Religious Education Coordinator
Mr Colm McCaughan
Many times I have heard the phrase, ‘hit the ground running,’ but I think ‘hit the ground sprinting’ would be more appropriate considering the whirlwind nature of my first term here at Marist College Eastwood!
Two days into Week 0 we began with our Opening College Mass celebrated by Fr Pawel. Although very warm in our hall, it was a powerful way to begin the year, particularly as we were encouraged to embrace our Marist characteristic of ‘Love of Work.’
Barely a week later Lent began with our Back to Parish Ash Wednesday commemoration, in which nearly 200 boys travelled back to their parishes with their families. We held our own liturgy at the College, where the boys were given a story of a former student of mine, Ken, who demonstrated extraordinary humility and charity by donating his bus and lunch money each day to Project Compassion and then walking home. Hopefully boys took on board the message, ‘This Lent, be like Ken,’ in discovering that true charity must cost us something.
Our Year 7 students were inducted into the Marist Charism on their Reflection Day where they were given the story of St Marcellin by Brother Joachim Fabbro, a vastly experienced and inspiring leader in the Marist community. Along with many activities and learning the Sub Tuum, students were given the opportunity to sign up for our new Marist youth group, Game Changers, which was launched at the end of this term. We hope our Year 7 students truly understand what it means to be a Marist boy!
The absolute highlight for me in my first term was our Year 12 Retreat. Retreat is a powerful way to be reminded of God’s love and presence in our lives as the boys were taken out of the regular schedules to visit the Benedict XVI Centre in Grose Vale for 3 days. The Retreat focused on relationships, first within ourselves, then with our families and friends, and then finally with God, because God always meets us where we are at. To sum up one boy’s description of it, ‘many tears were shed, many prayers were said, but to God my heart was led.’
We entered Holy Week upon return from Retreat, with our liturgy a powerful narrative re-enactment of Our Lord’s Passion, led beautifully by Toby Piccolo (Year 12) as Jesus and a handful of other keen volunteers in the other roles. We focused our liturgy on the theme of ‘abandonment’, in recognising all the ways Christ was abandoned in His suffering, but in this way showing us that He is closest to us in our moments of abandonment and suffering.
Throughout the term our regular Wednesday Prayer Group and Friday morning Mass have grown exponentially as more students and staff embrace the joy of maintaining a regular relationship with God. We launched the 10:10 Project for our Year 10 cohort and had nearly 50 students sign up for the regular events and formation offered by the team from SCS. I am so grateful to our Chaplain Fr Dan Drum, as well as the rest of the Evangelisation Team in Grace Mathews (YMC) and Maryam Mansoor (Asst. REC) for their hard work in building the faith life of the College.
With a brief respite now before another massive Term 2, I look back at the mountain we have climbed in just a few short weeks and thank God for the grace He has poured out on our community. May it continue to flow!