Principal’s Address
Today we gather to celebrate the end of the academic calendar in a year where we have focused on hope and the building of a culture that celebrates resilience, forgiveness, positivity and being visionary. We also take this opportunity to recognise the successes, strength, determination and passion exhibited by our young women in 2024. So much has been achieved, both academically and more broadly, by our students who have had the courage to impact on each other with positivity and kindness whilst honouring their own dreams and capabilities.
I want to thank the parents and carers of our young women for their support and commitment to the growth of their loved ones. I also thank their teachers for the exceptional learning opportunities and guidance they have provided this year.
Of course, I want to give thanks to and for each and every student at Merici College. They have worked to become people of “high hope” by:
- Being grateful no matter how difficult things seem to be
- Limiting their “bad news” intake
- Focusing on what they can look forward to
- And surrounding themselves with hopeful people.
Most have learnt that to forgive each other and “the powers that be” frees them to move into positive, healthy, generative, and loving action.
You have shown that our college values: fidelitas, integritas, communitas and spes are integral to our theme for this year. You have worked with your heads, hearts and hands in order to find direction whilst being guided by love and compassion. I believe that many of you have come to understand that hope is like a steadfast and calm anchor that gives us courage, composure, stability, joy, positivity and wonder as we move through our lives, however challenging and chaotic seeming they may be. You have answered Jesus’ call to be people of hope, answering his invitation to live his message of hope and so contribute to the building of God’s glorious kingdom on earth. We have been inspired by his Passion and Resurrection which is, at its very essence, a story of hope and unconditional love.
This year I challenged you to make hope an action, not just an attitude or state of mind:
You might like to reflect on the following ideas and questions I posed to you in our opening assembly. Did you find the answers to these questions during 2024?
- What will you turn to when you know you need to keep going, to not give up?
- Who or what are the anchors in your life?
- How will you use hopeful language in order to make hope real and embed it as a heartstring?
- What hopeful actions can you take to create a ripple effect of joy and positivity in our community?
- What do you feel and think is possible for you to achieve this year?
- How might you use forgiveness to set you free and move on from pain and upset?
- Did you, as Joan Chittister says, “grasp the grace of new possibilities”, choose to become someone new, to live in hope in 2024?
I believe that many of you have achieved the personal goals set at the start of this year. Congratulations. If you didn’t, welcome to the world of aspiration and determination – a place where most of us exist! Just remember that “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” (C.S.Lewis) Listen to the wisdom in the words from the First Testament: that “…those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” (Isaiah 40:31)
I so look forward to you continuing your learning years with us and to walking with you as you journey on your individual stellar, dream fuelled trajectories. I can’t wait to see who you emerge to be in your senior years.
That being said, have a wonderful, well deserved, safe and restorative break!
Merry Christmas and every blessing to you all.
Mrs Anna Masters
Principal
