Catholic Augustinian Identity
1B. Further embed a contemporary understanding of the Augustinian values of Truth, Love, Community, Humility and Interiority from The Graduate of an Augustinian Catholic School.
- To further embed Augustinian spirituality for staff, students and parents.
- Stakeholder engaged:
- Leadership Team
2024's Patron’s Day Celebration was a new format including a Life of Augustine Quiz, whole College Mass, BBQ/Picnic lunch, and Bishop Pace Race.
Peter Nolan, Deputy Principal - Mission and Wellbeing, sent the below communication to the College community:
"Next week is a special time for our College – a time when we celebrate our Patron Augustine (his feast day is on 28 August). This year we are celebrating Mass as a whole College at C3 Church, Oxford Falls and then having a BBQ and games at St Pius fields, Oxford Fall. Next week is also the week when we welcome over 500 fathers to the school for our Father and Son breakfast. With Community being our mission theme this year, one would struggle to find a week in the year where community values are better expressed.
Why was community so important for Augustine? Central to Augustinian spirituality is the idea that God is within each of us and is revealed or discovered through stillness, prayer or what we term interiority. If this is true, then God is within all human persons and as such all human persons command dignity, love and respect – the heart of a positive, caring and interconnected community. The late Pope, John Paul II, spoke about the person existing within the human community and its natural greatness being rooted in shared community experiences where all people possess absolute dignity and consequently command absolute respect. That is why living in community and how we treat each other in our school setting is central to Augustinian spirituality. A respectful community is evidence when we search for God in one another.
We all too often hear about the rapid pace of life and how busy we are attempting to meet commitments and fulfilling goals and desires. It is almost impossible to avoid this in our modern western society. It therefore must be said, that it is reassuring to work in a Catholic, Augustinian school where students and staff are encouraged to acknowledge the benefits of community in their wider life and are exposed to values and structures that promote and support collaboration, cooperation and positive interaction.
As mentioned above our Patron’s Day celebrations occur next week. This year we have decided to achieve two specific goals. Firstly, for staff and students to learn about the life of Augustine, so every class and tutor will read a short piece of Augustine’s life and participate in a fun Q&A at the start of the day. Secondly, we wanted to celebrate Mass or Eucharist together as a whole College – something that has been very difficult to achieve due to our current staff and student numbers. As a result we are bussing the entire College to C3 Church at Oxford Fall, which holds close to 1800 people. Mass will be celebrated by many Augustinians including Prior Provincial Fr Peter Jones OSA, College Chaplain Fr Senan Ward OSA and Assistant Chaplain Fr Tan Hoang OSA. It will certainly be a special day and we pray for sunny weather."
