From the Principal Issue No 4 – 21 March, 2008 Dear Parents, Staff, Students and Friends of the Mercedes College Community
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Mercy Vine From the Principal Issue No 4 – 21 March, 2008 Dear Parents, Staff, Students and Friends of the Mercedes College Community The Rochebelle Incident Over the last week it has become clear to me that there are some Marie also has a grandchild at Mercedes. I have known Marie for misunderstandings in the community about the incident at Morialta many years and am delighted she will be joining us on Council. Conservation Park involving the Quebec students. I thought it important to set the record straight so that if you are asked you can Easter be aware of the facts. The four students who went missing were At this time of Easter we are reminded that unbelievably, in a time visiting students from Rochebelle School in Quebec City. During of great pain and personal loss, Jesus was able to utter words of their two week visit to Australia they are billeted by families from forgiveness: “Father, forgive them…” This forgiveness is not only Mercedes. The itinerary of the visit entails the group touring for those who were immediately responsible for plotting and Kangaroo Island and sites in and around Adelaide. During their carrying out his execution or for his disciples who denied and visit they are under the direct control and supervision of their deserted him but for all people for all time. We are forgiven by teachers from Rochebelle. Like good hosts should, staff members God – but not set free completely. What sets us free is doing the and the host parents of this College, supported the Rochebelle forgiveness ourselves in our daily lives. We are truly set free when community in the best way we could during the ordeal at Morialta. we forgive and Easter provides us with a time to focus on this. Thankfully all ended well, with the four missing young Canadians being found, leg weary but otherwise in good health. God of forgiveness and love. I will carry some burdens today It is important to note that the Rochebelle students are not part of and some trials will test me out. our International Student Programme (ISP). The ISP students are I ask Your help to deal with them full members of our community who study at the College and live lest I stumble and doubt. Amen. in Adelaide for, in some cases, up to five or six years. During their stay at Mercedes ISP students are under our direct supervision, as is the case for our local students. I hope this clarifies the matter. If you have any further concerns or hear of any please do not hesitate to contact me or direct others to do the same. My Visit to Queensland Peter Daw Last week I was a member of a CIS Team visit to a school in Principal Queensland. It was a wonderful professional experience as I was able to gain an in-depth understanding of another school. I hope I provided some valuable feedback to Merrimac State High School. I know for certain I learnt some useful things which will be of benefit to this College. My Absence Just a reminder that I will not be present at the College for the last three weeks of this term and the first two weeks of next term and ask that during my absence you please see the Assistant Principals – Heads of School should you have any concerns. 2008 College Council In the last Mercy Vine I listed the names of the 2008 Council members. Coming Events I am pleased to announce that since 25/3/08 Year 7 Retreat then the Archbishop has appointed 26/3/08 Arts Launch Mrs Marie Dorrington as his 28/3/08 Year 6/7 Class Party representative. Marie comes to us with 31/3/08 8-12 Co-ed Catholic Schools Athletics, Santos Stadium, 8:30-3:30pm a wealth of experience in Catholic 1/4/08 Middle School French Film Festival Education where she has served as a 2/4/08 Orientation Walk Principal and Senior Education 2-4/4/08 Year 7 Camp Advisor for many years. 4/4/08 Year 3, 4 & 5 Class Party 10/4/08 8-12 SASSSA Athletics, Santos Stadium 11/4/08 End Term 1 – 3:30pm dismissal Mercedes College Newsletter Page 2 A Friday thought… There will be Stations of the Cross for pre and primary school children commencing at 10:00am. Children’s Easter Activity This long weekend is much anticipated in our Aussie calendar. Day begins at 9:30am. Good Friday is one of the busiest for airlines. Oakbank is always a great attraction and footy has started. And let’s hope From 9:00am to 1:00pm in St Paul’s Monastery Church, at the heatwave has cast its last shadow across our scorched half-hour intervals, a visual and audio presentation of the earth and browning lawns. Stations of the Cross will be led for prayerful reflection. The Sacrament of Reconciliation will be available with So much occupies us over these few days that perhaps the Passionist priests from 9:00am until noon in the Monastery dominant Easter image able to emerge into the communal Church. consciousness is the array of hot cross buns in the supermarket, surpassed in visibility by the colourfully wrapped Holy Thursday Mass Easter Vigil Colonel Light Gardens 7:00pm Colonel Light Gardens No and sometimes enormous Easter Eggs. Goodwood 7:30pm Mass It’s unfortunate that even though Easter is the main feast in Kingswood No Mass Goodwood 8:00pm the Church’s year, it doesn’t have the same emotional appeal Parkside 6:30pm Kingswood 8:00pm to the public psyche as Christmas, I suspect because it’s hard Glen Osmond 7:30pm Glen Osmond 7:30pm to match the much loved image of a newborn baby. But in Parkside 6:30pm Good Friday Easter Sunday fact it’s the Easter event which is the whole story of our Colonel Light Gardens 3:00pm Colonel Light Gardens present and our future. Jesus of course had to come into our Goodwood 3:00pm 9:00am world at Christmas and we rightly celebrate this. But with his Kingswood 3: 00pm Goodwood 9:30am resurrection has come our new life, both now and in the Glen Osmond 3:00pm Kingswood 10:30am future. As Saint Paul says, Parkside 3:00pm Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have Also at Kingswood: Glen Osmond 5:00am (followed by breakfast), died. For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of Liturgy of the Hours (Tenebrae) 9:30am the dead has also come through a human being; for as all die in Adam, so Traditional Stations of the Cross 10:00am 8:00am, 10:30am all will be made alive in Christ. (1 Cor. 20-2) Outdoor Stations with the children 11: 00am Parkside 9:30am The theology of the Easter event is quite profound and I suspect at some levels its richness can be easily lost. But at gut level, at the level of our lived human experience, there is something in us which yearns for something more than our current reality. Not the yearning for a better car or even for better health. More a hoping and almost an anticipation that the inner integration and wholeness which we perceive ‘through a glass darkly’ is not something ephemeral but in fact is realisable. Both in this life and more so in the next. So, the story of love that is Holy Week, that movement from suffering to new life, is our story too, made possible by this Jesus whose truth reaches out to us in this land in this moment. The reality is powerfully expressed by Pope Benedict who crystallised the message in this way: Out of love, he could allow himself to be killed, but precisely by doing so he broke the definitiveness of death, because in him the definitiveness of life was present. He was one single reality with indestructible life, in such a way that it burst forth anew through death. Jesus is not a character from the past. He lives, and he walks before us as one who is alive, he calls us to follow him, the living one, and in this way to discover for ourselves too the path of life. With an awareness of our common humanity, made up of both joys and sorrows, successes and struggles, may we all come to a greater awareness that the Easter story is both his and ours. And may it bring each of us renewed optimism, for others and for ourselves. A happy and peace-filled Easter. Peter Williams Director of Mission Easter Liturgies Stations of the Cross at the Monastery Many thousands will visit the Monastery on Good Friday to walk the Stations of the Cross. Guided groups will move through the Sacred Garden from 7:30am onward, followed by a simple Morning Tea of black coffee and bitter herbs in the Retreat House. You are very welcome to join in this prayerful reflection. Mercedes College Newsletter Page 3 From the Junior School moment we had all been waiting for, we saw a little penguin that was moulting. It looked a bit weird but was still cute. Year 5 Camp Kate Matthews Last week the Year 5 students and a number of staff experienced a fantastic camp at Encounter Lakes, Victor I really enjoyed the Mini-Olympics while on Camp. We set up Harbor. I was lucky enough to join them on Wednesday and in four groups and undertook four activities.