This week Martin Ryan led the staff in prayer and provided our community with a text from Joan Chittister, an American Benedictine theologian. The piece challenged my thinking and provided some insights into the tradition of Advent.

Advent is one of the most difficult periods of the church’s liturgical cycle with all of the life questions the Scriptures bring. Why? Because Advent is all about waiting. And waiting is not easy.

As life goes on, the liturgical cycles seem to become more and more meaningful to me. Perhaps after you’ve done enough living you come to understand that every life waits, suffers, comes to new life and rejoices in the ordinary. Advent is especially meaningful because it teaches me to wait without complacency, to wait without compliance.

There is so much to wait for now in life: human development, love, peace in the church and in the world. And most of us do not wait well for what we want or what we are meant to be. We get impatient or we get depressed. We question or we doubt. We argue or we get alienated.

And now, we all wait, not for the coming of Christ—God took care of that—but for the coming of the Gospel, which we are delaying in the name of God.

The key to the contradictions must be in the waiting. The question is; What is there about the waiting that is redemptive?

The chosen people taught us how to wait and why. They waited for years and decades and centuries through captivity and the destruction of the temple and the Roman occupation. And they never gave up.

Now women must wait through the captivity of their full humanity by the church.

Now nations must wait through the mad planning for the destruction of the planet by governments sick with power and paranoid with fear.

Now the poor and uneducated and middle-class unemployed must wait, through occupation by the militaristic mind-set, for the return of social programs and high ideals for all.

But while we wait, we can learn and grow and become stronger than ever in our convictions. We can be conscientious and creative. And no matter who wants to suppress us or to silence us, we can be signs of hope that never, never go away until, someday, the star finally shines.

—from Life Is for Living: Advent Reflections by Joan Chittister (Benetvision), available as an eBook

Last week we had our first student-led College Assembly for the 2023 school year as we launched our Early Start program. It was a wonderful opportunity to be led by Sophie Busuttil and Xavier Byrne – our College Captains. It was important to assemble to celebrate the gifts of our students. A special thank you to Alex Western Alex Logan, Carina Drake and Harriet Murphy. Below is the speech l delivered to the community.

Today is an important day in the history of our College it is the day that we begin our new academic school year, it is the first full year we have completed as learners post the COVID pandemic. Each one of you in front of us has contributed to this historical moment. In years to come, we will be known as the learners who have been challenged, learnt new concepts, and worked at rebuilding our Damascus community after two awful years of the pandemic.

Today we re-set, start again and move forward. We can no longer make excuses but rather we need to be forward thinking, engaged in a learning program that challenges us to think, do and respond. We are to be people who no longer make excuses because of COVID, rather we move forward together – recognising how we can grow and continue to be better people.

Like Paul, on his road through Damascus, we are learners who Live by The Light of Christ and bring others to do likewise. Like Paul, we at Damascus College are to raise one another to become the body of Christ – we are the people who strive to be our best and work for a just and respectful community. We are a community that does not discriminate against race, gender or social standing. Paul knew he had to be a man that had grit, to be adaptable and to try to be courageous in a challenging time. At times Paul worked collaboratively, and at other times he moved forward alone. Paul was a great learner!

As we know, our College, whilst young here at Mount Clear, has a long and rich history that has been in the Ballarat community for over 140 years. Some of your parents were students at either, Sacred Heart College, St Paul’s Technical School, or St Martins in the Pines. Today we are one school – Damascus; the only Catholic Co-educational College in Ballarat. We, as a school, have always been shaping, contributing to, and growing Ballarat.

As a College our School has always been contemporary, celebrated the gift and talents of each student. We are a school that believes and knows that everyone can learn and grow! Importantly we want everyone to learn in an environment that is respectful, orderly and challenges us outside our comfort zone! Your parents, family and teachers believe in you! My wondering is do you believe in yourself! Do you come to school to be the best version of yourself each and every day.

Our school logo – celebrates this strong sense of pride, respecting our past traditions and a deep desire to work in the light of Christ. This morning l want to explain our logo.

The Light symbolising conversion, the five stars of the southern cross-linking us to something greater and stronger. The cross is our Christian tradition that reminds us that we are all made in the image and likeness of our God. As you wear that blazer and your college uniform you are reminded of who you represent. – and how we need to treat one another.

We are challenged to be our best – whatever our skills, our academic ability, whatever dream we have – be the best! Being the best means using every moment in this College to learn, grow and be a person of integrity. When l first began at the College, l met each of the year levels and spoke to you about what being your best means. I want to reiterate this as we move into our new academic year. RESPECT for yourself, respect for others and respect for your college community. Our classrooms are places of learning and today we reset what that learning looks like, feels like, and sounds like. Mr Robertson and Mr Pillai will elaborate on how you are expected to meet the expectations that we, as a learning community, expect of you as we commence this new academic year. These expectations are in place not to punish but to acknowledge that some habits, such as arriving to class late, not submitting work on time and wearing the school uniform inappropriately, are addressed. If you cannot meet the College expectations, l, encourage you to think about what choices you have.

As the College Principal, I do not apologise for our high expectations, and I expect that you will treat one another with the utmost respect, and you will treat all staff with total respect. I expect to see your behaviour and attitude to your learning continue to grow and for you to challenge yourself and set goals knowing that you are respected and admired by your family, the brilliant staff at this College and yourself.

So, as we move into our 2023 academic school year, today is the beginning of a new chapter, a new beginning and time for each one of us to be proud of being a Damascus learner. We want you to come to the College to form lifelong friends and to be lifelong learners. We only have one opportunity at being young, so celebrate each day and treasure one another, your teachers, and this community. Be proud and be an upstander; one who knows how to be respected and to respect oneself.

Until next week

Steven