This beautiful theme for the Australian Catholic Youth Festival (ACYF) to be held later this year in December calls us to find moments of God’s grace in our life and take time to truly listen to how we are being called by the Holy spirit and God. Over the past few weeks, I have had the privilege to join our 17 staff and student pilgrims, along with students and staff at Emmanuel College, who will be going to the ACYF in December for their formation sessions. During the sessions, students have reflected on what it means to truly ‘listen to the spirit’. Whilst unpacking this theme, students reflected on the things in life that may distract us from truly being open to listen, social media, friends, work, study commitments. It is in the silence of life that we can experience the spirit moving us, but how often do we take time to be silent? To close off our minds from our to-do lists.
Moving closer to the end of the year, I encourage you to take time to truly listen to what the spirit is saying, how are you being called to respond to God’s will in your life?
“There where you are, you will find God” (Mary MacKillop)
Our new student leaders started their leadership with a bang with our annual Socktober campaign for Catholic Mission. With the theme 'Sock it to poverty', our students were invited in a simple way to contribute to the efforts of the Church’s aid organisation annual campaign by wearing crazy socks for the day, raising $350 in total. To further celebrate this extraordinary month of Mission proclaimed by Pope Francis, our Year 7 students attended Mass at St Patrick’s Cathedral to join other young people in prayer.
One of the greatest retreat days held at MSJ is our Year 8 retreat. Led by volunteer leaders from Year 11, the students were engaged in various reflective and creative activities that helped them unpack the theme, Living with Courage. It is a privilege to watch our Year 11 students prepare the day and lead both large group activities and small group activities. Student-led ministry is both empowering for our leaders and younger students.
Our RE Music students have enjoyed three sessions with the very engaging Genevieve Byrant. During these sessions, students reflected on what it means to be a music minister at Mass, workshopped how to adapt older, more traditional songs to suit a younger audience, and worked on their composition skills attempting to write a song for the school's theme next year. They were great sessions and inspired our very talented RE music students to achieve big!
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Danielle Fairthorne - Director of Catholic Identity
