LORETO COLLEGE COORPAROO P O Box 1726, COORPAROO DC QLD 4151 Telephone: 07 3394 9999
Facsimile: 07 3847 1254
Absentee Line: 07 3394 9964
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Email: email@loreto.qld.edu.au Website: www.loreto.qld.edu.au
1 February 2011
Dear Parents and Students In this year where we celebrate across all Loreto Schools in Australia, the essential Loretian spirit of Felicity, we are invited to explore deeply the wellsprings within us that give rise to the Felicity in our hearts, minds and souls. Felicity is a spirituality of joy. Felicity manifests itself in cheerfulness, good humour, joy, happiness, hope, optimism, friendliness, courtesy, positive thinking, inner peace, self‐acceptance and courage. But, we ask ourselves, what gives rise to this joy? What do we have to do? How can we develop a Christian spirituality of joy? Joy comes with the dawn (The Book of Psalms) Joy always involves a movement from oppression into liberation. From fear into openness and trust It is about learning to live Being freed from . . . . to be free for . . . . Biblical spirituality constantly proclaims this journey from darkness to light . . . . from that which binds us to that which brings us life . . . . Gracious God, may we let go of our fears and inhibitions so that we might be free, truly free, to be felicitous in all we do and in all that we are called to be.Amen. IBVM News We congratulate Sr Margaret Mary Flynn ibvm, CEO of CentaCare in Western NSW, on her appointment as the Provincial Leader of the Loreto Sisters Australia. Sr Margaret Mary established CentaCare Wilcannia‐Forbes, the largest and poorest diocese in NSW, in 1996 and is a vigorous champion of the rights of women and indigenous communities. She has worked tirelessly to improve the quality of life in rural and indigenous communities and has been successful in lobbying government to provide significant funding for remote rural areas of NSW. In 2009, she was named as Telstra’s Business Woman of the Year. Sr Margaret Mary was chosen as the new provincial leader following a detailed selection process. Sisters were asked to consider who had the gifts, skills and experience to lead the Loreto Sisters and be responsible for the overall mission of the province. Nominations were sent to the Loreto International Leadership Council (based in Rome) who then made a decision following prayerful discernment, extensive consultation and interviews. Sr Margaret Mary said she felt honoured to be nominated by fellow Loreto Sisters and was looking forward to connecting more closely with the sisters and further exploring relevant expressions of Mary Ward’s charism. In 2007, Sr Margaret Mary presented to Loreto staff an inservice on Justice in which she referred to Leonard Cohen’s ‘Anthem’: “There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”