Assistant Principal Pastoral Care
Farewell Year 12
I am fortunate to be able to say a few words for Year 12 on the occasion of their Graduation Assembly. What follows are pieces of my speech:
The beginning:
A particularly welcome to both Year 12 and to their parents. Your last assembly, never again together in the same context. I think that this is one of the great days of the Lumen year – yes, because Y12 deserve a good send off and their achievement demands celebration, but equally because we are all here as a community. I love that younger students see you and aspire to be you in the coming years. Soon they’ll be here. Time flies when you’re having fun. I love that we are celebrating you as individuals, and this what we are about. We’ll take the big HSC results, or the elite sporting performance or any of the get your name in the paper events and awards for sure, and we get plenty, but we’ve always been about much more. As the Gospel of Luke says, “We plant the seed and seed is the word of God.”
We’ve been about opening doors and suggesting possibilities: to love and value yourself, and others (you are made in the image of God and so are they), to serve, contribute, do good. We’ve been about “Shining your light.” About pointing you in the right direction to find your best self. Most of you get it, some may not have been dialed in all the time, and a couple of you may have nicked off down to the beach or been on something called a blackberry run. I suppose that today, at the end, you’ll cop that we love you and are proud of you, but guess what ?– we loved you and were proud of you throughout your time here, even in the dog days of Y8 and Y9, even when you were on detention, or in some instances on a mutually agreed upon absence following a series of unfortunate events. When you have your own kids, you’ll understand that even though hard stuff happens, love is never diminished.
The road stretches out before you, God willing you’ll be on it for another 60, 70, 80 years and a rich life has far fewer “I”s and “me”s in it than it does “we”s and “our”s. I see in your yearbook profile thingyies that some of you aspire to money. I forgive you, but you’ll find that love, friendship, faith and integrity are greater riches. You can’t buy any of that. You’ll work it out.
The end
It is common for older generations to despair of the young – “ in my day “ and so on. Things were always better way back when… and I could jump on that bandwagon and go off about social media and gaming and popular / celebrity culture, globalization and all the rest. And I frequently do.
But I don’t buy it really. I acknowledge that the world that you are entering is likely a more challenging and complex than the one I have lived in, but I see in you many young people who have an acute awareness of climate change, of social justice, the plight of refugees, an intolerance for corruption and discrimination, desire for reconciliation – real warriors for what is right. Pope Francis has got your back. Some of you might be politicians or corporate leaders or generally movers and shakers in waiting, but for all of you I think you’ll have a higher sense of outreach, social conscious and what is right than most of my generation had. And the individual makes a difference. And if you don’t believe that, it’s a cop out.
St. Teresa of Ávila is (attributed) with:
Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,Yours are the eyes with which He looksCompassion on this world,Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good,Yours are the hands, with which He blesses all the world.Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,Yours are the eyes, you are His body.Christ has no body now but yours,No hands, no feet on earth but yours,Yours are the eyes with which he lookscompassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
My friends, you are God’s instrument, sustained by his love, go forth and “Shine your Light.” You may not see him all the time, but she sees you.
On behalf of the staff, farewell.
