July 2010

A rather light month, as the Term 3 did not commence until 19th July.

However, just before the holiday break the Catholic Character group organized a food drive for De Paul House. This was very successful with eight large boxes of nonperishable food items being sent to De Paul House in the last week of Term 2.

In the early weeks of this term the Social Justice group, consisting of Year 12 and Catholic Character students, has been involved in collecting household items for De Paul House. This collection has been rather slow this year but it is hoped that a ‘last minute rush’ of household goods this week will produce an amount we can be proud of.  The group is also running sausage sizzles at our home 1st Fifteen rugby games to raise more funds.

Next week the Catholic Character group will be involved in the Cystic Fibrosis Awareness Week during which they will be selling pins and chocolate bars for the appeal and doing a street collection in Takapuna and Milford on Friday, 20th August.

An update on our school’s commitment to supporting a Rosminian school in Tanzania -  Six boxes of books were placed in the hands of Oceanside Shipping and were supposed to have been shipped to Tanzania in May. However, the boxes were offloaded in South Africa and then ended up in Singapore! Shayne Doyle has been in touch with Oceanside and we hope that these books will eventually arrive at the intended destination. At present we are looking at using another freight company and Joseph Bergin’s father, John, may be able to help us out in this regard.

In spiritual matters, Monsignor Charles Drennan, who is an affiliated member of the Rosminian Order, and an expert in his own right on Rosminian spirituality, celebrated mass in our school chapel on Thursday, 29th July.  He is based in Christchurch and was in Auckland for a few days to speak to at the Holy Cross Seminary, on Rosminian Spirituality. We were very pleased that he took time out to visit our school. He is an impressive speaker and, at some stage in the future I would like him to become involved in staff formation in the Rosminian charism.

Finally, this term all senior students have the sacrament of Reconciliation with their specific year levels. Years 11 and 12 have had their services in recent weeks and Year 13 have their one this Wednesday.

Steve Mills (DRS)

Catholic Character Events  - July/August

Much of our charity work has been directed to De Paul House over the past few months, in the following ways:

• Just before the holiday break the Catholic Character group organized a Food Drive. This was very successful with eight large boxes of nonperishable food items being collected.

• Our Social Justice group, along with Catholic Character students, has been involved in recent weeks in collecting household items.

• Sausage sizzles at home 1st XV matches

Visit from Monsignor Charles Drennan. Monsignor Drennan is based in Christchurch and is an affiliated member of the Rosminian order who has spent many years working in Rome. In Week 2 of this term he was in Auckland to deliver a talk at the Holy Cross Seminary on Rosminian Spirituality. During that week he took time out to visit our school and celebrate mass in our school chapel. He is an impressive speaker and we hope to have him back to our college at some stage in the future to speak to us on the Rosminian charism.

Reconciliation – This sacrament has been celebrated at school for our Year 11 – 13 students in the early weeks of this term.