Dear members of the Mount Lilydale Mercy College community
Welcome to the 40 days of Lent that started with Ash Wednesday on the 14 February. At the College, year level services were held throughout the day, very capably led by the Year 10 Youth Ministry Team. I attended the service with Year 9 students. During the service ashes are used to draw a cross on each person’s forehead while one of the following is said: “Repent, and believe in the Gospel" or "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return".
The Ashes are made by burning the palms that were used on Palm Sunday last year.
This may seem a strange ritual to the uninitiated. In the past I have heard it said by adults that it is wonderful the way the Catholic Church has come to remember the Ash Wednesday bush fires and honour those that have lost their lives. Now whilst this may be a nice sentiment, we know that Ash Wednesday has a longer and more widespread tradition and so too does the practice of having one's forehead signed with ashes. It has a biblical parallel. Putting ashes on one's head was a common biblical expression of mourning seen in both the Old and New Testaments. We start Lent by doing it as an outward sign that we mourn Christ's suffering on the cross and that we recognise that we are not perfect and are with sin, which is what made that suffering on the cross necessary. Lent itself is the 40 day period in which we prepare for the Easter season and the Paschal Mystery.
His Grace, Archbishop Denis Hart has written to each and every one of us in his 2018 Lenten Pastoral Letter, the text of which I have included below for you to read.
The 2018 College year has started very well and although busy, it is great to see the buzz across the grounds and in the classrooms. Last week I had the pleasure of visiting all nine Year 12 homerooms as they started their year together with a Retreat. This is a very important part of their final year together and it helps them to reflect on their relationship with each other, with God and to be open to all the messages that they will receive this year. Messages that will hopefully prepare them academically, but also prepare them for the life that is to follow their time at Mount Lilydale Mercy College.
So too, I had the pleasure of visiting all ten, Year 7 groups as they joined together in their camp. This camp, while lots of fun, is about welcoming each other and forming as students starting at our College. Hopefully it was a bonding experience that saw friendships made and respectful relationships initiated. I know you can see a marked difference within groups from the start to the finish of the camp.
Ash Wednesday this week highlighted to us that the printed College calendar sent home to you contains a handful of errors and omissions for which I apologise. It indicated that Ash Wednesday was Wednesday 21 February, which it clearly is not. Similarly the Night of Excellence will take place on Friday 14 December (not Monday 17 December). Please make these changes in your printed calendars and refer to the calendar on the website for the most up-to-date source of information. The following dates have been confirmed on the website calendar ie: Open Day (14 March), College Play (10, 11, 12 May), Careers Expo (27 July) College Musical (2,3,4 August) and Year 12 Graduation (24 November).
God Bless
PASTORAL LETTER OF ARCHBISHOP DENIS HART
LENT 2018
'Repent and believe the good news!'
Dear Friends,
Lent is a time for ‘Spring cleaning’ in our souls. We move the furniture in our life, take down the curtains, wash the windows and create space by removing what clutters our daily lives. It is not just a matter of getting rid of mess. It is rearranging things, finding ways to create more room, a better space. We see ourselves differently and make more room for God.
During the holy season of Lent we open our hearts and minds to a fresh, deeper, fuller awareness of God within us, around us: a deeper awareness of God's will for us. We are each called to spend extra time in prayer and to confess our sins honestly to Christ in the Sacrament of Penance.
Lent reminds us forcefully that we will be judged at our death and must give an account of our life.
Yet death is such a taboo subject in our culture. Some treat it as a ’problem’ that can be 'solved' and legislated about. But Lent reminds us we must ponder deeply its stark reality.
During our life on earth we struggle to protect our future with bank accounts, credit cards and investments. We protect the future with health plans, life insurance, social security and retirement plans. There is nothing wrong with that. But the statistic on death has not changed. It is still one per person.
There comes a moment when no amount of cash or plastic or investment protects us. We die. No human support goes with us to the grave. Human companionship stops at the tomb, and we enter alone, except that the Lord goes with us. Because of his dying and rising to new life, the Lord is with us at death, through death, and takes us to the other side to share in the transformed life which God has prepared for us.
This is why we could wear ashes on our forehead for four weeks and say "dust to dust" without being morbid. We were entering into the dying and rising of Christ.
So this Lent please fast, pray, and give alms. When we reduce our intake of food we discover what it is like for so many in our world to go hungry all day. We reflect more deeply about life… and death. When we pray more intensely, our mind opens up to wider horizons. When we give things away and support Project Compassion, we create more space in our lives, more room for God, and we realise how much we depend on God.
And during this Lent of 2018 we have a special duty. At every Mass we pray ‘through my fault, through my most grievous fault’, and the recent Royal Commission has indeed highlighted the evil and sins that have done so much damage to children, families and all of the Body of Christ.
I urge each of you this Lent and beyond to pray and act for healing for all victims. I commit our Church once again to the sacred vocation of ensuring such terrible evils are never again inflicted on Christ’s ‘little ones”.
Yes, let us pray for the grace of repentance. Christ’s message is demanding, but let us never forget, it is our Good News and salvation!
Listen to Christ Jesus as he cries out to each of our hearts, this Lent 2018:
Do not be greedy.
Be lavish in giving your goods to others.
Live the generosity of God.
Do not be violent.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called children of God.
Do not be spiteful.
Be merciful as your heavenly father is merciful.
Do not be frightened.
I am with you all days, even to the end of time.
Come to me all you who find life weary and burdensome,
and I will refresh you.
As we prepare to celebrate the Sacred Triduum - the dying and rising of Christ ... and our dying and rising with him … let us all: “Repent and believe the good news!”
+ Denis J Hart
ARCHBISHOP OF MELBOURNE
