School Voices – Can I put myself in the picture?

“It is not enough to say that we are Christians. We must live the faith, not only with our words but with our actions.” Pope Francis.

It is these words that inspire us as a school community, to be people of faith and people of great love. As Christians we are particularly mindful that building a just world involves stepping into the shoes of another, however uncomfortable this may seem.

At Our Lady’s, this is the message that underpins the teaching and learning in Religious Education. We link our teaching in religious education to everyday life. We are acutely aware of our responsibility to teach our students about the dignity of the human person and to care for God’s Creation.

We often teach Religious Education through inquiry units, which are guided by a rich set of essential questions. This year we have explored the question, ‘If there was one rule, what would it be?’. Throughout this inquiry we explored rules that would make a difference to our world, country, school and home. We pondered as to whether Jesus, Scripture and church had rules that they followed. We wondered how these rules can support the way we live our lives to make a positive difference to others and ourselves.

This term we are exploring the question “Can I put myself in the picture?”

This question challenges us to understand and empathise with others. We connect to our faith tradition, and other traditions, through exploring once again the calling to love one another. We ‘put ourselves’ into parables and scripture and allow it to guide and nurture us to love others and ourselves and contribute to making the world a better place.

All people, whatever their colour, religion, sex belong to humankind and are called to be kind to one another, treating one another as brothers and sisters.  There is hardly a day in our lives in which we are not called to this.
(Henri Nouwen, Bread for the journey)

By Mrs Annie Engellenner, Principal