Mission Report – October 20, 2016

Thanksgiving has been a key theme for this week. On Sunday night our Boarding Community celebrated the year and invited the departing Year 12 students to have hearts of thanks for the many gifts they have received from their family and their time at St Patrick’s College.- From our Mass celebrated Fr Rupert Bowd to the community dinner that followed, the joy of a community founded on the first gifts of a Loving God was experienced by all. We prayed the following grace together:

Loving God,

In your presence we recall the gift of community that is essential in boarding life.

We thank you for the gifts you have given the Boarding Community of St Patrick’s College this year.

We thank you, O Lord,

for the gentle spirits, who with unwearied patience

and a loving and patient heart, offered friendship to everyone.

We thank you for the timely smile, pleasant conversation, and respectful manners in the daily exchanges of boarding life. We thank you for the gift of forgiveness.

We thank you for the many staff who have offered bountiful food, clean rooms and wise advice. We thank you for those who have prepared the joyful gift of this evening.

We praise you for the love of our families.

Grant us always hearts that may give offence to none,

that will always offer the gift of your friendship to all,

and live in love with all people.

We make our prayer in the unity of the Holy Spirit, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

On Wednesday night the families of our entire Year 12 community gathered at St Patrick’s Cathedral to celebrate our annual Thanksgiving Mass. Led by our College Patron, Bishop Paul Bird, and our College Chaplain, Fr James Kerr, hearts were united and raised in praise for the many gifts we have received. Aa a community we prayed:

That the Universal Church may continue to offer Christ’s message of hope, peace and justice to a world wearied by conflict.

– That all peoples may recognise the loving Father who created them and so be united by bonds of family, love and friendship.

That we will always give thanks to God for gifts we have received and respond in our generosity to others.

That we may receive the love of God in all its living power, so that we may be free from the slavery of selfishness, anger, and pride.

That all in the community of St Patrick’s College may be united in love and motivated to share our faith, hope and joy.

That all those in our community who have died find their peace in the risen Lord. May their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

In our prayers we unite to raise our hearts to God, and doing so open ourselves to be perfected in love in all that we do. That is worth giving thanks for.