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Loreto
Chronicle
The Year of Verity
Volume 29 No.1 June 2015
From the Principal In Loreto Schools across Australia this year, not only are we celebrating the theme of ‘verity’, we are also remembering with thanks the life of remarkable Mother Gonzaga Barry IBVM. Mother Gonzaga was the founder of Loreto Schools in Australia and 2015 is the 100th anniversary of her death. I take this opportunity to share with you some of her story extracted from the Loreto Australia website www.loreto.org.au Mary Barry (24/7/1834 – 4/03/1915) was born into a large, well-to-do family in Wexford, Ireland. As a child she witnessed some of the horror of the Great Famine of the 1840s and never forgot it. She was educated at Loreto Gorey and Rathfarnham, joining the Institute herself at the age of 19, and taking the name of the young Jesuit saint, Aloysius Gonzaga. Mother Gonzaga held various leadership positions over the next 20 years and in 1875, at the invitation of the Bishop of Ballarat, led the first group of Loreto Sisters to the Australian colonies. Gonzaga was small, plump, profoundly deaf and increasingly dependent on the use of an ear trumpet and yet during her 40 years in the colonies she became one of the most significant figures in Australian Catholic education, particularly for women. Ireland was in her soul and yet she identified with her adopted country. A woman of extraordinary energy and faith, she embraced educational initiatives from kindergarten to tertiary level and founded teacher training colleges in Ballarat and Melbourne. In the last 20 years of her life she took a leading role among Mary Ward women worldwide in the cause of uniting various branches of the order. Gonzaga died at Mary’s Mount, Ballarat, on 4 March 1915 and is buried there in the small garden cemetery. Gonzaga Barry urged pupils of Loreto schools to “leave after you something on which others may build.” She lived these words herself. In her 40 years in the Australian colonies she founded ten girls’ boarding schools, ten day schools, six
This is an edited extract from the Verity address by 2015 College Captains, Grea Effeney and Georgia Garrett, at the Opening Mass.
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n 2015, all Loreto Schools throughout Australia will be celebrating the virtue of ‘verity’. As we gather here together today, let us pause and think about what verity means to each of us. Who are we called to be? What is divine in all of us? Mary Ward believed verity was to live with integrity and truth, particularly the profound truth of who we are and what gives meaning to our lives. At the end of last year, Grea and I travelled to Melbourne for the annual Loreto Leadership Conference, along with the Captains from six other Loreto schools in Australia. As we explored the meaning of verity and how we could live this virtue in our daily lives, we focused on what it meant to be true to ourselves. One idea that resonated with us and empowered us, was Mary Ward’s assertion of “no half women, no half measures”. Mary Ward believed in the capacity of women to contribute significantly to society and to face challenges or adversity with courageous hearts. Verity means committing passionately, with fervour, to all that we do and being authentic and sincere in our words and actions. We must have the courage to seek the truth. We must be able to love ourselves for all that we are – which enables us to be true to ourselves and then to others. When we open our hearts to verity and truly embrace the truth of who we are, it is a natural progression to live sincerely, to act justly, to love tenderly and to walk humbly with God. It is our hope that you will adopt the Verity Prayer created by the student leaders into your lives not only in 2015, but also in future years, in order to practice the true meaning of Mary Ward’s virtue of verity. This year, we ask you to “ignite the fire, let truth inspire.” Embrace the virtue of verity and begin 2015 with the belief that we can seek the truth always, have the courage to speak the truth without fear and have the joy of accepting who we are and sharing this with others. Let’s unite and ignite the truth in all that we do this year. Grea Effeney & Georgia Garrett
2015 Opening Mass
Verity Prayer Loving God, In this Loreto year of Verity, we are called to explore the profound truth of who we are and what gives meaning to our lives. May we be guided to seek your truth, have the integrity to speak it and the love to share it. Encourage us to draw strength from one another and act as a united voice of truth in the pursuit of a loving and just world. Open our hearts and minds to develop a sense of authenticity in our actions, so that we may whole heartedly commit to all that we do. Help us to recognise your divine presence within ourselves and those around us, as we do the ordinary things well, in the footsteps of Mary Ward. With one heart we pray. Amen. (composed by the 2015 Loreto Student Leaders)
Mrs Cheryl Hamilton presents Senior Badges to the class of 2015
Be seekers of truth and doers of justice