Year 12 Valedictory

First Sunday of Advent, Year A
30 November – 1 December 2019
Year 12 Valedictory
November 2019
Message to our young adults
We are familiar with the ad ‘Are we there yet?’ – its a typical question that we all face in the footsteps of our lives – Other questions – ‘What do you want to do? What will you become? Did you like your year 12 course? And tonight the question ‘Are we there yet?’
All of your thirteen years have been in Catholic Education – what values and teachings will help you grow deeper in your love of God?
The lives of the saints are a good read! Some people have the idea that saints never committed a sin in all their lives – this is a fallacy! It implies that saints were saints from the cradle onwards – in other words that saints are born. We know though, that saints are not born – they become saints. In becoming a saint they underwent conversion, through a change of heart which resulted in a change of life and this change did not just happen overnight, in some cases it was the result of a long and painful struggle.
My dear young people, there are so many people in your lives backing and caring for each of you. They will sweat with you right through to when your VCE results become known – they are your friends and family who will back you up – you know you are not alone. Soon the lesson of life will be before you and you will build on the strong foundations you have and, these will help get you there – St Paul in his letters prayed constantly with joy in his heart for everyone who had helped him along the way – he knew it was because of their love, care, sacrifices and good counsel with true Gospel values now fully embraced in his heart that, he was able to do for God what God called him to do.
Each of the lives of the saints are a challenge to all of us – there is always a call to a simple conversion – a call to rethink our values, our attitude to life and a call to redefine our goals, by continually embracing openness to God’s love, understanding and service. We must be willing to take the risk of a total surrender to the love of God in our lives.
Year 12’s May God protect you today and in the years ahead, when reflecting on who gave you, your start in life – I know, you will thank God for your Parents, Teachers, Schools. Your parishes, your peers and all who took time to be with you, that you may grow in the image of God. Are we there yet ? Well No!!
This will be the question that will stay with us through the years ahead.
Through the Gospels, God is asking for your help – asking you to go now into the world with his principles, values and teachings – with love and care in your hearts, you are not to step over the needy, the homeless, the falsely accused, you are not to walk away from those who have been abused or rejected but to prayerfully and lovingly walk with them, give ear to their story and from the heart give wise counsel, good support – and to walk humbly with your God!
Will you be able to say – Hear I am Lord, send me ?
May God bless and protect you one and all and from the bottom of our hearts, thank you for the years we have been together. May the years ahead be full of achievement, happiness and good-will in your turn.
Dean Peter