I have just returned from Long Service Leave during which I enjoyed a wonderful holiday and a family wedding in Europe. Thanks to Mr Peter Collins for the wonderful job he did as Acting Principal during my absence and for enabling me to take a real break.
Congratulations to the Class of 2016 as they graduate from Holy Cross. Last Thursday we gathered for a graduation breakfast, followed by a College Assembly and the Grand Parade, during which the whole College farewelled the Year 12 students. On Thursday evening we celebrated the Graduation Mass and gave thanks for the many gifts that the Year 12 students have in their lives and the importance of sharing these. I have included the text of my address below.
On Thursday evening the Year 12 students will receive their Graduation Certificates on Annual Celebration Night. I am looking forward to seeing you at this important community event which starts at 6.30pm on Thursday 27 October.
Graduation Mass - Principal’s Address 2016
This year we have had a special focus on Ursula Frayne and the Gospel values she represents - dignity and personal best. This has also been an Olympic year and in August many of us spent hours watching athletes who have given much of their lives to the achievement of their personal best.
In 1924 the Olympic Games were held in Paris and the life of one of the Olympians from these games was celebrated in movie Chariots of Fire. Eric Liddell is a beautiful example of someone who throughout his life modelled the values of dignity and personal best.
He achieved notoriety because he refused to run in the heats of the Olympic 100 metres because they were scheduled on a Sunday and it was in conflict with his beliefs to compete on the Sabbath. He stuck to his principles despite immense pressure from the British Olympic Committee and the public. Ironically he came home a hero after winning the gold medal in the 400 metres, an event for which he only trained for a couple of months,
Eric Liddell, was born in China, the son of Scottish Christian missionary parents who spent much of their lives in China. While Eric was educated in England and Scotland, he too became a missionary and returned to China after the Olympics, as a missionary and a teacher. Eric believed his speed was a gift from God He said ‘God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast and when I run, I feel his pleasure.’ At the Paris Olympics Eric Liddell was admired not just for his athletic prowess but for his sportsmanship and the dignity with which he treated other people.
After the Olympics Eric went to China where he worked as a Science teacher and a missionary. He spent his last years in a Japanese Internment Camp during World War II and here he died of a brain tumour, aged 43. In the camp he did all he could to make life more bearable for others, particularly for the young people. After his death a young man who knew him in the camp said, ‘We confided in him, went to him for advice, looked on him as probably the most perfect and honourable Christian friend we had ever known and in losing Eric the whole camp feels they have lost a real friend. It is my prayer that I may live like Eric, a life that is exemplary, lovely, useful and full of caring service to others.’
In his short life, Eric Liddell lived life to the full, he received the gifts of God with gratitude, developed them responsibly and shared them lovingly with others. Pope Francis said, Dear young people, do not bury your talents, the gifts that God has given you! Do not be afraid to dream of great things!
I hope that as graduates you will dream of great things and use your gifts to achieve them, that in living life to the full you will have a vision beyond yourselves and will remember that everyone deserves to be treated with dignity. In his poem ‘An Arundel Tomb’ Philip Larkin wrote ‘What will survive of us is love’. I hope you too will live lives full of caring service to others and that you will leave a legacy of love.
