To the community of St Edmund’s College,
Experience Eddies & Open Day
Experience Eddies Day will be held on Tuesday 1 May 2018. This is an opportunity for boys in Year 3 and Year 6 to experience Eddies, especially if they are considering enrolling at the College. Students can select from activities designed to mimic the classes and subjects on offer at the College. Parents and carers are asked to drop their son at the College for a 9am start and collect them at 2:30pm. There is an opportunity for interested parents and carers to join us on a College Tour beginning at 2:45pm Please refer to our website for further details.
Our annual Open Day will be held on Saturday 5 May 2018. Tours of the College will depart every 15 minutes, allowing guests an opportunity to tour the College accompanied by our students and staff. There will also be addresses from myself and our Head of Junior School, Mr David Kelly.
If you are aware of members of the wider Canberra community who may be thinking about Eddies as an option for their son, I would ask that you direct them to the College website for further details about these two events.
Blue and White Ball
The Old Boys and Friends Association are again organising the Blue and White Ball this year. The event is being held on Saturday 26 May in the Br R J Wallace Hall commencing at 6pm. I would encourage parents to consider attending this wonderful event. You will enjoy the company of the Eddies community with good food and music. Tickets are available digitally through the Old Boys and Friends Association on their website (see the link in Community on the College website) or through the Facebook pages of either the College or the Old Boys and Friends.
Congratulations
Congratulations to Thomas Keillor (Year 4, Rice) on his achievements at the recent ACT Little Athletics State Titles. Thomas was awarded a Gold medal in shotput, a Gold medal is discus and a Silver medal in the 700 metre walk, as well as the title of state champion in shotput and discus.
Congratulations to Cameron Scott (Year 9, Mulrooney) and Jordan Wilson (Year 10, Haydon) for being accepted into the 2018 ACT U15 Schoolboy Squad.
Congratulations to Jackson Burns (Year 11, Haydon) on being given the opportunity to compete in the NRA Bianchi Cup in the United States next month. This is the premier action-pistol championship tournament in the world and Jackson will have the chance to shadow some of Australia’s top sportspeople in this field.
The St Edmund’s community is extremely proud of Thomas, Cameron, Jordan and Jackson and wish them every continued success.
Easter Season
Last Thursday we came together as a community for our special Easter liturgy, with a focus on the Passion story. In these days of the Easter season, it is important to focus on the very core of Easter – the significance of sacrifice. In his 2017 Easter address, Pope Francis focused on the significance of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Pope Francis said that it is the cross that gives us hope and urged the faithful to enter into the mystery of Christ’s death by contemplating the joy that comes from sacrifice. “During these days, days of love, let us be enveloped by the mystery of Jesus who, like a grain of wheat, in dying gives us life. He is the seed of our hope. Let us contemplate the Crucified Christ, the source of hope. Little by little we realize that hope with Jesus is learning to see, indeed right now, the plant in the seed, Easter in the cross, life in death.” Love and hope come together on the cross of Christ, he said, explaining that this is a cross everyone must carry at different points in their lives. “It’s beautiful to help others, to serve others,” Pope Francis said, noting that this can get tiring at times, “but life is like that…This is love and hope together: to serve and give. Of course, this love comes from the cross, from sacrifice, as it did for Jesus.”
We have many symbols of sacrifice here at St Edmund’s College. This of course is of no surprise given the origins of our school in the heritage of the Christian Brothers’ and their mission. Our crest provides us with a rich symbol of sacrifice. Rev. William Saunders, an American priest, author and academic, reminds us that the symbolism of the mother pelican feeding her little baby pelicans is rooted in an ancient legend which preceded Christianity. The legend was that in time of famine, the mother pelican wounded herself, striking her breast with the beak to feed her young with her blood to prevent starvation. Another version of the legend was that the mother fed her dying young with her blood to revive them from death, but in turn lost her own life. He writes that given this tradition, one can easily see why the early Christians adapted it to symbolize our Lord, Jesus Christ. “The pelican symbolises Jesus who gave His life for our redemption and the atonement He made through His passion and death. We were dead to sin and have found new life through the sacrifice of Jesus. Moreover, Jesus continues to feed us with His body and blood in the Holy Eucharist.”
The image of the pelican as a symbol of sacrifice can be found in several literary texts. Dante (1321) in his Divine Comedy refers to Christ as “our Pelican.” John Lyly in his Euphues (1606) wrote, “Pelican who strikes blood out of its own body to do others good.” Shakespeare (1616) in Hamlet wrote, “To his good friend thus wide, I’ll open my arms / And, like the kind, life-rendering pelican / Repast them with my blood.” John Skelton (1529) in his Armorie of Birds, wrote, “Then said the Pelican: When my Birds be slain / With my blood I them revive. Scripture doth record / The same did our Lord / And rose from death to life.” The hymn “Adoro te devote,” written by St. Thomas Aquinas, reads
Bring the tender tale true of the Pelican;
Bathe me, Jesu Lord, in what thy bosom ran —
Blood whereof a single drop has power to win
All the world forgiveness of its world of sin
Rev. William Saunders writes that the image of the pelican is a strong reminder of our Lord, who suffered and died for us to give us eternal life and who nourishes us on our pilgrim way with the Holy Eucharist. May that image move us to show the same charity and self-giving love toward all.
Another significant symbol of sacrifice we have here at the College is the story of St Edmund himself. Edmund was king of East Anglia in the mid 800’s. When East Anglia was invaded by the Vikings, Edmund refused to enter a physical battle with them, recalling the advice Jesus gave to the Peter to not harm the Roman soldier who had captured Jesus. The Vikings insulted and beat Edmund and demanded that he denounce his strong Christian beliefs. Even after they had shot at Edmund with a series of arrows, Edmund was still resolute in his prayers to God. In frustration and anger, the Vikings then beheaded Edmund. This story is recounted by an English abbot, Ælfric of Eynsham in his work, “Passio Sancti Eadmundi” written in about 986.
Our College motto, Christus Lux Mea (Christ is my Light) also acknowledges a sense of sacrifice. It connects to the inspiration that the Christian Brothers originally founded through their devotion to Christ. It is this devotion that set the Christian Brothers originally to consider the plight of the young people and to start a school in Ireland to help them face the economic challenges of the day. This original action can now be traced to St Edmund’s College Canberra where our young men and broader community are using Jesus as their example to attempt to live life to the full.
So we are a College immersed in and surrounded by Christian symbols of sacrifice. Almost every classroom and office space has a crucifix on the wall, the most essential symbol of sacrifice in Christianity. It is Jesus’ example that we constantly reflect on and share with our young men as we create an environment for all members our community to celebrate the rich Catholic tradition and to look forward with faith, optimism, compassion and hope for the future.
As this is the last full Vortex prior to the holidays, I thank all members of the St Edmund’s community for a wonderful start to the year and wish all our students and their families a safe and happy holiday period.
Loving God,
the resurrection of Your Son
has given us new life and renewed hope.
Help us to live as new people
in pursuit of the Christian ideal.
Grant us wisdom to know what we must do,
the will to want to do it,
the courage to undertake it,
the perseverance to continue to do it,
and the strength to complete it.
Amen
Blessed Edmund Rice, pray for us
Live Jesus in our hearts, forever.
Christus Lux Mea
Joe Zavone (Principal)