Page 103 - The Gonzaga Record 1986
P. 103
thinking of the Church; (d) for initiating pilgrimage experience for the
students - e.g. next September, ten Sixth year students will go to Lourdes
with the Dublin Diocesan Pilgrimage to work as brancardiers.
Ministry to parents
But pastoral care is not limited to the students only. The ministry of the
school is to families, parents and boys, and it is a major concern of the
school to foster that relationship with an involvement of the parents.
Parents have often spoken of the need to sustain and develop their own
faith and married lives, and to deepen their understanding of their relat-
ionship with their changing children. An attempt to meet some of these
concerns was the organisation of Parents' days for the First and Fourth
year parents. Each group of parents. (around 75 per cent attendance)
were here on a Sunday from 3-7.30. The 'Day' consisted of a couple of
talks with discussion, followed by Mass and supper. The inputs were on
'Living in Today's Changing Church', 'Growing up with your adolescent
son', and for the First year parents, an introduction to the ideal and
philosophy and approach of Gonzaga. The days proved enjoyable and
fruitful, and next year it is hoped to expand the programme for other
years, involving the parents in the organisation. The parents of Second
year are already involved in a series of meetings with Fr John Moylan,
based on the RK programme of their sons.
Community of Faith
It is vital to nourish the bond between students and parents and staff,
and Parents' Days and other liturgies seek to do that. Indeed all school-
parent-student meetings have that deeper intention and role: to create a
Community of Faith. The ideal is that when people come to Gonzaga
they do not enter into a functional relationship that simply aims at a self-
interested academic development that will help them 'to do well for
themselves' afterwards, but rather that they join a Community of staff,
parents, students and past, whose centre is God, whose educational
pursuits are quickened by the values and the challenge of the Gospel, and
whose concern is to encourage its members to become men and women
for others who take responsibility for the quality of life in their world.
To quote Fr Pedro Arrupe, the last General of the Jesuits, in a speech he
gave to past pupils of Jesuit schools, now well-known: 'Today our prime
educational objective must be to form men for others; men who will live
not for themselves but for God and his Christ, for the God-man who
lived and died for all the world; men who cannot even conceive of love
of God which does not include love for the least of their neighbours; men
completely convinced that love of God which does not issue in justice for
men is a farce~
101
students - e.g. next September, ten Sixth year students will go to Lourdes
with the Dublin Diocesan Pilgrimage to work as brancardiers.
Ministry to parents
But pastoral care is not limited to the students only. The ministry of the
school is to families, parents and boys, and it is a major concern of the
school to foster that relationship with an involvement of the parents.
Parents have often spoken of the need to sustain and develop their own
faith and married lives, and to deepen their understanding of their relat-
ionship with their changing children. An attempt to meet some of these
concerns was the organisation of Parents' days for the First and Fourth
year parents. Each group of parents. (around 75 per cent attendance)
were here on a Sunday from 3-7.30. The 'Day' consisted of a couple of
talks with discussion, followed by Mass and supper. The inputs were on
'Living in Today's Changing Church', 'Growing up with your adolescent
son', and for the First year parents, an introduction to the ideal and
philosophy and approach of Gonzaga. The days proved enjoyable and
fruitful, and next year it is hoped to expand the programme for other
years, involving the parents in the organisation. The parents of Second
year are already involved in a series of meetings with Fr John Moylan,
based on the RK programme of their sons.
Community of Faith
It is vital to nourish the bond between students and parents and staff,
and Parents' Days and other liturgies seek to do that. Indeed all school-
parent-student meetings have that deeper intention and role: to create a
Community of Faith. The ideal is that when people come to Gonzaga
they do not enter into a functional relationship that simply aims at a self-
interested academic development that will help them 'to do well for
themselves' afterwards, but rather that they join a Community of staff,
parents, students and past, whose centre is God, whose educational
pursuits are quickened by the values and the challenge of the Gospel, and
whose concern is to encourage its members to become men and women
for others who take responsibility for the quality of life in their world.
To quote Fr Pedro Arrupe, the last General of the Jesuits, in a speech he
gave to past pupils of Jesuit schools, now well-known: 'Today our prime
educational objective must be to form men for others; men who will live
not for themselves but for God and his Christ, for the God-man who
lived and died for all the world; men who cannot even conceive of love
of God which does not include love for the least of their neighbours; men
completely convinced that love of God which does not issue in justice for
men is a farce~
101
