinadinos

Faith in Action Team Leader