Mission Report – February 23, 2017

This week our College enjoys some of our annual events that bring us together. On Wednesday students enjoyed the sunshine and healthy competition of the swimming sports where chants and cheering were led by the Year 12 students. Many of the longer serving staff were a little confused by the weather because of our long tradition of enjoying a little rain at the swimming carnival. This Sunday is the great occasion of the Head of the Lake, where the unity of being a St Pat’s student is one key experience for all involved. Next Wednesday the Liturgical Season of Lent commences with our Ash Wednesday liturgy, where we will once again gather as a community. Lent is the time when we prepare to fully celebrate the great joy of Easter.

The need for trust between students and staff in the classroom, in our extra-curricular activities and in our common worship is the need for the relationships that create who we are. In these opportunities we share with one another the deepest desires of our heart for joy, community, tradition, friendship and love. Through these moments we are encouraged and sustained in our efforts to lead a good life.

The season of Lent is a time to nourish our religious friendships by sharing in the friendship of Jesus Christ. The common experiences of genuine friendship give us the hope that together we can build a better world. The trust and depth of friendship is the perfect place where we can be corrected when we have gone astray and need the wise and gentle word of a friend to set us back on the right path. Following Jesus is not a philosophical or ethical system, like a recipe to be followed, but a friendship with God that follows the same pattern of all our true friendships. In fact, it sets the horizon for all our life-giving friendships that we enjoy in this life. Our common joy in all the activities of the College is most profoundly an experience of Christ’s unity. We pray that our eyes of faith, lit by the joy of Easter, may be opened to see this gift in all we do.- –