THE START OF SOMETHING NEW
To the Salesian College Family,
On behalf of the Salesians of Don Bosco, especially those priests and brothers who live in the Salesian Residence just inside the Bosco Street entrance to the College, I welcome you back for the 2021 school year and wish you well in your efforts and endeavours during the coming months.
As I was driving along Springvale Road in Glen Waverley the other day, I came across a very encouraging sign at the front of St Leonard’s Catholic Primary School which read:
‘THE START OF SOMETHING NEW BRINGS THE HOPE OF SOMETHING GREAT.’
This is a most inspiring and optimistic message for us at Salesian College too, since it challenges us in the most positive way to put the restrictions and lockdowns of 2020 behind us, and to give of our very best in the year ahead of us to develop our skills and talents to the full, and to achieve new and exciting things in our lives that perhaps we once thought were beyond our capabilities.
I believe that the St Leonard’s slogan also prompts us all to ‘recapture and relive those qualities that make Salesian College tick – the friendship and support, the tolerance and respect, the compassion and sense of service, the generosity and open-heartedness, the availability and cooperation with others – and that have made this College so well known.’ (Rector’s homily during our Opening Mass on 29 January 2021).
Furthermore, I urge all members of our wonderful community at Salesian College to be people of great Faith, Hope and Love as we move into the future – faith in our God, hope for much better times to come, and love for all members of the Salesian Family at Chadstone and for all the citizens of this earth.
In particular, I wish to repeat to all of our students one of the central messages of Pope Francis’ timeless exhortation to young people (‘Christus Vivit – Christ Lives’):
‘Young people are not meant to become discouraged; they are meant to dream great things, to seek vast horizons, to aim higher, to take on the world, to accept challenges and to offer the best of themselves to the building of something better.
That is why I constantly urge young people not to let themselves be robbed of hope.’
Finally, as I mentioned at our Opening College Mass the other day, I would like to congratulate Br Joe Ellul on his recent 70th Anniversary as a Salesian of Don Bosco, and Fr Lawrie Moate on the 60th Anniversary of his Salesian Profession. Both men are part of our own Salesian community at Chadstone and both are truly People of great Faith, Hope and Love.
Br Joe has served at Salesian College with great dedication for 36 years of his long Salesian life, as well as at Brooklyn Park (South Australia), Glenorchy (Tasmania), Sunbury (Victoria) and Ferntree Gully (Victoria), and has done so much to foster the Spirit of Don Bosco throughout the Australia-Pacific region.
Fr Lawrie, in turn, has ministered in schools and parishes in Port Pirie, Brooklyn Park and Gawler (South Australia), Sunbury, Ferntree Gully and Brunswick (Victoria), Glenorchy (Tasmania), and at Chadstone since the beginning of 2019, and has served in a variety of capacities such as Rector, Principal, Parish Priest and Chaplain.
‘Well Done’ to both of these fine Salesians!
In St John Bosco,
Fr Greg Chambers
Rector