Deputy Principal Mission and Pastoral Care
Share your Light with the World
St Dominic’s Day, Friday 28 July 2023
As you will have seen throughout this edition of Veritas Voice, Our St Dominic’s Day celebration on Friday 28 July was a joyous occasion with the spirit of community taking on a contagious air throughout the day.
Our theme for St Dominic’s Day this year was ‘share your light with the world’. This was a fitting theme because Dominic was a man whose life was strongly marked by light. His mother had a dream before his birth of a torch-bearing dog that set the world ablaze. At his baptism, his godmother saw a star gleaming above his forehead. Throughout his life, witnesses remarked on the radiance of Dominic’s face. One most significant occurrence of light providing guidance for St Dominic was the vision he had of the ball of fire which the Blessed Virgin Mary gave as a sign to him at Prouille in France, in 1206. The sign was for St Dominic to begin his apostolate. This sign from God, or Seignadou, was the light that acted as a confirmation of Dominic’s work and the church of Prouille became the first foundation of the Dominican Order.
And so the Seignadou takes on significance as the moment when Dominic saw light, when Dominic understood that God wished to be present to souls through his ‘prayer, patience, and instruction.’ Dominic was intensely present to others in his preaching and now he would become present through the preaching and prayer of his followers. In a sense, the Seignadou holds within it one of the mottos of the Dominicans, ‘to contemplate, and to give to others the fruits of our contemplation.’ St Dominic received the light, lived in the light, and gave the light to the world through his new Order.
Together as a P-12 community of students, staff, Dominican Sisters, parents, ex-students and even ex-staff, we were able to celebrate the moment of the birth of the Dominican Order and to consider the way this light has blazed through the centuries and still inspires who we are as a Dominican Community in Strathfield in 2023.
Santa Fest
On the 5-12 Campus last week (24-27 July) Year 12 Student Leaders and House Captains plus a band of enthusiastic Year 11 students led our annual Santa Fest initiatives. These fundraising endeavours are to generate much needed funds for the Kopanang Community Trust in South Africa.
‘The Kopanang Community Trust is made up of a community of women with indomitable strength, nestled on the fringe of Johannesburg. Each Kopanang woman carries the burden of HIV/AIDs, whether inflicted with the virus, or caring for a loved one that lives with the disease. Forged from life’s challenges, they are fiercely compassionate and humble in their wisdom, with courage that cannot be denied. Kopanang provides a safe platform for these women to learn new skills. Through these skills they are empowered to create ranges of beautifully hand crafted beaded and embroidered products.’ (https://kopanang.africa/).
Santa Sabina has supported this community for many years, and the amazing efforts of our Year 11 and 12 students and the support of the whole College means we are able to continue doing so. Some of our fundraising from Santa Fest will also go to support the work of the Dominican Sisters in the Solomon Islands.
Staff vs student Volleyball, busking, pizza lunch, fairy floss and bake stall, teachers in uniform and the inaugural ‘throw a wet sponge’ at the teachers stall all provided a lot of community fun and enjoyment. We eagerly await the total monetary sum of our fundraising but the community sum of these events was quickly apparent last week. It was a perfect opportunity for all of our students to let their light shine.
Melanie van der Meer
Deputy Principal Mission and Pastoral Care