Celebrating our Catholic Faith

At a time when we are socially distant, it can be easy to forget that there are others who are there to walk with us in faith. This week we received an email from Bulli Parish asking us if we would like them to pray for our Year 12 students who are taking their Trial HSC exams and preparing for the HSC in Term 4. Prayer is one of the most powerful tools we have as members of a faith community and I wanted to extend a special thanks to all those parents, friends and grandparents who continue to pray that ‘all will be well.’

On Sunday last week we celebrated the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Pope Francis reminded us that Mary was ‘full of grace’ because of her humility. In a world that is often focussed on selfishness, let us follow her example and trust in God. When there is so much suffering in the world, let us be people who bring peace.

Liberating Education Challenge

A reminder for all students that the details for the Liberating Education Wellbeing Challenge is on Edmund X. This is one way that you can do something to care for your own wellbeing while making a contribution to the community. When we return to school, all students who have completed the challenge will be awarded their badges and certificates.

Edmund Rice Education Beyond Borders Virtual Immersion

CBHS Lewisham & Fe Y Alegria, Lima, Peru

During this week on Wednesday and Thursday, Christian Yeo, Timothy Armitage, Oliver Penrose and Stirling Roper joined students from CBHS Lewisham in Sydney for a virtual immersion, connecting to Br Stephen Casey and families in Lima, Peru via video conference. Fe y Alegria School in Lima has been their EREBB partner and they kindly invited us to join them. The Lewisham community raised $2300USD to build a house for a family in Lima and we watched the demolition of the shanty on the first day and the beginning of the construction on the second day. Next week, we will join them to see the finished house! Imagine, in one week, the community will build a house for this family.

Br Stephen Casey spoke to us about the importance of understanding solidarity as a member of the worldwide Edmund Rice family and it affirmed for us the importance of the focus on Catholic Social teaching and learning about the practical implications of the Gospel for us as a community. The students asked questions about the impact of Covid-19 and were surprised to hear that for a population of approximately 1.5 million people, they had one hospital with 32 rooms. At the height of the pandemic last year, many died and those who could find the money were forced to buy oxygen on the black market.  Br Stephen challenged us all to consider that we live in a world where people are made poor by the social structures that benefit those at the top. Perhaps we have to consider how we contribute to those systems. This is a familiar concept to the Year 12 Studies of Religion students who have been learning about this very thing, studying a Theology of Liberation. We must always consider how our faith calls us to be the light of Christ in the world.

Here is what the students had to say:

“Being able to just take in and understand what experiences people in Peru had to go through, really helped me realise how lucky we are in this country. Still it was a truly great thing to be able to witness the contribution everyone was putting in to be able to help the families of Peru. I am so glad that I got to participate in that event and I can confidently say that I took something out of that event.” (Christian Yeo)

“It was a good eye opener showing me parts of the world that are less fortunate and are not as well developed.” (Oliver Penrose)

 “This immersion has made me aware of how lucky we are to live in a great country and to never forget my privilege. It has also shown me a great number of things in our world that we can do to help not only the people in poverty but also the poor in spirit. We need to use our amazing education for the benefit of not only ourselves but the poorest of people all over the world and in our local community.” (Henry Jones)

Mrs Hurley

Director of Identity