Dear members of the Mount Lilydale Mercy College community
Welcome to Term 3 and I hope you have all returned ready for the rigours of Term 3 and a new semester. But, I do wonder how you are all going.
I am all ‘COVID-ed OUT’, as I am sure you are, as well. How is it that we find ourselves in such a position? Like you, I watch the press conferences each day knowing that the later they are in the day the worse the numbers are. What new restriction will be imposed today? Wear a mask. Get tested. Stay home if you are sick. Stay home if you are positive. One could easily be overwhelmed by it all.
It is dark outside, cold and wet, and I again I find myself reflecting on the current situation. How easy it is to become negative. How easy it is to blame the Premier of Victoria, the international travellers, the Chinese Government, the security guards. How can we remain positive and be the beacons of hope, when so many around us tempt us to look to the dark side? I understand people are scared and there is a lot of pain in the community, and that is why we are called to be people of Mercy and people of hope. Now, more than ever, we must be supportive of each other and look for the goodness in each other, which we know to be present.
Over the last week there are two things that I have read that have caused me to stop and reflect. The first is the reflection that sits next to my desk, in the hope that I read it often. I need to read it far more often. It is a prayer that I have always attributed to martyred Archbishop Oscar Romero (1917–1980) as it sums up his teaching to the people of El Salvador, but this reflection is actually an excerpt from a homily written for Cardinal Dearden by Fr Ken Untener on the occasion of the Mass for Deceased Priests, 25 October 1979. Pope Francis quoted Cardinal Dearden in his remarks to the Roman Curia on 21 December 2015. Knowing all this only makes it more beautiful and relevant to me and hopefully for you. It is this:
The Magnificent Enterprise
It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.
The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent
enterprise that is God’s work. Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of
saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the Church’s mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.
This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realising that.
This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an
opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master
builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.
There are so many things to reflect upon and learn from this prayer.
As we begin Term 3 in an environment that none of us would want, in an environment that is difficult, we must accept that which we cannot change, but at the same time work for a better future. Now is the time to sow the seeds that will bring the change that create the future we want. Who was it that said “If you can dream it, you can create it”?
This applies to everything. It applies to the whole holistic education of our children. They must continue to develop and learn to improve their outcomes. Hopefully the processes instigated by the College will help and lead in this, remembering that no one can force a student to do the work or to learn. Now is the time to be working to find a solution to this pandemic. We must learn to live with it, while scientists all around the world search for a vaccine. Now is not the time to stop living in hope, remembering that the naysayer dies a thousand deaths. Fear can not allow us to move forward.
Now is the time of community, whereby we work as a collective to achieve.
This is what we have been called to do as we start this new term together. As a community we must maintain the rules about social distancing, personal hygiene, mask wearing and staying home if sick, but that does not mean we do not socially connect and support each other. Now more than ever is the time for us to be the workers and dreamers within the context of the world we live in, locally and globally.
The second thing that I read this week that made me reflect I found is another Mercy Schools newsletter and accordingly sought permission from the Principal to share it with you. The Principal quoted Mary Sullivan’s The Path of Mercy The Life of Catherine McAuley 2012 (The Catholic University of America Press):
“She (Catherine) wrote to Archbishop Murray seeking permission to offer the services of the Sisters of Mercy wherever they were needed. Daniel Murray endorsed the Baggot Street community’s willingness to assist in the epidemic, though there were only 10 of them and they were already running a shelter for dozens of homeless women.” (p116)
The Sisters worked tirelessly to support the caring of those suffering at the time. “To those she (Catherine) knew or suspected were Christian, as well as to others who said they were not, she offered hope and confidence in the mercy of a God who looked on them with compassion. The extremity of the situation called for the most thorough consolation she knew how to give: trust in the present and future love of the God in whom she believed.” (p118)
Although they worked with patients who suffered from cholera, none of the sisters got sick.
At a time of the cholera epidemic in Ireland, despite the very real possibility of death, the Sisters of Mercy, whom I suspect had no real training in nursing, went out to help those in need. They went into the hospitals to provide comfort. They had no fear for themselves.
This leads me to ask where is the Mercy in our world today and the answer is all around us. It is in the hospital workers who risk all to support those in intensive care units or in hospitals. Mercy is present at the testing stations where a large number of people risk their own health to provide a service. It is in the charities that provide food and care to those who have lost jobs. It is in the mental health workers who provide social connection. It is in all those who work in required jobs to keep our society functioning despite the fear of COVID-19.
Let us pray for all those who are sick and all those who work for them and for us. Let us pray for our students as they start this new term in uncertain times. May they find the support and hope that is much needed in their lives.
God bless
Philip A Morison
Principal
