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Kia ora e te whanau
Faith – Love – Hope Visiting our contributing Catholic primary school, St Mary’s, is always a privilege and an honour. These students are our future and many of our families have children in both schools. We are also lucky to share a learning support coordinator who works on both campuses, to have staff members with children on both campuses, the sharing of our Parish Priest and now our newly appointed seminarian. For me personally I am lucky to have a strong working relationship with my Principal colleague, Mrs Annie Nelson, who works unfailingly to support both of our schools in the Mercy way. Recently members of the Parish Council and our Proprietor’s representatives on both our Boards of Trustees came together one evening for professional development on the safeguarding of our young people and members of our parish. While the topic was valuable, more valuable for me was the opportunity to read the values statement the St Mary’s staff had put together on their wall. On it was an agreement to unashamedly live by and show action to the values of faith, love and hope. This reminded me of the story of the candles of faith, love and hope: Candles called faith, love and hope burned quietly on a table. FAITH had burned brightly for a long while but then flickered and eventually died out. It cited the fact that people no longer believed in God, reason and science had replaced God. Anyway, who needs faith in today’s world? We are self-sufficient. LOVE also burned brightly and then flickered and eventually died out... It cited the knowledge that people were selfish, only interested in themselves and anyway the world, the internet and politics were full of hatred etc! But HOPE never really burned brightly. It spent most of its time flickering and trying to stay alive. It kept burning despite every obstacle thrown at its flame. It continually called out - weakly - to the other 2 candles...”I am staying alive so that you, FAITH, and you, LOVE, will eventually start burning again. That is my mission.” Pope Francis always refers to the future as hope. We can live with many things, but we cannot live without hope. What does this mean for our community at St Peter’s? How do we continue the mission set alight in the younger years of our children at St Mary’s? We can do this through the following: Parents having hope for their children when they make mistakes and bad choices. Parents having hope when they work long hours and make sacrifices and worry so their children can have a future. Young people having hope when they struggle with their identity, their ambitions and the expectations placed upon them. Sports teams having hope when they go for the final basket or pound towards the finish line. Teachers having hope during the lonely times late at night making learning easy for their students and keeping student’s expectations high. Our past parents and students having hope with regards to finance, governance and stewardship, when giving of their personal efforts and skills. Hope is everything in life. Hope is everything at St Peter’s College. Education at its core is about hope. Good today, better tomorrow – Charity fulfils the law Tara Quinney Principal
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