St Gregory’s retreat strengthens the core principles

This past week all of the new year 7 cohort at St Gregory’s Catholic College have participated in their first retreat day on the theme of ‘You are all God’s chosen people’ (Col 3:12), exploring how to live the Five Lasallian Core Principles in our community. 

Welcomed by one of our local parishes, Our Lady & St Alphege, we were able to use the beautiful Church, grounds and hall to spend a day reflecting, praying, getting creative and having lots of fun.  Taking two tutor groups per day allowed the students to strengthen the new friendships already created, as well as building positive relationships with others in the spirit of the core principle to be an inclusive community.

Our days began by joining the parish Mass, with students taking the lead with reading and serving.  Fr Robert reflected upon Mary’s words about her son spoken to the disciples but also all of us today “Listen to him”.  We were encouraged to differentiate between ‘hearing’ and ‘listening’, just as Samuel did as a young person when he responded to his call with the words “speak Lord, your servant is listening”.   “By listening with our hearts” Fr Robert said, “We can be followers of Jesus today and spread the good news”. 

Our days continued with reflective letter writing, creating of drama scenarios and other group tasks which encouraged our students to put ‘Respect for all’, ‘Social justice’, ‘Faith in the presence of God’, ‘Quality Education’ and an ‘Inclusive community’ at the heart of their St Gregory’s journey.   Our day concluded in the Church with a quiz/treasure hunt, which combined scripture referencing, learning about the key parts of a Catholic Church, some critical thinking and finally the launch of this year’s Lasallian Award.