29 September 2015

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Tags: Educators

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Categories: Events, News

On 10 August, the religious education services team from the Brisbane Catholic Education Office (BCEO) returned to Singapore to conduct the Religious Education Training Programme (REAP) Workshop.

A team of six senior education officers flew from Australia to deliver the workshop, a third run in Singapore, on Saturday, 15 August at the Catholic Junior College, to an overwhelming number of 90 participants.

The participants were split into four groups that rotated over the course of the day. Music, visual arts, scripture activities, prayer strategies and drama were explored in the itinerary for the day and were aimed at providing useful resources and techniques for teachers in their instruction of young children of the faith in compelling and meaningful ways. The day’s eventful programme was closed with a blessing, followed by afternoon tea at around 3.30pm.

REAP2015 4

Participants of the workshop felt that the programme was well structured, practical and relevant and felt that they would be able to apply or even reflect on the content presented. Kathleen Ang, a teacher at CHIJ St Joseph’s Convent, appreciated that the session on music coupled “silent mindfulness with active song and dance,” and she was “thankful for the introduction of the different [material] that made understanding the liturgy easier”.

Tan Eng Lian, also a teacher at CHIJ St, Joseph’s Convent felt that the workshops on teaching scripture and prayer strategies “have broadened [my] repertoire of ways to teach religious education … [it was a] very refreshing change of teaching and sharing scripture.”

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Mark Minjoot, Principal of Montfort Secondary School, also affirmed the sentiments: “The trainers and facilitators were very skilful, and each session was extremely engaging and meaningful. I strongly recommend it to anyone involved in Catholic Education. Everyone and anyone – teachers, administrators, religious will benefit from this!”

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The workshop was the culmination of an itinerary that started with the Literacy Education Access Programme (LEAP), another partnership project between the BCEO and the ACCS. This pilot attachment programme saw four primary schools and six kindergartens host 10 literacy teachers from the Archdiocese of Brisbane between 12 and 14 August. During the attachment programme, the Australian Primary and Preschool educators were able to observe English lessons in both Kindergartens as well as Primary 1 and Primary 2 classes. It also gave the visiting teachers the chance to exchange ideas with the teachers, vice-principals and principals of the host schools.

One of the visiting teachers, Jo-Anne Downing, was inspired after the programme: “What has been very obvious is the passion and commitment of the teachers to the children’s wellbeing and learning. Children are recognised as unique individuals and as such are treated with love and respect. All schools [seem to] recognise and aspire to the values and qualities of their founding patron and to the Gospel values, which is evident immediately upon entering the schools.”

Evelyn Chapman, Brisbane Education Officer (Arts), was just as impressed: “My experience working with the Singaporean teachers has been profound. Commitment and alignment from all staff about their understanding of mission and values is inspiring. I will take this back to Brisbane as a challenge to all our schools and teachers to truly know, understand and act on their mission”.

LEAP2015 at CHIJ OLGC

LEAP2015 at SJI Jr

Building on a budding relationship between the BCEO and the ACCS, the Australian team will be conducting up to five programmes in 2016, including a full, four-day run of REAP in November 2016. Look out for announcements on these exciting programmes in the coming months.

22 September 2015

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Tags: Educators, Parents, Students

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Categories: Homilies / Messages, News

Unprepared remarks of the Holy Father given at the Fr Félix Varela Cultural Center, Havana on the occasion of his visit to Cuba on 20 September 2015.

 

You are standing up and I am sitting. How rude! But you know why I am sitting; it is because I was taking notes on some of the things which our companion here was saying. Those are the things I want to talk about.

One really striking word he used was “dream”. A Latin American writer once said that we all have two eyes: one of flesh and another of glass. With the eye of flesh, we see what is in front of us. With the eye of glass, we see what we dream of. Beautiful, isn’t it?

In the daily reality of life, there has to be room for dreaming. A young person incapable of dreaming is cut off, self-enclosed. Everyone sometimes dreams of things which are never going to happen. But dream them anyway, desire them, seek new horizons, be open to great things.

I’m not sure if you use this word in Cuba, but in Argentina we say: “Don’t be a pushover!” Don’t bend or yield; open up. Open up and dream! Dream that with you the world can be different. Dream that if you give your best, you are going to help make this world a different place. Don’t forget to dream! If you get carried away and dream too much, life will cut you short. It makes no difference; dream anyway, and share your dreams. Talk about the great things you wish for, because the greater your ability to dream, the farther you will have gone; even if life cuts you short half way, you will still have gone a great distance. So, first of all, dream!

You said something which I had wrote down and underlined. You said that we have to know how to welcome and accept those who think differently than we do. Honestly, sometimes we are very closed. We shut ourselves up in our little world: “Either things go my way or not at all”. And you went even further. You said that we must not become enclosed in our little ideological or religious “worlds”… that we need to outgrow forms of individualism.

When a religion becomes a “little world”, it loses the best that it has, it stops worshiping God, believing in God. It becomes a little world of words, of prayers, of “I am good and you are bad”, of moral rules and regulations. When I have my ideology, my way of thinking, and you have yours, I lock myself up in this little world of ideology.

Open hearts and open minds. If you are different than I am, then why don’t we talk? Why do we always throw stones at one another over what separates us, what makes us different? Why don’t we extend a hand where we have common ground? Why not try to speak about what we have in common, and then we can talk about where we differ. But I’m saying “talk”; I’m not saying “fight”. I am not saying retreat into our “little worlds”, to use your word. But this can only happen when I am able to speak about what I have in common with the other person, about things we can work on together.

In Buenos Aires, in a new parish in an extremely poor area, a group of university students were building some rooms for the parish. So the parish priest said to me: “Why don’t you come one Saturday and I’ll introduce them to you”. They were building on Saturdays and Sundays. They were young men and women from the university. So I arrived, I saw them and they were introduced to me: “This is the architect. He’s Jewish. This one is Communist. This one is a practicing Catholic”. They were all different, yet they were all working for the common good.

This is called social friendship, where everyone works for the common good. Social enmity instead destroys. A family is destroyed by enmity. A country is destroyed by enmity. The world is destroyed by enmity. And the greatest enmity is war. Today we see that the world is being destroyed by war, because people are incapable of sitting down and talking. “Good, let’s negotiate. What can we do together? Where are we going to draw the line? But let’s not kill any more people”. Where there is division, there is death: the death of the soul, since we are killing our ability to come together. We are killing social friendship. And this is what I’m asking you today: to find ways of building social friendship”.

Then there was another word you said: “hope”. The young are the hope of every people; we hear this all the time. But what is hope? Does it mean being optimistic? No. Optimism is a state of mind. Tomorrow, you wake up in a bad mood and you’re not optimistic at all; you see everything in a bad light. Hope is something more. Hope involves suffering. Hope can accept suffering as part of building something; it is able to sacrifice. Are you able to sacrifice for the future, or do you simply want to live for the day and let those yet to come fend for themselves? Hope is fruitful. Hope gives life. Are you able to be life-giving? Or are you going to be young people who are spiritually barren, incapable of giving life to others, incapable of building social friendship, incapable of building a nation, incapable of doing great things?

Hope is fruitful. Hope comes from working, from having a job. Here I would mention a very grave problem in Europe: the number of young people who are unemployed. There are countries in Europe where 40% of young people twenty-five years and younger are unemployed. I am thinking of one country. In another country, it is 47% and in another still, 50%.

Clearly, when a people is not concerned with providing work to its young – and when I say “a people”, I don’t mean governments; I mean the entire people who ought to be concerned whether these young people have jobs or not – that people has no future. Young people become part of the throwaway culture and all of us know that today, under the rule of mammon, things get thrown away and people get thrown away. Children are thrown away because they are not wanted, or killed before they are born. The elderly are thrown away – I’m speaking about the world in general – because they are no longer productive. In some countries, euthanasia is legal, but in so many others there is a hidden, covert euthanasia. Young people are thrown away because they are not given work. So then, what is left for a young person who has no work? When a country – a people – does not create employment opportunities for its young, what is left for these young people if not forms of addiction, or suicide, or going off in search of armies of destruction in order to make war.

This throwaway culture is harming us all; it is taking away our hope. And this is what you asked for in the name of young people: “We want hope”. A hope which requires effort, hard work, and which bears fruit; a hope which gives us work and saves us from the throwaway culture. A hope which unites people, all people, because a people can join in looking to the future and in building social friendship – for all their differences – such a people has hope.

For me, meeting a young person without hope is, as I once said, like meeting a young retiree. There are young people who seem to have retired at the age of twenty-two. They are young people filled with existential dreariness, young people who have surrendered to defeatism, young people who whine and run away from life. The path of hope is not an easy one. And it can’t be taken alone. There is an African proverb which says: “If you want to go quickly, walk alone, but if you want to go far, walk with another”.

So this is what I have to say to you, the young people of Cuba. For all your different ways of thinking and seeing things, I would like you to walk with others, together, looking for hope, seeking the future and the nobility of your homeland.

We began with the word “dream”, and I would like to conclude with another word that you said and which I myself often use: “the culture of encounter”. Please, let us not “dis-encounter” one another. Let us go side by side with one other, as one. Encountering one another, even though we may think differently, even though we may feel differently. There is something bigger than us, it is the grandeur of our people, the grandeur of our homeland, that beauty, that sweet hope for our homeland, which we must reach.

Thank you very much. I now leave you with my best wishes. For you I wish… everything I told you; that is what I wish for you. I am going to pray for you. And I ask you to pray for me. And if any of you are not believers – and you can’t pray because you don’t believe – at least wish me well. May God bless you and bring you to tread this path of hope which leads to the culture of encounter, while avoiding those “little worlds” that our companion spoke about. May God bless all of you.

—–

Dear Friends,

I am very happy to be with you here in this Cultural Center which is so important for Cuban history. I thank God for this opportunity to meet so many young people who, by their work, studies and training, are dreaming of, and already making real, the future of Cuba.

I thank Leonardo for his words of welcome, and particularly because, although he could have spoken about so many other important and concrete things such as our difficulties, fears, and doubts – as real and human as they are – he spoke to us about hope. He talked to us about those dreams and aspirations so firmly planted in the heart of young Cubans, transcending all their differences in education, culture, beliefs or ideas. Thank you, Leonardo, because, when I look at all of you, the first thing that comes into my mind and heart, too, is the word “hope”. I cannot imagine a young person who is listless, without dreams or ideals, without a longing for something greater.

But what kind of hope does a young Cuban have at this moment of history? Nothing more or less than that of any other young person in any other part of the world. Because hope speaks to us of something deeply rooted in every human heart, independently of our concrete circumstances and historical conditioning. Hope speaks to us of a thirst, an aspiration, a longing for a life of fulfillment, a desire to achieve great things, things which fill our heart and lift our spirit to lofty realities like truth, goodness and beauty, justice and love. But it also involves taking risks. It means being ready not to be seduced by what is fleeting, by false promises of happiness, by immediate and selfish pleasures, by a life of mediocrity and self-centeredness, which only fills the heart with sadness and bitterness. No, hope is bold; it can look beyond personal convenience, the petty securities and compensations which limit our horizon, and can open us up to grand ideals which make life more beautiful and worthwhile. I would ask each one of you: What is it that shapes your life? What lies deep in your heart? Where do your hopes and aspirations lie? Are you ready to put yourself on the line for the sake of something even greater?

Perhaps you may say: “Yes, Father, I am strongly attracted to those ideals. I feel their call, their beauty, their light shining in my heart. But I feel too weak, I am not ready to decide to take the path of hope. The goal is lofty and my strength is all too little. It is better to be content with small things, less grand but more realistic, more within my reach”. I can understand that reaction; it is normal to feel weighed down by difficult and demanding things. But take care not to yield to the temptation of a disenchantment which paralyzes the intellect and the will, or that apathy which is a radical form of pessimism about the future. These attitudes end either in a flight from reality towards vain utopias, or else in selfish isolation and a cynicism deaf to the cry for justice, truth and humanity which rises up around us and within us.

But what are we to do? How do we find paths of hope in the situations in which we live? How do we make those hopes for fulfillment, authenticity, justice and truth, become a reality in our personal lives, in our country and our world? I think that there are three ideas which can help to keep our hope alive:

Hope is a path made of memory and discernment. Hope is the virtue which goes places. It isn’t simply a path we take for the pleasure of it, but it has an end, a goal which is practical and lights up our way. Hope is also nourished by memory; it looks not only to the future but also to the past and present. To keep moving forward in life, in addition to knowing where we want to go, we also need to know who we are and where we come from. Individuals or peoples who have no memory and erase their past risk losing their identity and destroying their future. So we need to remember who we are, and in what our spiritual and moral heritage consists. This, I believe, was the experience and the insight of that great Cuban, Father Félix Varela. Discernment is also needed, because it is essential to be open to reality and to be able to interpret it without fear or prejudice. Partial and ideological interpretations are useless; they only disfigure reality by trying to fit it into our preconceived schemas, and they always cause disappointment and despair. We need discernment and memory, because discernment is not blind; it is built on solid ethical and moral criteria which help us to see what is good and just.

Hope is a path taken with others. An African proverb says: “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go with others”. Isolation and aloofness never generate hope; but closeness to others and encounter do. Left to ourselves, we will go nowhere. Nor by exclusion will we be able to build a future for anyone, even ourselves. A path of hope calls for a culture of encounter, dialogue, which can overcome conflict and sterile confrontation. To create that culture, it is vital to see different ways of thinking not in terms of risk, but of richness and growth. The world needs this culture of encounter. It needs young people who seek to know and love one another, to journey together in building a country like that which José Martí dreamed of: “With all, and for the good of all”.

Hope is a path of solidarity. The culture of encounter should naturally lead to a culture of solidarity. I was struck by what Leonardo said at the beginning, when he spoke of solidarity as a source of strength for overcoming all obstacles. Without solidarity, no country has a future. Beyond all other considerations or interests, there has to be concern for that person who may be my friend, my companion, but also someone who may think differently than I do, someone with his own ideas yet just as human and just as Cuban as I am. Simple tolerance is not enough; we have to go well beyond that, passing from a suspicious and defensive attitude to one of acceptance, cooperation, concrete service and effective assistance. Do not be afraid of solidarity, service and offering a helping hand, so that no one is excluded from the path.

This path of life is lit up by a higher hope: the hope born of our faith in Christ. He made himself our companion along the way. Not only does he encourage us, he also accompanies us; he is at our side and he extends a friendly hand to us. The Son of God, he wanted to become someone like us, to accompany us on our way. Faith in his presence, in his friendship and love, lights up all our hopes and dreams. With him at our side, we learn to discern what is real, to encounter and serve others, and to walk the path of solidarity.

Dear young people of Cuba, if God himself entered our history and became flesh in Jesus, if he shouldered our weakness and sin, then you need not be afraid of hope, or of the future, because God is on your side. He believes in you, and he hopes in you.

Dear friends, thank you for this meeting. May hope in Christ, your friend, always guide you along your path in life. And, please, remember to pray for me. May the Lord bless all of you.

 

 

Source: Vatican.va
Photo credit: Getty Images

10 September 2015

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Tags: Educators

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Categories: Events, News

The inaugural combined Catholic Preschools Teacher’s Day celebration was held on 4 September 2015 at the Yio Chu Kang Grassroots Club from 9am to 2pm, attended by Preschool teachers and principals.

These 114 educators participated actively in games and dance activities organised by the staff of St Anne’s Church Kindergarten and Nativity Church Kindergarten.

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Mrs Agnes Lee, a teacher at St Anne’s Church Kindergarten, was involved in the planning of the celebration. She saw this celebration as “an opportunity to celebrate each other’s calling to be a teacher”. “To me, it must be a meaningful get-together for us to rediscover the special qualities of a Preschool teacher. The feel-good activities allowed teachers to not only reflect on how they symbolise themselves [as an educator], but at the same time, to affirm each other.”

A sense of community and belonging was experienced by teachers, with many commenting that they had arrived as strangers, but departed as one big family of Catholic Preschool educators.

Preschool Teachers Day 2015 1

A participant at the celebrations, also named Mrs Agnes Lee, said: “[it] was certainly a special and unique occasion where we had meaningful fun”. Mrs Lee, Principal of Holy Family Kindergarten, added: “I enjoyed [myself] most when we shared, learned from each other, sang, danced and played games together. I was tremendously inspired by the many creative events put up by the teachers.”

“I really enjoyed this opportunity of celebrating Teacher’s Day together where there was so much bonding and friendship made. We definitely had a time of our lives!”

Preschool Teachers Day 2015 2

For more photos, check out our Facebook page.

 

3 August 2015

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Tags: Educators, Parents, Students

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Categories: Events, News

Our Canossian schools — St Anthony’s Canossian Primary and Secondary, Canossa Convent Primary and the Canossian School for the hearing impaired — made up a 180-strong combined choir to perform in an interfaith concert celebrating SG50. They sang Let There Be Peace on Earth at the concert titled Harmony in Diversity, celebrating religious and racial Harmony in Singapore.

Held at The Star Vista in a crowd of about 5,000, the event was jointly organised by New Creation Church and Taoist Federation (Singapore). It brought together 10 of the major religions — including Buddhists and Bahai’s, Christians, Hindus and Muslims — and the four main races in Singapore in song and dance. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was the guest of honour.

Harmony in Diversity Concert LHL

Deacon Matthew Kang, Chairman of New Creation Church, said, “As Singapore celebrates the 50th year of its independence, we give thanks for one of the most precious legacies that has been handed down to us – our racial and religious harmony. It is something worth celebrating and New Creation Church and Taoist Federation are happy and honoured to be co-organising this meaningful event.”

Mr Tan Thiam Lye, Chairman of Taoist Federation (Singapore), added, “We are very happy and encouraged that every race and religion represented in Singapore is involved in some way in tonight’s celebration event. Through this event, the relationships between the leaders of different faiths and races have been strengthened. This is a wonderful outcome.”

Sr Theresa Seow FDCC, Vice-Chairperson of the Archdiocesan Catholic Council for Interreligious Dialogue, and member of the event’s organising committee, shared her delight for the Catholic Church’s involvement in this interfaith event: “To see 180 children of our Catholic schools come together to perform was beautiful.”

She added: “The song performed by the choir was an appropriate one for the occassion, seeing that peace among different religions is what we’ve had in Singapore these 50 years. It is also our desire for future generations to have this peace, not just here in Singapore, but also in the world; it was symbolic that it is the children who sang that message.”

Harmony in Diversity Concert Canossian Choir 2

 

In spite of the logistical and administrative challenges of bringing so many schools together, the schools overcame the obstacles because “everyone was excited about participating in the event,” shared Ms Chua Lee Beng, HOD of CCA at St Anthony’s Canossian Primary School.

Recalling the performance, Ms Chua added: “I was watching the students sing on stage from the holding room backstage and I could not help but feel a sense of pride of the combined effort of the four schools, coming together as one Canossian family to share the message of peace with the different religions and races in Singapore. The reviews that I read on Facebook reaffirmed that their song touched those who attended the event that night.”

Apart from the performance put up by our Catholic schools, the concert also featured a drum performance by members from the Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery, a solo Indian classical dance, and songs by a multiracial group of singers, and a special joint martial arts display by Wudang Sheng Hong Health Preservation Centre and Perguruan Sim Putih. The night ended with the recitation of the national pledge of Singapore, a fitting reminder that “we, the citizens of Singapore” are “one united people, regardless of race, language or religion”.

Harmony in Diversity Concert Pledge

 

More coverage by Channel NewsAsia, Catholic News.

22 July 2015

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Tags: Educators, Students

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Categories: Events, News

Over a hundred students and teachers from Catholic schools were involved in special performances at the recent SG50 Thanksgiving Mass. They share how in their participation, they have discovered the beauty of being a Catholic School.

 

The recent SG50 Thanksgiving Mass that took place at the Singapore Indoor Stadium has certainly helped put Catholic education in Singapore back in the limelight, leaving many with a deep sense of pride and hope. Not only was the Church’s history and contributions to the nation’s education sector commemorated, but special performances were also prepared by more than a hundred students and teachers from Catholic schools here.

CHIJ Kellock Primary School’s choir sang uplifting hymns and harmonised with the 60-member full orchestra, while both St Anthony’s Canossian Primary and Secondary Schools’ percussion groups worked together to drum up an energetic performance with a diverse number of instruments.

JoySG50 School CHIJ Kellock Performing You Are Mine 1

In the challenging process of putting everything together within just a couple months of practice, teachers and students of the participating schools share that they have come to truly see the beauty of being a Catholic school.

JoySG50 School CHIJ Kellock Lunch Time

School, Church, Nation
Though the relationship between Church and School can admittedly be blurred at times, it is events like the SG50 Mass that helps students come to a deeper appreciation of their schools’ connection with the Catholic Church. They had not only learnt about the Church’s role in building up the education sector of Singapore, but were also given the chance to actively participate in celebrating the hopeful future of both Church and nation.

“The school and the choir were thrilled to be part of the JoySG50 performance team. Our principal reminded us that when the Church calls, we respond in faith and love. As part of the Catholic school community, we look forward to opportunities where we can share the good news of God’s love with those around us,” explained Mary Soh, Teacher Liaison for the CHIJ Kellock Primary Choir.

Because the choir consisted of non-Catholic students as well, the teachers of CHIJ Kellock Primary also paid special attention to help students understand and appreciate the hymns they sung. It was not simply a performance, but truly a thanksgiving occasion.

To the students who had lovingly volunteered their time, whether Catholic or not, their participation was important because of one common trait that unites themselves, the school, and the Church – being Singaporean.

JoySG50 School CHIJ Kellock with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong

Students echoed one another’s sentiments as Deborah Ann Lim, a choir member from CHIJ Kellock Primary expressed, “I am grateful to be given this once in a lifetime opportunity to perform at Singapore’s 50th birthday.” Jacynthe Liew and Steffi Chua, also choir members, chimed in, “Especially since PM Lee was also present to grace the occasion!”

The bigger picture
For the percussion groups of St Anthony’s Canossian Primary and Secondary Schools, performing at the SG50 Mass together as sister schools had also been a valuable lesson to see the bigger picture of their Catholic education.

JoySG50 School SAC 5

Veron Yap, Teacher Liaison for St Anthony’s Canossian Schools, shared, “It was an opportunity for the students to come together as sister-schools in close partnership to work for a common goal. It was a platform for students to challenge themselves and overcome what they perceive as their limitations, and they have proved themselves resilient and optimistic.”

JoySG50 School SAC 2

The schools’ willingness to participate in the occassion reflected the value of Catholic education, which is not only concerned about grades, but the development of the whole human person. Veron describes, “We believe that each student has an innate, God-given talent, and we just need to take the chance to help them discover it. These platforms are opportunities for students to be developed holistically.”

Overcoming limits
Because of the limited preparation time, which had been further hampered by the June Holidays, the St Anthony’s Canossian Primary and Secondary School percussion groups had to practice separately first, then subsequently combine their rhythms.

This proved challenging because the schools had different musical styles, and it was the first time they were collaborating with one another. However it was through these difficulties that teachers could help students see that they were in this together, and that God was in control.

“We committed everything to God and put in time to practice. Both schools were given time to interact so as to team-build and form warmer ties before the performance,” Veron illustrates.

JoySG50 School SAC 4

For the choir from CHIJ Kellock Primary School, teachers had also created learning tracks for the different voice parts and uploaded them onto the school’s online learning wall. This way, the disadvantage of the June holidays taking away practice time was minimised.

“Students were tasked to learn their melodic parts via this social medium, which has helped our choir to be more confident with their voice parts and to sing in beautiful harmony,” Mary expressed.

JoySG50 School CHIJ Kellock Group Photo

Organising chairman of the Church’s SG50 celebrations, Fr Derrick Yap OFM, highlights that it is important for the younger generation to feel proud of the Church, to understand that, “God has called us to be His children, and to belong to this beautiful Church.” Thus, he explains, “I tried to involve as many young as possible so that in days when they’re feeling down, hopefully something that was said, something that was sung, or someone that they met here, they remember it and they hold it in their hearts that God is real, for them at this moment.”

8 July 2015

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Tags: Educators, Students

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Categories: Homilies / Messages, News

Given at Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador on the occasion of his visit to Ecuador on 7 July 2015.

 

My Brother Bishops,
Father Rector,
Distinguished Authorities,
Dear Professors and Students,
Dear Friends,

I am very happy to be here with you this afternoon at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador, which for almost sixty years has helped to further the Church’s educational mission in service to the men and women of this country. I am grateful for your kind words of welcome, which expressed your profound hopes and concerns in the face of the challenges, both personal and social, of your work as educators.

In the Gospel we have just heard, Jesus, the Master, teaches the crowds and the small group of his disciples by accommodating himself to their ability to understand. He does this with parables, like that of the sower (cf. Lk 8:4-15). He does it in a way that everyone can understand. Jesus does not seek to “play the professor”. Instead, he seeks to reach people’s hearts, their understanding and their lives, so that they may bear fruit.

The parable of the sower speaks to us of “cultivating”. It speaks of various kinds of soil, ways of sowing and bearing fruit, and how they are all related. Ever since the time of Genesis, God has quietly urged us to “cultivate and care for the earth”.

God does not only give us life: he gives us the earth, he gives us all of creation. He does not only give man a partner and endless possibilities: he also gives human beings a task, he gives them a mission. He invites them to be a part of his creative work and he says: “Cultivate it! I am giving you seeds, soil, water and sun. I am giving you your hands and those of your brothers and sisters. There it is, it is yours. It is a gift, a present, an offering. It is not something that can be bought or acquired. It precedes us and it will be there long after us.

Our world is a gift given to us by God so that, with him, we can make it our own. God did not will creation for himself, so he could see himself reflected in it. On the contrary: creation is a gift to be shared. It is the space that God gives us to build up with one another, to build a “we”. The world, history, all of time – this is the setting in which we build this “we” with God, with others, with the earth. This invitation is always present, more or less consciously in our life; it is always there.

But there is something else which is special. As Genesis recounts, after the word “cultivate”, another word immediately follows: “care”. Each explains the other. They go hand in hand. Those who do not cultivate do not care; those who do not care do not cultivate.

We are not only invited to share in the work of creation and to cultivate it, to make it grow and to develop it. We are also invited to care for it, to protect it, to be its guardians. Nowadays we are increasingly aware of how important this is. It is no longer a mere recommendation, but rather a requirement, “because of the harm we have inflicted on [the earth] by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed it. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder it at will… This is why the earth herself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor” (Laudato Si’, 2).

There is a relationship between our life and that of mother earth, between the way we live and the gift we have received from God. “The human environment and the natural environment deteriorate together; we cannot adequately combat environmental degradation unless we attend to causes related to human and social degradation” (Laudato Si’, 48). Yet just as both can “deteriorate”, we can also say that they can “support one another and can be changed for the better”. This reciprocal relationship can lead to openness, transformation, and life, or to destruction and death.

One thing is certain: we can no longer turn our backs on reality, on our brothers and sisters, on mother earth. It is wrong to turn aside from what is happening all around us, as if certain situations did not exist or have nothing to do with our life.

Again and again we sense the urgency of the question which God put to Cain, “Where is your brother?” But I wonder if our answer continues to be: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Gen 4:9).
Here, in this university setting, it would be worthwhile reflecting on the way we educate about this earth of ours, which cries out to heaven.

Our academic institutions are seedbeds, places full of possibility, fertile soil which we must care for, cultivate and protect. Fertile soil thirsting for life.

My question to you, as educators, is this: Do you watch over your students, helping them to develop a critical sense, an open mind capable of caring for today’s world – a spirit capable of seeking new answers to the varied challenges that society sets before us? Are you able to encourage them not to disregard the world around them? Does our life, with its uncertainties, mysteries and questions, find a place in the university curriculum or different academic activities? Do we enable and support a constructive debate which fosters dialogue in the pursuit of a more humane world?

One avenue of reflection involves all of us, family, schools and teachers. How do we help our young people not to see a university degree as synonymous with higher status, money and social prestige. How can we help make their education a mark of greater responsibility in the face of today’s problems, the needs of the poor, concern for the environment?

I also have a question for you, dear students. You are Ecuador’s present and future, the seedbed of your society’s future growth. Do you realize that this time of study is not only a right, but a privilege? How many of your friends, known or unknown, would like to have a place in this house but, for various reasons, do not? To what extent do our studies help us feel solidarity with them?

Educational communities play an essential role in the enrichment of civic and cultural life. It is not enough to analyze and describe reality: there is a need to shape environments of creative thinking, discussions which develop alternatives to current problems, especially today.

Faced with the globalization of a technocratic paradigm which tends to believe “that every increase in power means an increase of progress itself, an advance in security, usefulness, welfare and vigor; …an assimilation of new values into the stream of culture, as if reality, goodness and truth automatically flow from technological and economic power as such” (Laudato Si’, 105), it is urgent that we keep reflecting on and talking about our current situation. We need to ask ourselves about the kind of culture we want not only for ourselves, but for our children and our grandchildren. We have received this earth as an inheritance, as a gift, in trust. We would do well to ask ourselves: “What kind of world do we want to leave behind? What meaning or direction do we want to give to our lives? Why have we been put here? What is the purpose of our work and all our efforts?” (cf. Laudato Si’, 160).

Personal initiatives are always necessary and good. But we are asked to go one step further: to start viewing reality in an organic and not fragmented way, to ask about where we stand in relation to others, inasmuch as “everything is interconnected” (Laudato Si’, 138).

As a university, as educational institutions, as teachers and students, life itself challenges us to answer this question: What does this world need us for? Where is your brother?
May the Holy Spirit inspire and accompany us, for he has summoned us, invited us, given us the opportunity and the duty to offer the best of ourselves. He is the same Spirit who on the first day of creation moved over the waters, ready to transform them, ready to bestow life. He is the same Spirit who gave the disciples the power of Pentecost.  The Spirit does not abandon us. He becomes one with us, so that we can encounter paths of new life. May he, the Spirit, always be our teacher and our companion along the way..

 

 

Source: Vatican Radio
Photo credit: andes.info.ec

18 June 2015

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Tags: Educators, Parents, Students

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Categories: News

Archbishop William Goh Prayer Intention June 2015

Archbishop William Goh’s prayer intention for June 2015 is for Catholic schools: “That Catholic educators will be more courageous in the proclaimation of the Gospel as they form young people in truth and love; that the Catholic Ethos to be strengthened in our Catholic schools.”

Please make a mention for this intention when you pray this month.

10 June 2015

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Tags: Educators, Parents

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Categories: News, Reflections

The complexity of the modern world makes it all the more necessary to increase awareness of the ecclesial identity of the Catholic school. It is from its Catholic identity that the school derives its original characteristics and its “structure” as a genuine instrument of the Church, a place of real and specific pastoral ministry. The Catholic school participates in the evangelizing mission of the Church and is the privileged environment in which Christian education is carried out. In this way “Catholic schools are at once places of evangelization, of complete formation, of inculturation, of apprenticeship in a lively dialogue between young people of different religions and social backgrounds” (John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in Africa, n. 102). The ecclesial nature of the Catholic school, therefore, is written in the very heart of its identity as a teaching institution. It is a true and proper ecclesial entity by reason of its educational activity, “in which faith, culture and life are brought into harmony” (Congregation for Catholic Education, Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic school, n. 34.). Thus it must be strongly emphasized that this ecclesial dimension is not a mere adjunct, but is a proper and specific attribute, a distinctive characteristic which penetrates and informs every moment of its educational activity, a fundamental part of its very identity and the focus of its mission (cf. Congregation for Catholic Education, Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic school, n. 33). The fostering of this dimension should be the aim of all those who make up the educating community.

From: The Catholic school On the threshold of the third millennium, 28 December 1997, Congregation for Catholic Education (for Seminaries and Educational Institutions)

4 June 2015

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Tags: Students

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Categories: Homilies / Messages, News

The Archdiocese of Singapore has released the following statement on the viral “#CharlieCharlieChallenge”:

“From time immemorial, people have always had an interest in or fascination for the spiritual realm, whether it be deities or demons.

Human beings have a natural curiosity to know the future, to acquire special powers and knowledge, and many would take much risks in pursuit of this. However, invoking the power of demons and evil spirits to satisfy our curiosity is not consonant with the practice of our Catholic faith, which puts our trust in God alone.

Moreover, the Bible tells us that one of the reasons for Jesus’ coming to earth is to free us from the oppression of the devil (1 Jn 3:8). So it flies against the cause of God’s salvation for us to empower demons to take control of our lives by wantonly invoking them to show their hand. Let us not underestimate the power of these spirits. What might appear to be child’s play could well end up with disastrous consequences.

It is not surprising that in a secularised world where God and the spiritual world are not acknowledged, many are ignorant of the reality of the work and the existence of evil spirits. All the popes in recent times have warned of the deception of the Evil One, by making us believe that he does not exist so that we need not be on guard.

Ignorance of the reality of the Evil One and reducing it to mere superstition is very much promoted in a world that only believes in science and technology. Many make light of the reality of evil spirits as seen in the way Halloween is celebrated in many parts of the world, i.e., merely as a fun activity. Those who invite the spirits consciously are willingly asking them to take control over their faculties, resulting in spiritual bondage.

Our advice is for parents to be mindful of what their children engage in, especially on the Internet, lest they fall prey to activities that might put them in the way of forces that are beyond anyone’s control.”

2 June 2015

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Tags: Educators

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Categories: Homilies / Messages, News

Given at Westminster Cathedral at Vespers on the occasion of his installation as inaugural Chancellor of St Mary’s University, Twickenham, on 27 May 2015

 

This is a wonderfully formal ceremony, rich in content and significance. Perhaps for the next few minutes I can be a little less formal and a little more personal.

It is a great privilege and pleasure to take on this role as Chancellor. There have been many moments of preparation. One always comes up. What I am going to wear!

Decision taken was that I remain in the formal dress of Cardinal as the suitable garb for the Chancellor. A clear statement, among many this afternoon, that our University sees itself as an expression of all that is best in the tradition and life of the Catholic faith. Doing so gives the University strong and deep roots and a stability of culture that no secular designation can bring.

When I think of St Mary’s, two people come into my mind.

The first is Pope Benedict, with his remarkable visit to the University in 2010. Look at what he did. First he met with and spoke to the men and women religious of England and Wales. Please read again the speech he gave, touching on the history of the University, the world-wide commitment of the Catholic Church to the work of education, ‘often laying the foundations of educational provision long before the State assumed responsibility for this vital service  to the individual and society.’ Deep historical roots indeed.

Then he met with the children, in the Big School Assembly. There he spoke to the heart of the invitation to life that is served by education. As is noted in the booklet, he invited the children ‘to become saints’, explaining that this meant never being satisfied with second best. His words: ‘I am asking you not to pursue one limited goal and ignore others. Having money makes it possible to be generous and to do good, but on its own it is not enough to make us happy. Being highly skilled in some activity or profession is indeed good, but it will not satisfy us unless we aim for something greater still. It might make us famous, but it will not make us happy…..In your Catholic schools, there is always a bigger picture over and above individual subjects you study, the different skills you learn. All you do is placed in the context of God and from that flows friendship with God’ and that is the ultimate source of our happiness. A vision of education for us to keep before our eyes.

Then he went to the Waldegrave Room and met with leaders from all sectors of society who were of other religious faiths. This was the strongest of all signals of the true breadth of the project of St Mary’s: that of bringing together, in every profession, in every walk of life, the strengths and resources of religious faith together with the best of scientific and contemporary endeavour. He stressed this: ‘The quest for the sacred does not devalue other fields of human enquiry. On the contrary it places them in a context which magnifies their importance as ways of responsibly exercising our stewardship over creation.’ As broad a mandate as you could wish.

This visit, and this person, Pope Benedict, stands, for me, as a strong sign of the path still to be followed by St Mary’s, in depth of endeavour, in vision of education and it wholeness of life.

The second person is not at all well known, but for me no less important. It is my father. In circumstances that I do not need to explain now, he found himself needing to acquire formal teaching qualifications, even though for five or more years he had been teaching in various classrooms. So he became a student of St Mary’s – or Simmaries as it was known.

He was a great teacher and a fine man, expressing in daily down-to-earth life precisely the qualities I have been speaking about. In the later part of his career he was approached a number of times about being a head teacher. He would have none of it. He said his joy and calling lay in standing in front of a class of ‘little nippers’ and seeing their minds and lives slowly opening to the wonders of life and learning. He was generous, staying on after school hours to provide what was known as the ‘play school’ but actually was to enable children to wait in safety  until their parents came home from work and, while they waited, to get on with their homework for that was nigh impossible once they got home. Later in his career he switched to primary school teaching, just to take on a new challenge. One of my cherished home memories is of my parents talking together, long into the evening, about what they were doing in the classroom, for my Mum too was a wonderful primary school teacher.

At this moment I can hear him telling me to stop. That’s more than enough, he is saying. Have you no sense about how long you should go on for – most priests don’t, he is adding! But there is one more thing I want to say. Just one sentence from the reading we have heard this afternoon: ‘Accept the strength that comes from the grace of Christ.’

I hope those words long remain at the centre of your lives, both individually and as an institution. You have seen your Vice-Chancellor receive a very formal mandate and give a very solemn undertaking. This is indeed a mandate of the Church, but, just as importantly, it is an invitation to rely on someone who is beyond all doubt and defeat, the one alone who has conquered the evil and death which is written into our world. He indeed is our source of courage and also our source of joy. In him may St Mary’s always be a place of great joy, Gospel joy. Then it will indeed prosper. Amen.

 

 

Given at Westminster Cathedral, London
27 May 2015, the Feast of St Augustine of Canterbury

Source: rcdow.org.uk
Photo credit: stmarys.ac.uk