It seems like every Sunday for the past few weeks we have been celebrating various special days in the Church calendar. My last article focused on Pentecost Sunday, and only last Sunday we celebrated Corpus Christi (Body and Blood of Jesus Christ). What has been even more fascinating has been the parallels between the Church calendar and our own experiences in the post quarantine period. I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity to attend Mass in my local parish over the weekend, and while I have already been regularly attending our own Friday masses at Good Sam, there was something extra special about rejoining my parish community in celebration of the Eucharist. The fact that I was experiencing this joy on the very Sunday dedicated to acknowledging the importance of the Eucharist just seemed to make perfect sense. The day reminded me of the gift that we as Catholics are given everytime we receive the Body and Blood of Christ at Mass. If there is one thing that this whole pandemic has hopefully taught us is to never take the Eucharist or our Church communities for granted. It is truly special to have the opportunity to celebrate the Eucharist in person every Sunday and I continue to pray that as restrictions continue to ease, that more people will get this special opportunity to attend Mass. It is almost like God is trying to communicate with us the idea that after all the doom and gloom of 2020 so far, that He is still very much alive in our world today.
A few days earlier I had yet another encounter with God as I witnessed many of our Year 11 and 12 students engage in our very first Encounter Youth Leadership afternoon. Establishing this youth group has been a special project since ACYF19 last December, but with Covid-19 getting in the way, the dream of seeing this group launch officially had become a seemingly remote hope. On Thursday 11th June our first GSCC Encounter Youth gathering was held in support of our prospective youth leaders. The afternoon was well attended by staff and students, with Mr Chircop our Acting Youth Ministry Coordinator, taking the students through a leadership formation that included singing, dancing, and a discussion of important leaders from the Bible. We finished the afternoon with students breaking off into smaller ministries of Liturgy, Social Justice, Music, and Media where they planned future initiatives to be held in 2020 and beyond. I would like to thank all the students for their attendance and participation as well as to Mr Chircop, Ms Backhouse, Mrs Samardzic, Miss Messina, Miss Ferraro, and Mr Reyes and the Media Team for ensuring that our first official gathering was a huge success. Good Samaritan Catholic College is once again alive with the Holy Spirit and I look forward to announcing more exciting events and initiatives from Encounter Youth and the Religious Education department in the coming weeks.
Christ is alive and He wants you to be alive!
Mr Matthew Bradbury
Acting Religious Education Coordinator