There are times when core values are amplified and we see communities at their best.
This is my reflection as I look back on this past week and have my eyes to the horizon of the week to come. The Kildare Ministries value of ‘Hospitality – welcoming all’ has been front and centre of our work and energy this week. It has been a shared endeavour of staff and students. It has reminded me of what I love the most about this place….
- Welcoming over 1000 people inviting them to ‘come and see’ through our Open Days, spending time with myself, our students and staff and exploring our amazing grounds and facilities.
- Hosting our Combined Catholic Secondary Colleges Captains and Senior Leaders gathering for their annual CLOGS meeting and dinner – what an inspiring night that was! Rest assured that the future is in very capable and compassionate hands with these young people leading the way.
- Welcoming back our alumni for their 50th-10th year reunions tomorrow, allowing space for the sharing of memories, reconnecting past friendships and celebrating how the College has continued to grow and flourish since their time with us.
- And then on Monday, from 1pm, gathering almost 500 members of the Kildare Ministries community from across Australia to celebrate, ‘encounter, dream and do’ during the 10th Anniversary Conference. We also welcome the Brigidine Sisters including Cathy O’Connor who has made the journey from Ireland to be with us. (Don’t forget school finishes at 12.30pm Monday)
Community and welcome are deeply connected to the Brigidine tradition that we carry forward as Kildare Ministries. These values were embodied by both the Brigidine and Presentation Orders in the communities they developed, the schools and ministries they served, and their constant witness to the love of God made present in each encounter with the other.
We continue to be people of mission, bringing the gospel message and the hope of the Resurrection to all that we do.
For this reason it is timely that we will gather for our conference during Holy Week, reflecting on the suffering of those of the margins, the systems and structures that diminish or prevent people and creation from flourishing. To then be buoyed as people of hope, to imagine, dream and create commitments and actions to ensure our part of the mission, by bringing living peace and living justice to life for all.
We send our blessing to our delegates who head off this weekend to Brisbane, Adelaide and Sydney to join with those communities as Clonard ambassadors. We trust they will return with wonderful stories of their times in our other conference hubs.
We ask for your prayers on this gathering, that the spirit of wisdom, right judgement and understanding will stir within us as we cross new seas and encounter, dream and do.
May your families know the joy of this Easter season, reflecting on the great mystery of the death and resurrection of Christ as a cornerstone to our Christian faith story, our Brigidine and Presentation story, and now our Kildare Ministries story.
Peace and blessings
Luci
