From the College Principal

Newsletter 10 2025

Dear Members of the St Andrews College Community,

As we conclude Term 2, I look back on the many learning opportunities that have been taken on by the community. This time last Term, we ventured overseas for a History Immersion to Italy and Germany, not knowing that we would visit the Vatican a week before the passing of beloved Pope Francis. We concluded last week a very successful Debating season again with what some would say was an unlucky loss for our Year 10A team, our Year 12 students are busily concluding their major works, and we had a most successful Unity Day last Friday. I have been fortunate enough to see most of the major works already and interact with the students on their processes and journeys. The standard is excellent, and with the finishing touches being made over the coming weeks, I expect to see some excellent results in the Higher School Certificate again this year.

Have a restful and safe holiday period, and I look forward to seeing you all in Term 3.

Gospel Reflection:
Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

You may have heard of a woman called Helen Keller. She was born in the U.S. towards the end of the 19th century, and she lived until the 1960s. In the first months of her life, she fell ill, as a result of which she was left without hearing or sight for the rest of her life. Her speech was also severely impaired. Yet, with the help of a number of gifted people, including a woman called Ann Sullivan, Helen went on to become a great communicator. Anne worked hard to get Helen to identify objects she could touch by tracing the name of the object on Helen’s hand, for example, pouring water on her hands and then tracing the word ‘water’ on the back of her hand. Eventually, Helen began to build up a vocabulary in her head. She made great efforts to learn to speak, but her speech never really improved beyond the sounds that only Anne and others very close to her could understand. Yet, Helen went on to write several books with Anne’s help. After she time spent at College, she went on lecture tours, speaking of her experiences and beliefs to enthralled crowds, with Anne interpreting what she said, sentence by sentence.

Helen was once asked: ‘If you had only one wish granted, what would you ask for?’ Everyone believed that she would ask for the gift of sight or hearing for herself. Instead, she replied simply, ‘I would ask for world peace’. Her answer reveals a woman who was anything but self-absorbed. Given the restrictions under which she lived, she had good reason to be self-absorbed. Yet, her vision and concerns obviously went far beyond herself. She wanted not so much for herself but for others, especially for those who were suffering the effects of war and hostility.

The question, ‘If you had only one wish granted, what would you ask for?’ is one that has the potential to be very revealing. The way we answer that question can reveal a lot about us. It’s a question that makes us reflect on what it is that really matters to us, what it is we value most deeply. I am reminded of the question that Jesus asked the disciples James and John, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ Another version of that question might be, ‘What is your deepest prayer?’ On that occasion, the prayer of James and John was a rather self-centred one. They prayed, ‘Lord, grant us to sit, one at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom’. In this morning’s gospel reading, Jesus suggests a more appropriate prayer for his followers. He calls on the seventy-two to ask the Lord of the harvest to send labourers into his harvest.

Jesus suggests that an appropriate answer to the question, ‘What is your one wish?’ is that the Lord’s harvest be gathered in, that the Lord’s work be done. Indeed, that is what we ask for at the beginning of the Lord’s Prayer, when we pray: ‘Your kingdom come, your will be done’. Jesus once said to his disciples, ‘Seek first the kingdom of God’. For disciples of Jesus, the coming of God’s kingdom is to be their primary wish, their deepest prayer. Helen Keller’s wish for world peace is one expression of the prayer, ‘Thy kingdom come’. Peace, harmony, and reconciliation between those who are estranged and hostile to each other is one of the signs of the presence of God’s kingdom. When Jesus sent out the seventy-two on mission, he told them that, on entering a house, they were to say: ’Peace to this house’, and ‘The kingdom of God is very near to you’. The vision of peace flowing like a river towards Jerusalem, in today’s first reading, is an image of God’s kingdom. In contrast, the murder and mayhem that is happening in certain parts of the world today, such as in Iraq and Sudan, suggest the absence of God’s kingdom.

The gospels, the church’s teaching, and past and present experience remind us strongly that there can be no peace without justice. When we pray, ‘Your kingdom come’, we are asking not only for the coming of God’s peace but, more fundamentally, for the coming of God’s justice. Those who are labouring in the Lord’s harvest will always be labouring for a peace that is the fruit of justice. That work of justice is referred to in the gospel reading when Jesus calls on the seventy-two to cure those who are sick. God’s justice shows itself when the broken are made whole again, when, in that striking image of the first reading, people’s bones flourish like grass and their hearts rejoice, or, in the words of Paul in the second reading, when we become altogether new creatures.

The gospel reading suggests that we each have a role to play in bringing about God’s justice and peace. We are all invited to belong among the seventy-two labourers that the Lord sent out. Someone like Ann Sullivan showed herself to be such a labourer. Her presence to Helen Keller allowed Helen's bones to flourish and her heart to rejoice. Her involvement with Helen enabled her to become an altogether new creature, a new creation. Each of us, in our own way, can have such a role in the life of others. Whenever our presence to others allows them to flourish as God intends them to, then indeed the kingdom of God is drawing near through us. As we ask the Lord of the harvest to send labourers into his harvest, we also make ourselves available as labourers in that harvest. We invite the Lord to work through us in healing and life-giving ways, so that his justice and peace can take deeper roots in our midst.

Australian Catholic University Step Up Into Teaching Program:

We wish the following students the very best in their application to join the program. We are most fortunate to have excellent teachers here at St Andrews College. It is our commitment to ensure we also provide an environment where some of our finest students see teaching as a profession where they can make a significant difference to the lives of our young.

Chloe Bax, Jerome Chin and Cayden Landrigan

Sport Representation:

Congratulations to Hayden Straub on making it to the CCC level for Cross Country. We wish him the very best at this elite level.

Parent/Teacher/Student Meetings:

Thank you to all parents, students and staff for your attendance at the meetings to conclude Semester 1 learning. We did have a number of staff who had succumbed to illness as well as a number on leave, and the expectation is that they will make contact with you if you had made bookings.

Fidem in Christo

Dr Stephen Kennaugh
Principal