2022 | Issue 1 | SJC News 2022

‘Anything is possible with God in 2022!

‘Strive for the Highest!’

College Commencement Masses

Welcome to our 2022 school year. I hope your family had a restful break amongst the challenges we are navigating in the current COVID situation.

This year our Identity team welcomes two new members, Ben Mc Dowell our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Coordinator and Cassandra Coogan who is working together with Ash Crook as Student Leadership Coordinators. You can look forward to each member of our team sharing their area of expertise in our community, which contributes to enhancing our Identity as a Catholic school in the Edmund Rice tradition, as we live out the gospel values and touchstones as a community of faith-filled people.

While it has been our practice to gather as staff with our Geelong Catholic Secondary Colleges on the first day of each school year, this year we were again unable to be together in one place. However, all five Catholic Geelong region Colleges and Mary MacKillop Education services prayed an online liturgy simultaneously as colleagues united as a faith community. As staff in our Catholic Colleges in Geelong, we share a common story, founded on the traditions and values of Jesus and significant people of faith who saw that, ‘Anything is possible with God’ (Luke 18:27). In our case, Blessed Edmund Rice, who saw the need to provide an education for those most in need.

As a staff member at St Joseph’s, we are gifted with many opportunities. St Joseph’s College exists not only to educate its diverse range of students, but it is a strong community of dedicated people hoping to develop students with deep values and a hope filled, strong character. When we look forward to what the year may bring, our 2022 theme, ‘Anything is possible with God’, comes from Luke’s gospel’. Luke a physician, who also wrote the Acts of the Apostles, was the only one to record the parable of the Good Samaritan. This idea of striving to be the best version of ourselves and making a positive difference to others and ourselves is the St Joseph College theme for 2022. It incorporates our learning goal as a staff and learning community, ‘To implement effective teaching and learning practices that are focussed on learning improvement for all students.’ Therefore, ‘Anything is possible with God,’ (Luke 18:27) Aim to strive for highest in all of our endeavours whether, academic, wellbeing or the service of others. At both of our Commencement Masses, our College Leaders shared, ‘I encourage all of you here today to embrace our theme, and redirect your paths so that all of us are walking towards the one goal of enhancing our mind and spirit.’ At Westcourt the Mass took place in Mary’s open air chapel led by Fr Daryl Montecillo and at our Edmund Rice campus, the Year Sevens gathered for their first mass at St Joseph’s with Fr Joseph Panackal in the Gym, while it was live streamed to the rest of the college. A special commissioning and blessing was made to welcome our new staff. Each staff member received an Edmund Rice prayer card to represent they are now a part of St Joseph’s College community in the Edmund Rice tradition.

We hope all of our new families to St Joseph’s College soon get to feel part of our ‘Inclusive Community’ as your children experience a ‘Liberating Education’ where the touchstone of ‘Justice and Solidarity’ is evident as we live lives nourished by our touchstone of ‘Gospel Spirituality’.