Faith, Mission and Learning

With this weekend our Advent journey is approaching the end, next Sunday is Christmas. This is such a busy time of year, with preparations for Christmas and the holidays in full swing. There is also the need to reflect on the year that has been, the successes and the achievements, the growth and development and the struggles and disappointments. And there are the dreams and hopes of a New Year. I hope and pray for each one of us we are able to rejoice in the many times this year when we have felt God’s presence or grace in our lives and to open ourselves up to an even greater extent to what God is asking of us into 2023. We are about to celebrate the birth of Jesus some 2000 years ago, the presence of Christ in our hearts and world and to hope for the Second Coming at Christmas. The Gospel for this Fourth Sunday of Advent is Matthew’s account of the birth of Jesus. Interestingly, it does not give an account of the birth of Jesus, rather it focuses on Joseph and how perilously close he came to rejecting Mary, but in the end Joseph accepted God’s will and just like Mary said yes to God. The story of Jesus would have been radically different if Joseph had gone through with his decision to informally divorce Mary but God spoke to Joseph in a dream and Joseph did what God asked of him. For each one of us, we like Joseph, make decisions every single day, some big decisions, some small or seemingly insignificant ones. How open are we to God’s will in those decisions?

Because God dwells in us, then it is possible to ‘know’ God’s will but it this is not easy or automatic, we need to discern. St Ignatius of Loyola discovered that it was not about discerning which decision felt good or bad to a person but in differentiating between good feelings. How profound, how long lasting is our sense of satisfaction, peace, or happiness when we are making a decision? The direction that gives us a deeper or longer lasting feeling of ‘happiness’ is the one God is calling us to choose. Once we start using such criteria, it becomes easier and faster to know God’s will. But another element to consider is that this cannot be a stand alone process. God’s will cannot be towards something that is evil or selfish, so we have to be striving to be humble, to be of service to those around us, to take up our cross every day and to be praying. Let us be open to God’s will in our lives and be assured of my prayers for you, for all those you love and who love you at this special time of year.

Fr. Kevin Redmond

From the Director of Faith, Mission & Learning

From the Leader of Faith, Mission & Learning

There was standing room only at St Andrew’s first Faith Friday youth group which was a roaring success. The students, led by Miss Tan, engaged in fellowship, ice breaker games, listened to music, ate pizza and discussed the question, “Why is Faith important”? Thank you to all the students who participated along with Miss Tan, Mr Ison, and Mr Hoare who provided pizza.

Faith Fridays will continue each Friday till the end of term, at lunchtime in the Drama room. 

Our youth group has also begun on the Senior Campus, on Wednesday’s at recess in the hall.

 All are welcome.

Andrew Hoare
Leader of Faith, Mission & Learning.

Australian Catholic Bishops Conference

On Tuesday the 18th of October- Mr Ison , Mr Clarke, Makoi, Youssef, Alexandra and Irish participated in the official school launch of the Australian Catholics Bishops Conference Social Justice statement. The level of respect and gratitude that these students showed on the day of the conference and how they represented our college should be commended. The Social Justice statement is called Respect. The following is the transcript from the assembly. 

Makoi:

Alexandra, Youssef and I had the opportunity to be a part of the Catholic Bishops Conference - Social Statement Launch in the JNR conference room. We were joined by other catholic schools via zoom such as St Pauls Catholic College, St John Paul II Catholic College, Catherine McAuley and St  Columba's to name a few. Every year the Australian Catholic Bishops release a statement that reflects the current social, economic, and ecological issues and encourage school communities to turn this into actions. This year's statement mainly focused on understanding that domestic violence and abuse is not only a one-person matter but also a social justice issue. It challenged us to educate ourselves about domestic abuse, and ways we can bring awareness inside our own community. 

Youssef:

As Makoi has stated, domestic violence is not an individual matter, but more so a social justice issue. Domestic violence can come in the forms of emotional, spiritual, financial or even physical violence and can affect anyone. Women and children are the most common victims of domestic violence, as every 1 in 4 women is assumed to be suffering some sort of domestic violence. These statistics aren't just to say men do not suffer as well though, as for every 6 males, 1 of them is assumed to be going through some form of domestic violence. 

Alexandra:

Building on from what Youssef has stated, 1 in 4 women and 1 in 6 men is a pretty low number, meaning that people right here within our St. Andrew’s Community could be going through Domestic Violence and we wouldn’t even be aware. Moving Forward from this conference, we encourage you all to speak out about the problem and raise awareness throughout the college community about Domestic Violence as us as staff and students should have the right to feel safe within our community. We would also like everyone here to know that we are able to emotionally support you and are able to talk to anyone here about any problems you may have with domestic violence, whether it be our school counsellor, teachers, peers, or even us. As mentioned in the conference, we should all be treating one another with love and respect.