Aquatic Centre blessing
Our College community recently came together for two important celebrations – our Easter Liturgy and the re-opening of our Aquatic Centre. Both events highlighted the importance of community and how much we can achieve when we do it together.
On Wednesday 31 March 2021, our College Aquatic Centre was blessed by Deacon Aaron Peters and re-opened by the Honourable Ken Wyatt AM, Member for Hasluck and Minister for Indigenous Australians. This event not only brought the College community together, it highlighted their generosity. Parent and community support of events like our Annual Quiz Night provided the College with additional funds to refurbish our Aquatic Centre and enable our current and future students to make use of this wonderful resource. I would like to acknowledge and thank Mr Wyatt for his support of our application for a grant through the Federal Government Local Schools Community Fund. The $20 000 grant enabled us to expand the paving area in the Aquatic Centre and improve seating.
Easter Message
As a Catholic College we are a body of people, a community, a family with a story, a history, a purpose who believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. We share a common vision for life, seek to live in a spirit of love, not just a social club, not just a group of like-minded people, not just a welfare agency, or a spiritual fill-up station, but a life-long love relationship, alive in the Spirit of Christ, a people with a mission to proclaim Jesus to the world, share our life with others, so that the world may believe and share our joy. Jesus said…’This is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you. There is no greater love than this, to give one’s life for his friends.’ (John 15:12-13).
On Wednesday 31 March 2021 we gathered as a community for our Easter Liturgy. We reflected on the meaning of Good Friday and the importance of the resurrection, which I share with you below. We call the Friday before Easter Good Friday, but, when we read the account of Jesus’s death, it can seem like the event that we commemorate is pretty bad. Is it good that Jesus seems to leave behind all His followers and to pass on into the next life without them? What’s so good about Good Friday, especially this Good Friday during a global pandemic?
God is good. In fact, God is goodness itself. Does that sound like a cop-out sort of answer? Maybe. But it is the central truth of our Christian faith. God is good no matter what happens around us, and we are to worship God regardless of our situation. We don’t pray to “get something out of it.” We go to Mass because God is so good that it would be wrong not to worship Him.
And Good Friday isn’t called good because everyone gets what they want and then rides off into the sunset. Good Friday is good not because God takes away any of the challenges of life, but precisely because it shows us that Jesus stands with us amid these challenges. Sometimes our world feels like things are falling apart or being damaged, often by our own actions. This is the reality of many of our lives and it is this reality that Jesus came to stand with us in.
Jesus, who is God, came to earth knowing that He would suffer and die–the Old Testament prophets knew of the Passion too. So, the goodness of this Friday is due to God alone, not to any particularly happy situation. God does not always work according to our time-frame. God’s ways are beyond our understanding and so often we must develop patience and wait on God. We do not do this alone and unsupported, however, we develop patience and indeed hope by remembering what Jesus has done for us.
Easter invites all of us to believe in the transforming power of love. It is important to remember to take the time this Easter to bring light and love to those around us. Reach out to those you love at this time and bring hope to all within our community through your actions and words. Remember that sometimes the smallest kind deed or word can bring hope to someone experiencing difficulties.
I wish all our students and staff, and their families, a happy and holy Easter, and a well-earned holiday break.
God bless!
Ms Giovanna Fiume | College Principal
