“If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honoured,

all rejoice together with it.”

– 1 Corinthians 12:26

This has been a period of genuine celebration for our community. Two milestones sat alongside each other at our Foundation Day Mass recently, and together they gave us a moment to stop, give thanks and remember who we are and where we come from.

Foundation Day Mass – 122 Years of Kilbreda / 140 Years of Brigidine Charism

On Friday 7 August, we gathered as a community to celebrate our 122nd Foundation Day Mass. 122 years since the Brigidine Sisters came to Mentone and established this College. The flame they lit here has never gone out.

What made this year’s celebration particularly special was that our Mass also celebrated 140 years of the Brigidine Sisters in Victoria. The Sisters first arrived on these shores in 1886, and this year that extraordinary legacy turned 140. Many Sisters were present with us for the Mass, and their presence was a profound and moving gift to our community. To sit in the same space as the women who have carried this tradition across generations, across continents, across 140 years of Australian life, was to feel the full weight and the full beauty of what we have inherited.

St Brigid of Kildare is said to have kept a flame burning at her monastery that was never allowed to go out. Each sister tended it in turn, and together they kept it alive. What we witnessed at our Foundation Day Mass was exactly that: a flame passed carefully from hand to hand across 140 years, still burning, still warm, still lighting the way. Our sincere gratitude to the amazing Fr Peter for celebrating the Mass with us.

Year 8 Reflection Days – Community and Belonging

Our Year 8 students recently came together for their Reflection Days, built around the theme Community and Belonging and anchored in the phrase “Difference; together; respect”.

The day moved through icebreakers and a “Who Am I?” exercise, asking students to interview someone they did not know well and be interviewed in turn. From there, the program moved into ethical decision-making: two scenarios, an AI dilemma and a bushfire evacuation, each requiring students to choose who to save, and then to name the assumptions behind their choices. These are not comfortable exercises. They are not meant to be. They ask Year 8 students to sit with the fact that our decisions reveal our values, and that living in community means our decisions affect each other.

The scripture that anchored the day’s reflection was 1 Corinthians 12:26: “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together with it.” The day closed with a Concert of Prayer and Liturgy in the Auditorium. We are proud of the honesty and seriousness our Year 8 students brought to the day.

Kildare Ministries Net Zero Camp

Kilbreda was represented at the Kildare Ministries Net Zero Camp at Saltbush, Balnarring Beach, by Year 11 students Annie B and Bonnie W, accompanied by staff Aidan Scott and Sarah Avitabile.

The Net Zero Camp brings together young people and educators from across the Kildare Ministries network to engage seriously with questions of ecology, sustainability and care for our common home. Grounded in the tradition of Laudato Si’ and Pope Francis’ call to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor, the camp asks participants to move beyond awareness and into action.

We are proud of Annie and Bonnie for representing Kilbreda at this gathering, and grateful to Aidan and Sara for accompanying them. The work of caring for creation is not separate from our faith. It is an expression of it. We look forward to hearing what they bring back to our community from the experience.

Looking Ahead

As we move through the second half of Term 3, two things deserve a place in our prayers and our anticipation.

The student leadership selection process is currently underway, with many of our Year 11 students having taken the courageous step of putting themselves forward for College leadership roles next year. The announcement of our student leaders is coming. We hold all who have applied in prayer, whatever the outcome.

And we are looking forward with real joy to Brigidine Day celebrations later in the term. This is one of the great occasions of our year: a time to gather around the values and the tradition that give Kilbreda its character. More details to follow in coming weeks.

Prayer for the Week

Loving God,

we give thanks for the women who came before us,

who carried the flame across one hundred and forty years

and placed it, still burning, in our hands.

May we be worthy of what we have received.

May we tend it with the same care,

the same courage,

the same quiet faithfulness.

And may our community be, for every person who enters it,

a place where they are seen,

where they belong,

where the flame burns warm enough to be felt.

Amen.

With warmest wishes to our whole community,

In Strength and Kindness,

John Riddle

Director of Catholic Identity and Mission