1.5 The mission of your school
Each school has a school mission statement that has been developed in consultation with staff, parents and the local parish community.
The school's charism - a gift for mission
Charisms are given to be used in charity or service and to build up the Church in its mission to the world. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2003).
The charism of religious orders
The charism of a school founded by or led and staffed by a religious or priestly order is the charism of the founder or founders, "their own particular way of understanding and concretising the following of Jesus in the People of God." It can described as a God-given grace and passion which inspired the founders and their brothers and sisters to show a new face of God to the world. A charism is ultimately a gift to a community, even if in the beginning it was personal in God's gifting of the founder for their work of Catholic education in a particular time and place. This gift can determine the identity and shape the mission of the school community, its nature, its spirit, its goals and its particular character.
Founders of religious orders, such St Mary MacKillop, can be thought of as fingers pointing us to Jesus. We lose perspective if we focus on the finger to the exclusion of the person to whom their fingers point. As inspirational as the lives and witness and achievements of these saints were, they seek to lead us to the person of Jesus and to show us how to live a life of discipleship.
Charisms for the 21st Century
In Catholic schools today, however, there are very few, if any, religious sisters, brothers or priests. Another way of thinking about charism, particularly for schools without a strong connection to a religious or priestly order, is to think of charism as the way the Holy Spirit gifts a particular Catholic school community through the gifts given to those who serve as disciples - leaders, teachers, support staff, and yes the students themselves. Jesus promised that he would always be with his disciples on mission, gifting and guiding them through the Holy Spirit to respond to the challenges and opportunities of mission in the local context. Every school which seriously engages with their local community, every support staff member who responds to the joys and hopes, fears, griefs and anxieties of students and their families, will find themselves being drawn into solidarity... into communion, with their local community. ".. the joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the people of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ." (The Church in the Modern World, n.1) The spiritual gifts shared in leading, teaching and caring for students and their families are returned in new and surprising ways as new bonds of collaboration and friendship develop. In this way the school community becomes a communion with a family like atmosphere, a distinctive spiritual ethos or climate, indeed an authentic charism as it becomes a gift to the wider world.
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