May 1 is the celebration of St Joseph the Worker, the patron saint of St Joseph’s College. Usually culminating in a Mass, Feast Day activities and concert, this year, with social isolating rules and remote learning, the College held a small Feast Day Liturgy that was celebrated by Fr Michael McKinnon and Fr James Kerr with six students from the college. The Liturgy was filmed so that all students and staff could celebrate our Patron Saint. St Joseph is as an excellent role model for family values, personal integrity and the Mercy Values. He displayed these values by the way he cared for his family, did his work as a carpenter and followed Judaism.
Today we are challenged to act justly and fairly in our daily work caring for the community as a whole. In our current climate, we have become ever more aware and thankful for our essential workers including farmers, delivery drivers, cleaners, health workers, garbage collectors and teachers.
Mr Clive Morgan, a father of past students and grandfather of current students at the college, was commissioned to make 12 new Communion bowls out of local jacaranda. The Communion bowls were presented to us at the Feast Day Liturgy. It is significant that a father carved the new Communion bowls, just as St Joseph, a carpenter, would have worked with timber. Local jacaranda was chosen to remind us of the jacaranda trees found within the College grounds and the Sunraysia district.
At our Feast Day Liturgy, Fr James blessed the Communion bowls and St Joseph the Worker prayer cards. We look forward to using the Communion bowls at our next College Mass, while the prayer cards will be given to staff, students and the community when we return to the College in Term 3.