Notre DameNotre DameSenior SchoolSenior School

Theology Theology DepartmentDepartment

“We are all educators … Accompanying young

people in their efforts to build their lives for today

and tomorrow.”

The Chapter Journey

• What are the ‘Hells’ of today?– Relativism?– Individualism?– Materialism?

• Founding grace: evangelising passion– “The work of evangelisation is a basic

duty of the People of God.” (Evangelisation in the Modern World – Pope Paul VI)

“We are all educators …”

“We are all educators …”

• Teachers …– impart knowledge

• Educators …– draw out what is there: the dignity of

the human person created in God’s image

– by definition, evangelise

“We are all educators …”

“We are all educators …”

• Trinity of Love– Father– Son

– Holy Spirit

• Image and Likeness– Family– Church– School

“The joy of Godis the human person fully

alive.”(St Irenaeus)

“We are all educators …”

• Is there a place for complete forgiveness in our schools … Are pupils really enabled to live their pasts down?

• Do schools really attack the ‘success ethic’ in the way they handle academic achievement?

• Do schools welcome and encourage parental partnership?

• Do our schools propose as an ideal the inter-relatedness of all peoples and all nations?

“It is not enough that the students should be loved:

they themselves must know they are loved.” (St John Bosco, Letter From

Rome 1884)

“We are all educators …”

• All is Theology• The centrality of Religious

Education – Links the core values and the

academic curriculum– Dialogue with the ‘spirit of the age’

• in a way that is always new: inculturation

“Accompanying young people in their

efforts to build their lives for today and tomorrow”

“Accompanying young people”

• Emmaus– Journey– Jesus’ presence– Sharing and evangelisation– Fire burns within– Recognition in the breaking of bread

‘If you want to build a boat, don’t begin by

looking for wood, cutting boards or distributing the

work. First you must evoke in men the yearning for

the wide and free ocean.’ (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)

Plan of Formation

• The historical path lived by St Jeanne.• The charism and spirituality of the

Company of Mary.• Specific dynamisms of the Educational

Project.• The figure of Mary.• Social formation for the reality of our world.• Lay vocation in the Church in the Company

of Mary context.

XV General Chapter

• The Year 2000 ‘Moves each lay Christian to ask fundamental questions:– What have I done with my Baptism?– How do I answer my vocation?– What have I done with my Confirmation?– Have I used the gifts and charisms of the

Spirit to bear fruit?– What is my contribution to the inculturation

of the Gospel?’ (Pope John Paul II)