Dear Parents & Friends,

On Friday our College stopped to celebrate the Feast Day of Blessed Edmund Rice. We started the morning with a Mass celebrated by Father Bosco and I am grateful for the many parents who attended.

Edmund Ignatius Rice was an Irishmen who grew up in the late 1700s, a time where English occupation prevented Catholics from celebrating Mass. Edmund was a very successful businessman and was deeply concerned about the significant numbers of poor youth who had little prospect of escaping poverty and living a good life.

Edmund was a man who had his fair share of tragedy in his life. His young wife died and he had to care for his daughter as a single father. He himself battled at times throughout his life with anxiety and depression. Edmund could have focused on his own problems. He could have easily complained or given up. But Edmund cared deeply about God and people. He lived the rule that Jesus spoke of in the Gospel of Luke 6:31   “Do to others as you would have them do to you”.

Edmund realised that he had a choice in life. He could let his past unfortunate circumstances affect his life, or he could strive to be better, do more for others and show care and love. Ultimately, Edmund was far happier focusing on the positives and helping others.

Edmund started a school to educate poor children. Quickly he realised that in order for them to be successful, he would need to feed and clothe them too. Edmund worked his business using his contacts and focused on making a better life for children, giving them skills that would see them get jobs and escape the poverty that they would otherwise be trapped in.

That is why on the Feast of Blessed Edmund Rice, the students of St Francis engaged in social justice activities after Mass. Just after Mass I gave a speech to the community that justice should be about doing for others what we would want done for ourselves. I suggested that you don't need a reason to be kind to people and encouraged everyone to make it a rule in your life. It isn’t always apparent on the outside what struggles people may be facing on the inside. What really matters is how we treat each other.

I presented a simple list of 15 suggestions and ideas of ways to be kind.  I told students and parents that I would publish this list in the newsletter and encouraged everyone to pick a couple and make a habit of doing them as often as you can.

So here is the list:

1. Smile and make someone's day a little sweeter
2. Look for ways you can promote peace
3. Just listen
4. Invite someone new into your friend tribe
5. Send out a kind email or card
6. Give someone a genuine compliment
7. Help clean up, without being asked, help someone out in a practical way
8. Hold open the door for the person behind you
9. Encourage a friend or family member when they are uncertain or
 unmotivated
10. Make peace with someone that has hurt you
11. Give your time to a friend or someone who needs it
12. Say “Thank You” and “Please” every day without fail
13. Say "I love you" a little more often to your family and friends
14. Pause before you speak and choose words with positive intention
15. Pick up any litter you see, even if its not yours

Let us be inspirational, like Edmund. He changed the lives of young people by setting up schools, providing education, clothing, food and shelter.

Let us dedicate ourselves to be kind as a way of life. 

Let us be more active in our efforts not because we have to, but because we want to. Not even because others have been kind to us but because being nice is the way of the heart.

Justice and kindness is always a choice. The more conditioned we are to respond with kindness, the more natural it becomes. It is on purpose with purpose.

Let us make the community of St Francis a kindness movement, and together we can make a difference, together we can change the world.

Happy Feast Day

Mr Simon Abernethy
College Principal