From the Principal

Ultimately, it is the head, the heart and the hands that are the instruments by which commitment is understood, internalised, embraced and enacted.

The Jesuit educational mission, at its core and in its praxis, is a commitment to principles that demand academic, emotional and moral engagement. It seeks to instil values such as honesty, dedication, persistence, compassion and tolerance – values which are often given lip service by millennials who flourish on the fast grab of the techno rich age. To achieve this goal, students are offered the narrative of the past as a foundation upon which to build their sense of the present and the future.

When William J Byron SJ distilled key themes from Georgetown University – the oldest Catholic and Jesuit institution of higher learning in the United States – he captured the essence of the Jesuit enterprise:

[ It ] seeks to be a place where understanding is joined to commitment, where the search for truth is informed by a sense of responsibility …; where academic excellence in teaching is joined with the cultivation of virtue; and where a community is formed which sustains men and women in their education and the conviction that life is only lived well when it is lived generously in the service of others.( Byron, 1997)

Commitment lived well, is the impulse to appropriate the many elements of the educational program:

While these are lofty ideals, they find daily expression in the life of the College. It is in the support the SEIP boys are given in their classroom and their Houses. As it is with the First Nations and refugee boys, whose life circumstances are affected by the institutions that have marginalised their lives. The service programs speak to the highest form of emotional and moral engagement, be they in aged care facilities on the north shore or the orphanages and schools that form part of the immersion programs across South East Asia.

And, it is in that expanded network of Old Boys who, while fulfilling their commitment to the school, undertake new ministries that support the works of the College through benefaction to the Bursary Program, signing up as mentors for the First Nations and refugee boys, assisting the Cana Camp and myriad of other activities through which the mission of the school is lived out.

Ultimately, it is the head, the heart and the hands that are the instruments by which commitment is understood, internalised, embraced and enacted. At times, it is not easy – something that Ignatius memorialised in his own prayer‘ To give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds.’

As we move into the latter stages of the year, let us renew our own commitment towards the principles and priorities of Jesuit education in our school and in our world.

DR PAUL A HINE, PRINCIPAL

6 | IGNATIAN | JULY 2017