I am very pleased to join you for this short period while Paul Keenan benefits from Long Service Leave. We wish him well. The next five weeks till the end of term will see two important seasons unfold.

Firstly, the Interim Report at the close of First Term will give students and their families important feedback on learning progress. At Wednesday’s College Assembly, I encouraged students not to wait for term’s end to make changes which enhance their engagement and success with learning.

Good Counsel College is blessed with a great staff; my advice to students is ‘use them well’. All teachers love it when students proactively seek them out for support, advice and guidance.

Secondly, with Ash Wednesday next week, we embark on the Season of Lent. Lent is God’s yearly gift to us; a time for deep reflection and growth. In some respects Lent is not unlike Term One’s Interim Report.

This is an opportunity for us to ask ourselves (and God) how we are going in the business of being human: are we becoming the sort of person we want to be?; are we growing well into the person that God created us to be? For us Christians, Jesus is the model, guide and enabler of authentic human living; authentic human ‘be-ing’. Here we could well take on the same questions as already posed: to live more authentically, what is it that I need to keep doing, do differently or avoid doing?

Ancient Christian tradition offers us a suite of spiritual tools for the Lenten season, most notably the trio of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Prayer allows space for God to speak to us, fasting and self-denial teaches us that seeking immediate gratification can be illusory and empty, and almsgiving or good-works orientates us to respond to the needs of others. Jesus’ lived experience is well captured in the words of St Francis’ famous prayer:

With God, it is never ‘too late’. The Chinese proverb expresses it well, don’t you think?

Lets’ take this opportunity in our learning and our living to be the best we can be!

God bless!!

Luke Reed
PRINCIPAL (acting)