Mission Report – October 12, 2017

Welcome back to the joy and adventures of Term 4, 2017. Though every term has its own routines and patterns we must remember that each year is a unique and unrepeatable experience. The long serving staff that are very familiar with what will occur over the next weeks are renewed and invigorated by the knowledge that for the students it is all new and exciting. VCE exams will take place once again, but for the tribe of 2017 it is all a new world. Year 7 students are now experienced campaigners but these coming weeks will be still full of unexpected opportunities. This mixture of routine, ritual and renewal is an essential source of life for St Patrick’s College.

It is no accident that religions are so steeped in ritual. As a community that asks the questions of ultimate value and final meaning, the importance of those repeated words and actions is irreplaceable. They allow us to enter into the depth of life. Just as preparation for an exam requires effort and repetition so too the great drama of life requires us to enter into the depth of the moment and not just quickly pass from one moment to another. It is through effort and repetition, where we try and fail but try once again, that forms us into the type of person who can recognise truth, goodness and beauty. A mark of the life that is lived in love is that we will never stop in our efforts to serve those we love, and happily repeat the words and actions that communicate our love.-

This is what is happening in all the invitations to Mass and prayer that we offer here at College. There is an unbroken continuity between the path to success as a school and the path to eternal and perfect love in God. One is always a gateway to the perfection of the other, because they find unity in the depth of our hearts that are constantly seeking God who is Perfect Love: Saint Augustine states -You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.-

May our routines this term bring us renewed life, love and joy.