Easter Joy!

A joyous Easter to all in our community! In our Catholic tradition, Easter is not just a day but an entire season of the church’s calendar. Whilst the difficulty and self-sacrifice of the 40 days of Lent has now been dispelled by the light of Easter, we remember that for us Easter actually concludes on Pentecost, some 50 days after Easter. For the rest of society, this ‘holiday’ is over, and many are now looking to the next. It can be in equal parts both a challenge and joy to heed to call to live the Easter season for the entire time. Difficult when the rest of the world has moved on. Joyous, in living the message and belief of Jesus resurrected. We pray that we have the courage to live our faith and continue to be counter-cultural, just as Jesus is.

Caritas

It was an extraordinarily busy conclusion to term, particularly with reference to Caritas fundraising. It was a display of the amazing generosity of the Kilbreda College community, students, staff and families. We raised just over $4,200 in a very short amount of time.

A massive thank you to our Living Justice Leaders, particularly Olivia Murphy, Zoe Fitzgerald, Rhiannán Marie-Jeanne and Sophie McKeown for their organisation and leadership of the bake sale and ice bucket challenge. We had a very special Kilbreda College family (who wish to remain anonymous) who donated everything for the outstanding Easter Raffle – so very generous and you have our deep gratitude. Also new this year, was the creation and use of donation QR codes. These created an awesome donation war between Homerooms. Homeroom 10.24A, ably lead by Mr Christopher Moore, took out the win for most donations… Well done!

Sincere thanks to all for this amazing result. It will have a profound impact in assisting our sisters and brothers in communities all around the world through the amazing work of Caritas Australia.

Holy Week Liturgy

The Holy Week liturgy in the final week of Term 1 is always such a special and beautiful occasion. This year was no exception. Our thanks to Ms Downie and all of the student leaders involved who created such a beautiful liturgy.

March for Refugees

On Sunday 13 April, staff, students and their families participated in the March for Refugees. This is traditionally held on Palm Sunday and our very own Sr Brigid Arthur and Brigidine Asylum Seekers Project (BASP) have always played a key organisational part in this event. The March began at Flinders Street Station with the crowd walking down St Kilda Road to Toms Block, part of the Queen Victoria Gardens. There was a range of excellent speakers and our students participated with other students in part of a presentation. It was wonderful to see such passion for continuing the work of ensuring basic human rights of refugees in Australia.

Pope Francis

Many people throughout the world were saddened to hear of the death of our Holy Father, Pope Francis. His papacy was one of so many firsts and beautiful Christ-like simplicity. He was respected and loved by not only Catholics but the huge spectrum that is our human family. As a community, we had a liturgy in remembrance of Pope Francis celebrating his life, papacy and his unique way of living with justice, humility and love. At the conclusion of this liturgy, each student and staff member were given a special prayer card of Pope Francis. We pray for Pope Francis’ eternal rest, for all those who are grieving in any way in our community and for our Church moving forward at this time. 

John Riddle

Director of Catholic Identity and Mission

Head of Counselling Services