Dear parents, friends, staff and students,

This Sunday we celebrate the solemnity of the most Holy Trinity. The concept we have of the Trinity as Christians and specifically as Catholics is unique to our faith. The Trinity refers to our belief in God as three persons in one being. It is a concept that many other religions have difficulty understanding as they cannot comprehend how God can be three yet only one. The Irish missionaries under the authority of St Patrick often used the symbol of the shamrock to explain this concept. The idea that it contains three segments but is one leaf may be a little easier for us to understand. Our faith explains that God exists as the Father - creator, the Son – Jesus and the Spirit. In the Creed, we speak of Jesus as being ‘consubstantial’ with the father. This literally means that they are of the same substance. In believing that God exists as three persons helps us to recognise that He has been in existence since before the beginning of time but remains with us in a personal and guiding sense throughout our lives and those around us. In allowing the spirit into our lives, we can grow in God’s love and make decisions that benefit those around us.

Today we celebrated Champagnat Day. Whilst this is not the official feast day of Mount Carmel (this occurs at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Day at the start of next term), it has always been a day of great happiness and celebration. We take the day to acknowledge our foundations in, and charism of, the Marist Brothers. These brothers founded Mount Carmel through Br Clarence Cunningham back in 1986 and their dedication to educating in the name of Jesus continues to be a focus for our staff 36 years later. Champagnat Day enables us to celebrate with mass and activities as well as a concert whilst raising money for Marist charities. For many of our students (year 9 and below), this is the first real celebration of this nature they have had at Mount Carmel. Hopefully, this will be something that they will remember fondly moving forward and will build on in coming years. I would like to thank all the students and staff for their involvement but a particular thank you to Ms Toogood, Mr O’Connell, Mr Follett, Mrs Meharg and the Year Coordinators who took the lead in organising this day.

This week we have opened our Year 7 – 10 Parent/Teacher/Student meeting bookings for Semester 1. These meetings are an opportunity for you to discuss with the teachers what your child’s strengths and opportunities for improvement might be. Whilst you will receive their reports a few days prior to these meetings, I encourage you to organise meetings as soon as you are able. Following the learnings from the last few years, we have decided to provide opportunities for both face-to-face and zoom meetings. For practical purposes, these will be scheduled at different times, but parents will not be limited to a specific session, or a specific method so you can choose what is most beneficial for you. We hope that this will enable as many of you as possible to make appointments to meet with your child’s teachers.

Finally, I wish you all a very relaxing and safe break during this long weekend.

Ite in Veritate

Mr Steve Lo Cascio