"THE AUGUSTINIAN" August 2000

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"Bars of Hope" - Mexico

Fr John Murray osa, Pastor of our parish of St Mary's Echuca included in one of his bulletins a story from a traveller in Mexico. We would like to share it with you:

"Driving through the streets of Mexico City, I was intrigued by the large number of homes that had long metal bars rising up above the rooves.

Looking over the city, there are thousands of buildings large and small that have steel bars rising above them. I asked the driver to explain the metal sticking up from the homes. He said they are called 'bars of hope'.

'When families build their homes,' he said 'they often don't have the money or resources to complete the project. Perhaps they don't know how large a family they will have. So they take what they have and begin the project. When they have completed as much as possible, they leave the structural bars rising above the home as a visible symbol for their neighbours and anyone who happens to pass by the house, saying <we are not finished with this house, yet>. These are bars of hope to remind us that we are still building, to demonstrate that there is more to come."

Meeting of College Leadership Teams

The two Augustinian Colleges in Australia, Villanova College (Coorparoo, Brisbane) and St Augustine's College (Brookvale, Sydney) have had a long tradition of actively valuing the relationship between the two Colleges. Many of the Augustinian religious in Australia have served in both Colleges

Recently students from Villanova College travelled to Brookvale for the annual competitions between the senior Rugby, Soccer, Basketball and Debating of the two Colleges. Through these annual events, strong friendships are cemented between the students, staff and families of the respective Colleges. In case you were wondering this year Villanova were the winners of the Rugby (MG Lyons Cup) and Soccer (Fr David Brimson osa Cup) and St Augustine's College took out the Basketball (Fr Les Seary osa Cup) and the Debating (Fr Peter Wieneke osa Cup).

During the Easter holiday period, the leadership teams met together for a conference entitled 'The Challenge: Augustinian Schools in a new millennium'. The conference facilitated by Fr Laurie Mooney osa (Director, Centre for Augustinian Spirituality) took place at the Augustinian house in Terrigal. A greater part of the gathering drew on the wisdom present in the group. Fr Pat Fahey osa (Provincial) set the tone of the conference through a guided reflection on Christian leadership. The team from St Augustine's College led by Ms Jane Bezzina provided some input on the Middle Schooling project which began this year. Mr Denis Bolam, on behalf of the Villanova College participants spoke of their recent renewal of the College's Pastoral Care approach.

Other themes covered in the conference included Augustine's perspective on education, contemporary challenges to students, staff and families, and the formation of new staff in Augustinian colleges.

To focus only on the content does not do justice to the total experience of the conference. The moments of socialising and friendship ensured a genuine community experience. Prayer was an intrinsic part of the gathering. The conference thus recognised the importance of mutual support and the need for all educators to acknowledge the action of the Teacher within - Christ the Lord.

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