WelCom November 2017:
“For where two or three gather together in My name, there am I with them.” – Matthew 18:20
Maria O’Flynn
Staff of Te Awakairangi Parish’s five Catholic Schools gather for their combined Mass. Photo: Supplied
At Lower Hutt’s Te Awakairangi parish meeting in July, the idea was discussed for the staff of all five schools of the parish – St Bernadette’s, St Michael’s, Ss Peter and Paul, St Bernard’s College and Sacred Heart College – to get together for a Mass. A date and venue were fixed, wheels set in motion, email connections made between DRSs, and jobs were allocated.
On the stormy, wet Thursday afternoon of 17 August, 115 staff from the schools, and guest Jenny Gordon, Vicar for Education, gathered at the Sacred Heart College chapel for a 4pm start to the combined Mass. While parish priest Fr Patrick Bridgman could not be present, recently ordained Fr Cirilo Barlis added his own joy to the gathering.
The parish and the principals hosted a feast at the Valerie Lawson Foyer of Sacred Heart College Performing Arts Centre as staff mingled and chatted while thunder, lightning and rain pounded outside. By 6pm, people began drifting back to their lives beyond school and looking forward to such an event to being on next year’s calendar.
Jesus was definitely with us that night.
Maria O’Flynn is DRS at Sacred Heart College.