On Wednesday of this week, we celebrated the Feast of the Assumption of Mary. This Feast is always celebrated on 15 August and is significant because it is a Holy day of Obligation in our Church. Currently, the Holy days of obligation within our faith include each Sunday and Christmas day and the Assumption of Mary. This Feast Day celebrates the heavenly birthday of the Virgin Mary. The Feast day marks the happy departure of Mary from this human life and recognises the assumption of her body from earth into Heaven. The fact that this Feast is only one of...
On Wednesday of this week, we celebrated the Feast of the Assumption of Mary. This Feast is always celebrated on 15 August and is significant because it is a Holy day of Obligation in our Church. Currently, the Holy days of obligation within our faith include each Sunday and Christmas day and the Assumption of Mary. This Feast Day celebrates the heavenly birthday of the Virgin Mary. The Feast day marks the happy departure of Mary from this human life and recognises the assumption of her body from earth into Heaven. The fact that this Feast is only one of two special days outside of each Sunday indicates the place of Mary within our faith. It is also significant to our EREA schools as we were foundered by the Christian Brothers and their order had a special devotion to Mary.
As Mary was the mother of Jesus, the Feast of the Assumption allows us to reflect upon the lives and devotions of our own mothers upon ourselves. Mothers have a very special bond with their children and are usually considered to be the nurturers of the family. That is not to say that this is not always done by fathers as well but within our culture it appears to be predominately recognised as mothers. They have an unconditional love for their children and they continue to be very protective of their children throughout their lives after their birth. The Feast of the Assumption can also be time for us to reflect and be grateful for the “saintly” actions of our own mothers.
This week, we received the sad news of the passing of Br Fergus Gagen (College Principal 1985-1990). I have since received the information regarding the vigil and funeral arrangements. The vigil will be held at Holy Spirit Carseldine at 7:00pm next Wednesday night and the funeral will be held at St Pius Church at Banyo on Thursday at 10:00am. Br Fergus was a wonderful man and a great role model as a gentleman.
It is hard to believe that we have just passed the middle week of this term. Much has been done and achieved so far and there are more exciting things to be completed before the end of the term. Most importantly, each of our young men should be well entrenched into their study routines by now and preparing for any assignments and end of term exams.
Many of our young men have been or will be performing in the Queensland Catholic Schools Musical Festival over this weekend. The festival started on Thursday and will finish on Sunday. Overall, we will have students involved in 13 performances across that time including choirs, string ensembles, concert bands, contemporary bands, percussion ensembles and drum corps, big bands, chamber strings, string ensembles and concert bands. Our teaching staff including Mrs Kate Albury, Mrs Kelly Jensen, Mr Kane McNally, Ms Monique Matthews and Mrs Claire Devine have put a good deal of work into our performers and I am sure that they will enjoy the occasion and enjoy the music and singing from many other schools as well. Mr Geoff Samuels will, this year, be absent from the event but certainly there in spirit. Geoff is currently convalescing from a knee operation. He has had many years of involvement with this great event. The program is held at Villanova College and well worth a visit if you have time on the weekend as there are many talented performers from a variety of schools.
During this week, we held information sessions for students and parents of young men entering Year 11 (2019) and Year 9 (2019). The Year 11 night was quite poignant as it is the first of such nights with our young men entering into the new QCE 2020 system. I hope that the night gave all participants confidence in the expertise that we have developed about the new system and in their preparation throughout Year 11. The students and their parents also spent today meeting with their academic mentors to discuss their subject selections as a part of the Year 10 SET Plan process. Our Year 9 event was a little less complicated but just as important to these students and their parents. It is the first opportunity to become more aware of the Rite Journey program that we run as well as selecting two other elective subjects for the first time. As mentioned at the end of the presentations, the selection is, in effect, the easy part. The more difficult part is to ensure that each young man gives the best into his studies so that he does not limit his choices for Year 10. If you have any feedback about either of these nights, please send me an email at your convenience. We are always looking for feedback to improve our practices.
I mentioned in a previous article that our Year 12 students undertook a full QCS Practice program on 1 and 2 August. The marking feedback that we have received to date has been quite positive and the young men are showing improvement with each practice. Their next test is the real thing and we hope that the students concentrate on the feedback that they will receive over the next two weeks to ensure that their last “real” test is their best one. This is a real team event with all students relying on each other to give it their best. So far, they have responded well to the task. There will also be added voluntary sessions held by our QCS staff after school on the next two Monday afternoons. It would be great for the cohort if as many young men as possible could attend these sessions.
Yesterday, we held our Wellbeing Day. Whilst more about this will be said in Darren Kearney’s article next week, I would like to add my thanks to the many staff including Darren, Amira Bosnjak, John Zappala, Sandra Fowlie and the House Deans for organising the event. At this stage, we raised around $2,000 to pass onto the drought appeal. It certainly was an enjoyable day.
We are currently in the middle of our Year 5 (2020) interviews. If you know of anyone who has a son in Year 3 now and was considering enrolling them for Year 5 (2020), please remind them that the interviews are currently well underway and if they have not yet applied for an enrolment and an interview, they will need to contact Mrs Stacey Bishop with urgency.
Whilst there are no sporting fixtures this weekend, our tennis players will compete in the College Tennis Championships and many of our musicians and singers will be competing in the Queensland Catholic Colleges Music Festival.
Next week, our Year 9 students participate in their camp and retreat. These programs are aligned to the Rite Journey program as well. It is designed to be a fun and challenging camp but also punctuated with good time for deep personal reflection. I am sure that they will all enjoy the experience.
Live Jesus in our hearts!
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