Greetings from St Bede’s College at the end of a very hot week!

We gave the boys a reprieve today and allowed them to take their blazers off in the first College Mass of the year, to which a large number of parents and people from the wider community attended. It was good to have staff and students from some of the other Catholic Colleges in attendance as well.

Chief celebrant was Bishop Paul, and eight other priests joined us well. The first school mass of the year we offer up to all in our College community, asking God to be with us not only in the good times, but also in the inevitable challenging times that the 2019 school year may present. Colleges are dynamic and challenging places, but they are also uplifting places to be a part of as well, and occasions like this morning’s mass was one of those marvellous community events, with boys, staff and members of the wider community participating whole-heartedly.

Today was also the Feast of the Chair of St Peter, the first of 266 Popes, so in a sense the key apostle. Bishop Paul reflected upon this in his homily and I want to paraphrase the very good message he gave this morning.

Often statues of St Peter see him holding a set of keys. Jesus also spoke of Peter holding the keys to the Kingdom, or the keeper of the gate to the Kingdom of God, the gate from this world to the next, i.e. Heaven. Hence “Pearly Gates” is often a term used, which has its origins from this.

As Bishop Paul said, Peter not only holds the keys to Heaven he also is the rock on which Jesus would build the Church. So Peter was the first person to lead the Christian people. Pope Francis is the 266th!!

Bishop Paul dwelt on the symbol of the chair. The chair symbolises authority and position. So at St Peter’s Basillica in Rome, there is a beautiful and sizeable chair reserved for the Pope, which is a symbol of authority and unity that binds the one billion Catholics together. Our St Bede’s Catholic community is merely a microcosm of the bigger, global community.

Bishop Paul then asked how is this relevant to the members of our College community and he answered by saying that Jesus gifted us the Church as the means for us to lead our lives and ultimately get to Heaven and be with God. On this earth He is present to us in the form of the sacraments, that help shape and form us on the journey, and help us choose what we should do and what we should not do in our daily lives.

Bishop Paul challenged the boys and our community to look after our spiritual lives as well as attending to all the other aspects of our lives so “you will be truly and fully formed”.

Until next week

Justin Boyle