Peace and joy to our ATC students, staff and families this Easter
It was a joy to formally bless and open the final stage of the Waterford Senior School Precinct last Thursday. This facility has had an immediate positive impact on our students, staff and families and we look forward to its continuing provision as a quality resource for our community.
Again, I thank the extended ATC community for your support, patience and contributions to the delivery of this important project.
Staff News
As the first term of 2025 draws to a close, we welcome and farewell some staff.
A warm welcome this last week to Ms Sara Hughes who has joined us as Professional Assistant to the Dean of Learning. Thank you to Ms Dalena Dinh who has acted in this position during Term One.
This week we farewell Mrs Helen Hicks. Helen has been at the College in a variety of roles for the past eight years and most recently, she has been the Professional Assistant to the Dean of Faith and Mission along with her role as the Secretary to the College Foundation. Helen is also a past ATC parent. I take this opportunity to thank Helen for her relational approach, generosity and commitment in her roles at ATC and to wish her well in her new role as Executive Assistant to the Chief Operations Officer at the Queensland Catholic Education Commission.
Congratulations to current staff member Ms Belinda Fox who has been appointed as Professional Assistant to the Dean of Faith and Mission. We wish Belinda every success and happiness in her new role. Thank you to my Professional Assistant, Ms Lou Evans for including the role of Secretary to the College Foundation in her duties.
Our Head of Library, Ms Kristy Taylor is taking leave for the remainder of this year. We look forward to welcoming Ms Rebecca Scott who is joins us in a contract position as Acting Head of Library for the remainder of the year.
Finally, some lovely news to share is that Ms Jeanne Bowry, one of our Case Managers in the Inclusive Practices Team is expecting a baby later this year and Mr Seb Tabulo, our Director of IT and his wife, Teegan, celebrated the arrival of baby boy, Alfie during the week.
Easter
Easter is still weeks away as we finish our Term and as a Catholic community, we continue our Lenten journey during this time.
The Easter or Paschal Mystery is at the heart of Christian Faith and it is the most Holy season of the Catholic tradition.
Paschal is a Latin word that relates to the Jewish religious tradition of Passover. In the Catholic tradition, one way of looking at it is capturing and gathering all of the dimensions of Easter together including Jesus’s life, His death, His resurrection and His ascension to be one with God.
In our modern world, the concept of faith can be a challenging one as is the concept of mystery. We are an increasingly information overloaded and overwhelmed society with a seemingly endless barrage of 24 hour news cycles, reels and sound bites keeping us informed and sometimes misinformed. It can be hard in our sometimes fraught paced lives for many to search for and be present to the divine whether it be in nature, in ritual, within oneself or within each other. Easter is the richest of opportunities for Christians to be present to the divine.
On Holy Thursday, Jesus called his friends and disciples together to share a final Passover meal. He took the bread and wine and asked that all of us who follow to share in them as His body and blood. We remember Him when we gather in Communion at Mass and we are sent to share the Good News in our lives.
We all suffer as God did in the person of Jesus. We all struggle, face hardship, loss, anxiety and grief. We all carry our crosses in our life as Jesus did. Christian discipleship calls and invites us to see this truth of our lives as a part of our faith relationship with Jesus in that He knowingly and willingly suffered for us and suffers with us in our lives because of His and God’s unconditional love for us.
Death will come to all of us as it came for Jesus. Anyone who has journeyed with someone in their final days and hours knows that this is a time of extraordinary grace and mystery. I had this experience with my own Mum who passed away 8 years ago. She was a faith filled person who leaned into her relationship with her God during these hard final days. As are all mysteries, it is hard to explain but there was joy and peace for my Mum as she leant into her faith and as a result, there was joy and peace, amongst the profound sadness, as we shared in this with her. Experiencing the death of someone you deeply love is an enormous expression of unconditional love. On Good Friday, we are called to share in the unconditional love Jesus has for all humanity and creation.
On the third day, Easter Sunday, Jesus rose again and defeated death. This mystery is central to the Catholic faith and belief. We hear in scripture that on the road to Emmaus, after Jesus had died and disappeared from His tomb, even Jesus’s disciples didn’t recognise Him because they were scared and confused. They travel with the stranger and don’t realise that their brother and teacher is with them always. This is key to the Christian path; is Jesus living forever in our hearts or only sometimes in our hearts? Can we see Him in each other in the ordinary and everyday humanness of our lives?
The final dimension of the Paschal Mystery is the Ascension. In the Catholic tradition, the Sign of the Cross which our students and staff share in everyday when we finish our day with College Prayer, is an engagement with the mystery of Jesus’s Ascension as it expresses the Christian belief that our one God is a Holy Trinity of three persons; the Creator, Jesus and the Holy Spirit that are all eternal and all equal. The action of the Sign of the Cross invokes our belief that Jesus ascended into the heavenly mystery of creation to be one with God.
This Easter, whether we are at home, at the beach, in the mountains or visiting with family, we are all invited as members of the Ambrose Treacy College community, to take some time to be present to the divine mystery that is beyond our comprehension or understanding, but is within our reach and yearning to be in relationship with us, our loved ones and our lives, within us, between us and around us.
On Easter Sunday, we get a joyous and triumphant chance to start again as Easter people of Good News not only for the day, but for all of our days.
Peace and joy to all ATC students, staff and families this Easter. I hope this term break is an enjoyable, restful and Holy time for all.
Community Prayers
Lord, we pray for those in our community who are suffering. Be with them in this time of hardship and uncertainty. Give comfort and peace to those who have lost loved ones. May their sorrow be turned into strength, and their distress turned into peace. May our hearts remain loving and pure as we seek to always be compassionate to those around us.
God Bless.
Chris Ryan, College Principal
