Newsletter 3: 8 March 2022

Dear Colleagues,

The response to the MSA Trinity Catholic College Flood Appeal has been most heartening with $20,000 dollars raised in the first five days. Your support for our fellow Marists at this most difficult time is greatly appreciated and a small but important way of providing assistance from afar. The clean up from this serious natural disaster is a mammoth task and in the wake of the 2017 floods, and two years of COVID-19 hardships, the community is sorely tested. Commended to you is an address by Bishop Greg Homeing which can be viewed HERE. A number of Marist schools have organised special fund raising events for this week and it is hoped many more do likewise in our shared efforts to assist Trinity Catholic College Lismore.

Last week it was announced that Dr Paul Rijken will be retiring at the end of 2022 as Principal of Cardijn College in Adelaide. A letter from Mr Tim Ryan, the Chair of the College Board, provides some sense of the immense contribution of Paul to the College and to Catholic education more broadly. Paul is a remarkable person whose leadership and support within our Marist networks have been influential and vital to the growth of Marist life and mission in Australia.

From a national school education perspective, Paul has been influential in leading thinking and practice on the manner and form of student engagement. The promotion of deeply respectful ways of promoting student voice in the learning and teaching dynamic in ways, which are measurable and instructive, has resonated strongly with Marist educators across the country. To listen to Paul’s motivations for his Doctoral research in this area is to hear a person of passion, imbued with Marist intuitions, emphases, and audacity, as he sought to strengthen with all staff the efficacy of the educational experience of the young people in his school. We look forward to appropriately recognising Paul’s contributions later in the year.

As the killing and suffering escalates in the Ukraine, let us redouble our efforts in prayer for the fighting to stop.

Prayer for Peace

O God, Creator of the universe,

who extends your paternal concern over every creature

and guides the events of history to goals of salvation,

we acknowledge your Fatherly love when you break the resistance of mankind and,

in a world torn by strife and discord,

you make us ready for reconciliation.

Renew for us the wonders of your MERCY;

send forth your Spirit to work in the intimacy of our hearts,

that enemies may begin to dialogue,

that adversaries may shake hands

and peoples may encounter one another in harmony.

May all commit themselves to the sincere search for true peace,

which will extinguish all arguments,

for charity which overcomes hatred,

for pardon which disarms revenge.

- Saint Pope John Paul II