Holy Week Mass

 What a beautiful Holy Week Mass we celebrated as we remembered the final days in the life of Jesus. With uplifting music from our band and musicians, a beautiful Gospel procession from our Issoudun students, a moving rendition of ‘Turn Your Eyes Towards Jesus’ by Year 11 student Sam and a special rendition of ‘Oceans’ by the class of 2025, our Mass was both reflective and celebratory as we remembered Jesus’ last days and the totality of his love for us and all humankind.

Sung at their Year 12 retreat, the song ‘Oceans’ was a gift from the Class of 2025 to the school community as we lead into Holy Week. We were very grateful for the presence of Father Martin Tanti who was our celebrant.

Outreach opportunities

Our Tuesday afternoon muffin baking and Wednesday night Food Van in St Kilda are off to a flying start in 2025. Thank you to our generous students and staff who have been part of our outreach to those in need in our local community. If you would like to join muffin baking please email: muffinbaking@olsh.vic.edu.au

If you are a year 11 or 12 student and would like to be involved in our Food Van outreach, please email foodvan@olsh.vic.edu.au.

Lenten Appeal

Our appeal has been led brilliantly by our College leaders to date, we have raised more than $4,500 for clean water projects facilitated by both Caritas and the OLSH sisters. Thank you to everyone who has supported our House initiatives and our fabulous student leaders.

Staff Spirituality Day

On Monday our staff enjoyed a day focused on the challenge of ‘Integral Ecology - What does it mean and why does it matter?'. Staff enjoyed four rotations focused on:

• our OLSH charism and call to be people of heart who respond from the heart to address the needs of our planet
• the unique history of our College grounds
• an experience of Integral Ecology via visiting the Convent garden and a
• session focused on Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’.

As we work to educate ourselves and our school community, we have identified three key areas to prioritise as we integrate integral ecology across our OLSH community:

• curriculum
• use of resources and
• College grounds.

We will keep you informed of our initiatives as we plan a way forward.

Australian Catholics

There are some wonderful articles and reflections for you to access and share with your families. We hope you enjoy sharing this resource. Log in using the email address parents@olsh.vic.edu.au and password: acparents.

Ms Megan Donohue
Deputy Principal Faith and Mission

Gospel reading and reflection

Lk 15:1-3, 11-32

P. The Lord be with you.

R. And with your spirit

P. A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke.

R. Glory to you, O Lord.

Your brother here was dead and has come to life.

The tax collectors and the sinners were all seeking the company of Jesus to hear what he had to say, and the Pharisees and the scribes complained. ‘This man’ they said ‘welcomes sinners and eats with them.’ So he spoke this parable to them:

‘A man had two sons. The younger said to his father, “Father, let me have the share of the estate that would come to me.” So the father divided the property between them. A few days later, the younger son got together everything he had and left for a distant country where he squandered his money on a life of debauchery.

‘When he had spent it all, that country experienced a severe famine, and now he began to feel the pinch, so he hired himself out to one of the local inhabitants who put him on his farm to feed the pigs. And he would willingly have filled his belly with the husks the pigs were eating but no one offered him anything. Then he came to his senses and said, “How many of my father’s paid servants have more food than they want, and here am I dying of hunger! I will leave this place and go to my father and say: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as one of your paid servants.” So he left the place and went back to his father.

‘While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with pity. He ran to the boy, clasped him in his arms and kissed him tenderly. Then his son said, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son.” But the father said to his servants, “Quick! Bring out the best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the calf we have been fattening, and kill it; we are going to have a feast, a celebration, because this son of mine was dead and has come back to life; he was lost and is found.” And they began to celebrate.

‘Now the elder son was out in the fields, and on his way back, as he drew near the house, he could hear music and dancing. Calling one of the servants he asked what it was all about. “Your brother has come” replied the servant “and your father has killed the calf we had fattened because he has got him back safe and sound.” He was angry then and refused to go in, and his father came out to plead with him; but he answered his father, “Look, all these years I have slaved for you and never once disobeyed your orders, yet you never offered me so much as a kid for me to celebrate with my friends. But for this son of yours, when he comes back after swallowing up your property – he and his women – you kill the calf we had been fattening.”

‘The father said, “My son, you are with me always and all I have is yours. But it is only right we should celebrate and rejoice, because your brother here was dead and has come to life; he was lost and is found.” ’

The Gospel of the Lord.

R. Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ

BREAKING OPEN THE WORD GOD’S LAVISH DELIGHT

This Sunday’s Gospel brings us to the very heart of Luke’s teaching—forgiveness and God’s delight in the return of the sinner. The Gospel’s introduction sets the scene: Jesus attracts and dines with moral reprobates. Is this mirroring what’s happening with Luke’s householders as they gather for the Lord’s Supper? Like Jesus, are they too being criticised by religious legislators?

Three parables follow. Our focus is on the third, the parable of two lost sons. Preachers often exclusively focus on the young son who demands his inheritance to leave the farm for a life of pleasure. The son is virtually treating his father as though dead when inheritances were usually bequeathed. He wants to completely cut family ties. We know what follows. The son’s need to address his chronic hunger and loneliness sitting with Earth’s most unclean creature, the pig, brings him to acknowledge his wrongdoing. He wants to return to his father’s farm not as a son but as a hired hand.

The father’s longing for his son’s return is palpable and completely upturns social expectation. It reflects God’s visceral response to the lost one who returns. The second older son is also lost. His adamant rejection of his younger brother’s behaviour and his unwillingness to join the celebration of the brother’s return flags an attitude circulating in Luke’s world. The father’s plea to this son for a change of heart is also a plea to the Gospel audience: Are we able to celebrate the joy of God’s lavish delight over those we would prefer to exclude?

Fr Michael Trainor

Gospel reading from The Jerusalem Bible, Copyright © 1966 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd. and Gospel Reflection, © St Pauls Publications 2025, are published with permission of St Pauls Publications. Strathfield NSW. All rights reserved.