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Volume 22- 28 July, 2015 Dear Parents & Students This week we celebrate Catholic Education Week and reflect on the values and character of Catholic schools, our own Loreto College in particular. I have worked in five Catholic schools during my teaching career and count this as a privilege and a blessing. I can still recall the moment I decided to become a teacher, attracted by the combination of academic, intellectual stimulation and pastoral relationships. This decision was certainly the right one and I have loved the years spent working with teenagers; they are clever, witty and compassionate, constantly growing and maturing, and life is never dull! Teaching in Catholic schools means that the dimension of faith and values is explicitly integrated into my everyday work and relationships. To work in a context that enables a strong alignment between these values of justice, love and forgiveness and day-to-day interactions and decisions creates the sense of harmony that John O’Donohue refers to in the reading below. It is indeed a blessing to find this in our lives. Callings
When we arrive on earth, we are provided with no map for our life-journey. Only gradually, as our identity forms and we get an inkling of who we are, do possibilities begin to emerge that call us. It is one of the weightiest decisions: to decide what to do with your life. The challenge is to find a way of life that will be in harmony with your gifts and needs. Following one’s vocation ensures that what you choose to do finds itself in harmony with your inner nature. It also means that this is the optimum way to unfold and develop whatever gifts one has. A vocation does not clear before you a smooth path through difficulties. Having a sense of one’s vocation does not in any way relieve one of the travail and turbulence of being human. Indeed, being true to one’s vocation can often require a level of generosity and risk that will cause great suffering, for more often than not there is no surge of light to clarify direction; the light on offer is only enough to guide the next step. It is such a relief and joy to find the calling that expresses and incarnates your spirit. When you find that you are doing what you love, what you were brought here to do, it makes for a rich and contented life. You come into rhythm with your longing. Your work and action emerge naturally; your energy is immediate. Your passion is clear and creative. You feel at home in your life, heart and hearth at one. Adapted from John O’Donohue Benedictus
STAFF NEWS This week, we welcome Mrs Mélanie Labaeye to the Loreto Languages Department. Mrs Labaeye will be teaching Year 8, 9, 10 and 12 French while Miss Tilly is on leave.
Justice
Freedom
VERITY
Sincerity
Felicity