Vice Principal's Report

'Share Light, Be Light' Project

Padua students in Years 7, 8, 9 and 12 are participating in the 'Share Light, Be Light' Project as part of their RE course this term. In this Year of Light at Padua College, it is an opportunity for our students to share the good news we find around us, hopefully counter-balancing the grim statistics and news reports we are taking in each day. And of course it is also an opportunity for students to be that good news, and to create their own light in our world at the moment. We are very proud of the way our students have embraced this project, and the many wonderful stories we have heard from our families and the wider community, which has indeed been a real light for us all in these trying times. Thank you to all the students who have shared their light! Please continue to do so in the coming weeks and months.

Reflection for the Week

Each week on this page we will share a reflection on our present experience. The following is by Lynn Unger, a church minister in the USA.

Pandemic
What if you thought of it
as the Jews consider the Sabbath—
the most sacred of times?
Cease from travel.
Cease from buying and selling.
Give up, just for now,
on trying to make the world
different than it is.
Sing. Pray. Touch only those
to whom you commit your life.
Center down.

And when your body has become still,
reach out with your heart.
Know that we are connected
in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.
(You could hardly deny it now.)
Know that our lives
are in one another’s hands.
(Surely, that has come clear.)
Do not reach out your hands.
Reach out your heart.
Reach out your words.
Reach out all the tendrils
of compassion that move, invisibly,
where we cannot touch.

Promise this world your love–
for better or for worse,
in sickness and in health,
so long as we all shall live.

Michael Harrison
Vice Principal: Mission & Community