Mission Report – June 11, 2015

Schools are very structured communities. We have timetables, bells, routines and repeated cycles that let us know where we should be and what we should be doing. With around 1600 souls to co-ordinate on a daily basis this is not surprising and is most likely essential. However, the trap is that we can withdraw from active participation in what we are doing and even forsake some of our freedom, as we drift from one day to the next, merely following routines. We can be busy in all these routines and perhaps not notice that our spark is growing dimmer. This is more often the case at the end of busy term -“ a busy semester.

So we welcome the approaching holidays and the break from routine for our students. We celebrate that moment in the morning when they pause over breakfast to think, -What will I do today?- This brief pause is a step towards enhancing a precious sense of freedom. For our students we hope that this freedom is used creatively and positively: perhaps some time working towards academic excellence, or catching up with that neglected friend. Perhaps even doing the job Mum and Dad set for them! Holidays offer the opportunity to experience the freedom that creates who we are through our choices and actions, and recognise that we are not ultimately determined by the safety net of familiar routines. Holidays are the space to re-commit again to what is truly worthwhile. –

Prayer is the perfection of this spirit of renewal and commitment. Prayer is living in and from the vital and personal relationship with the living and true God (CCC 2558) through which we discover the true gift of ourselves. The Gospels often describe how after busy days Jesus went off alone to pray. This solitude with God is part of his regular routine, from which he returns strengthened and committed. Jesus also naturally prays before the decisive moments of his life because of the humble and trusting commitment of his human will to the loving will of his Father (CCC 2600).

In the upcoming holiday, we pray with St Paul, that it will be a time to freely re-commit to the great and beautiful mystery that is our human life, so that with family, friends and the infinite love of God, we will never feel alone in our daily routines.-

Out of his infinite glory, may God give you the power through his Spirit for your hidden self to grow strong, so that Christ may live in your hearts through faith, and then, planted in love and built on love, you will with all the saints have strength to grasp the breadth and the length, the height and the depth; until, knowing the love of Christ, which is beyond all knowledge, you are filled with the utter fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:16-19)