Welcome all to the commencement of the 2022 school year. I hope that you had a lovely summer, full of rest, rejuvenation, good health and time with your loved ones.
I also trust that all are ready for a year that we know will be filled with both wonders and challenges. I am so confident that our way of being, the charism of St Angela Merici and our values will help us navigate whatever comes our way this year. In 2021 we tapped into the wisdom of our community, including students here at the college, to identify those values, you will see them outlined on the covers of your organisers for 2022.
They are:
Fidelitas
We are a faithful community.
‘Act, bestir yourselves, have faith and confidence. You will see wonders.’(Angela Merici’s Counsels)
Integritas
We are a principled community.
‘See how important integrity is. For this reason long for it, search for it, embrace it, hold onto it with all your strength.’ (Angela Merici’s Counsels)
Communitas
We are an inclusive community.
‘Let the quality of our relationships be characterised by goodness, kindness, gentleness and attentiveness to the needs of every person.’ (Angela Merici’s Counsels)
And
Spes, the Latin word for hope
We are a hope-filled community.
‘Hold this for certain....Every request you ask of God will certainly be granted.’ (Angela Merici’s Counsels)
Each of these values are integral to our theme for this year, Serviam (I will serve). Our symbols for the year point to the active nature of this concept: the heart, the compass and hands. The colour green represents growth, new life and hope. This year, the Merici community is especially being called, as people of God, to activate our hearts, heads and hands to further the welfare of those around us. We are being invited to walk in Jesus’ footsteps and be inspired by his model of servant leadership, most beautifully conveyed to us in the moment when he washed the feet of his followers, not long before he died in order to save all of us. In Let Us Dream, Pope Francis declares that this time of pandemic is a “time to restore an ethics of fraternity and solidarity, regenerating the bonds of trust and belonging. For what saves us it not an idea but an encounter. Only the face of another is capable of awakening the best in ourselves. In serving the people, we save ourselves.”
A wise American philosopher, William James, said quite a while ago: “Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.” He used the image of a stone being thrown into a still pond and the ripples radiating outwards from the point of impact to show that our efforts to make a difference are “felt long after the initial splash.”
This was made especially clear to me as I read about the Young Australian of the Year candidates for 2022. Their humanity, generosity, personal stories and ongoing acts of service humble and inspire me.
The 2022 recipient of the award is 26 year old Dr Daniel Nour, who in July 2020 created Street Side Medics, a not-for-profit GP-led mobile medical service for vulnerable people in New South Wales.
Street Side Medics now has 145 volunteers and four clinics across New South Wales, and has changed the lives of more than 300 patients by dealing with neglected medical needs and detecting conditions that would have otherwise gone unnoticed, such as cancer, HIV, diabetes, and heart disease.
Despite working full-time at Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital, Dr Nour volunteers his afternoons to ensure the four Street Side Medics sites run smoothly.
In accepting his award, Dr Nour said many Australians living in homelessness were "suffering in silence".
"Many die of conditions which could be treated and avoid interventions which could have improved [their] quality of life,
"I have seen 50-year-olds like Peter die of heart failure, struggling for a breath in the cold night air. I have seen people like 40-year-old Eddie, who's living with maggots in his wounds. I have seen people like Neil, a 29-year-old type 1 diabetic who is suffering from irreparable damage due to being unable to afford his insulin.
"As Australians, it's our responsibility to advocate for those who seem to have lost their voice and to rise up to the occasion, even when we question our own ability to do so."
In an early 2022 interview with the ABC, Dr Nour tells the story of what inspired him to act.
When he was in his final year of medicine in London, he came across a man having a seizure at a train station.
He stopped to help the man and later learned he was homeless.
Daniel spoke to other people around the man, many who were also homeless.
He said in the report, "They had a real sense that their health needs and the healthcare system cared less for them than any other average person in society, I couldn't sleep after that."
He couldn't stop thinking about this experience and wanted to do something to help.
On his return to New South Wales, he discovered that even with the world-class health system we are blessed with in Australia, there were still barriers limiting access to health care for many people.
With his in mind, Dr Nour acted, this talented young person threw his stone into the pond and now so many are benefiting from the ripple effect of his actions.
This year I challenge you to activate your heart, head and hands.
Consider these questions as you look to see where there is need:
- Who is someone that has made a huge difference in your life?
- Why did they act and how?
- How can you make a difference in the lives of three people that you know?
- Are you aware of some need in our community or environment?
- Who can you serve or what can you do? What will you do to create your own ripple effect?
Pope Francis likens the gift of the Spirit’s ‘call to action’ to each of us holding Ariadne’s thread, just as Theseus did in the labrynth. The twitch of the thread can help us find a way out of self- centredness in order to give the best of ourselves. Pope Francis says “Let yourself be pulled along, shaken up, challenged…When you feel the twitch, stop and pray…or just create space inside of yourself to listen. Open yourself…decenter…transcend. And then act. Call up, go visit, offer your service…Say you would like to part of a different world, and you thought this would be a good place to start.”
I am going to mix my metaphors now…in 2022, our year of service, let us all respond to the twitches of the spirit, throw our stones into the pond and create as many ripples as we can.
Welcome to 2022 at Merici College.
Anna Masters
Principal
