Principals Report
LENT IS HERE!
This week, the College celebrated Shrove Tuesday with a number of events including a staff-v-students match and the selling and consumption of Pancakes. Wednesday was obviously much more sombre as students took part in a liturgy and received ashes on Ash Wednesday, the official commencement of the Church’s season of Lent.
Lent is an important time in which we can reflect on turning back to the Lord and be the best people that we can be.
At the recent Opening Mass, I reflected on the messages that the Season of Lent gives us, and I spoke about the importance of self-discipline, prayer, fasting and almsgiving. All of these serve as a form of penance and we ‘make penance’ in memory of the passion and death of the Lord; as a sharing in Christ’s suffering; as an expression of inner conversion and as a form of reparation for sin.
A number of things have changed since I was a boy in terms of how Penance can be observed but I have included here the latest “penitential obligations over Lent” for you to consider:
CARITAS AND CARITAS LAUNCH
Our College has a strong tradition of supporting works of charity and it was only fitting that our student Justice and Mercy Councillors and students were involved on Tuesday in the initial events to raise money for CARITAS.
The 2020 CARITAS theme is: “go further together” and, accordingly, this year funds will continue to support social justice and goodwill programs abroad - to support those in need.
At the most recent College Assembly our Justice and Mercy Councillors outlined where and who our fundraising efforts would go towards and therefore I encourage all students to help out wherever they can.
The Bishop and our Year 10 SRC (Reece Smit, Skye Peterson, Mia Warby & Jye Versteeg)
Thank you to Mr Collins and Mrs Forner for being present and taking our Year 10 SRC students to the Diocesan Caritas Launch last Tuesday.
The launch officially marked the commencement of the Diocesan Appeal to support CARITAS. Both Bishop Brian and our new Director, Mr Peter Hill, spoke about the importance of reaching out to those in need – something which is identifiably Catholic.
WELCOME DINNER
Last night I had the pleasure of attending the Diocesan Welcome Dinner for staff either new to teaching or new to the Diocese of Wollongong.
Key staff from CEO Wollongong spoke on the night and it certainly was a warm welcome for all of our new Magdalene staff who have recently joined us.
PRAYER
The following daily Lenten Prayer is from the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference and focuses on the notion of personal choice as to how we can act throughout Lent.
Daily Lenten Prayer
Today Lord, I choose life,
I choose your love and the challenge to live it and share it,
I choose hope, even in moments of darkness,
I choose faith, accepting you as Lord and God,
I choose to let go of some part of my burdens,
day by day handing them over to you,
I choose to take hold of your strength and power ever more deeply in my life.
May this truly be for me a time of new life, of change, challenge and growth.
May I come to Easter with a heart open to dying with you
and rising to your new life, day by day.
AMEN