By Lauren Considine
Our life is full of milestones. Sometimes we celebrate birthdays, other times achievements and even sacraments. These moments make us smile, feel loved and most importantly, they allow us to grow. Over the last term, our Year 3 and 4 students have successfully planned and delivered the Biennial Mini fete for the school. This is a long running rite of passage and act of social justice that the students look forward to create and manage for their peers. With 30 stalls including the highly popular popcorn stall, cupcakes, haunted house, paper plane competition and tattoo stall the students raised an enormous $2500. While we could say congratulations to the students for their successful business skills before moving on to the next project, that was not enough.
This unit of work was much more than just one of economics and team building. It was one of Social Justice and compassion. The students knew that their purpose was not to make money for themselves, but for people less fortunate than they. We organised the Missionaries of Charity to come out to school and tell us all about their lives as women who serve God through their mission. Using Mother Teresa as a role model and guide in all they do, these Sisters minister to some of our poorest and most disadvantaged children and adults around Melbourne.
For the Missionaries of Charity, social justice is an expression of their fourth vow: Service of the Poor.
It is about solidarity with those who are in greatest need, including the homeless. Moreover, it creates opportunities to empower the poor and oppressed, working with them rather than on behalf of them. Between the daily soup kitchen, weekly tutoring and catechism classes and Sunday roasts for the homeless, these women really encapsulate Jesus’ message "to love one another as I have loved you."
We cannot separate our lives from the Eucharist; the moment we do, something breaks. People ask, 'Where do the sisters get the joy and the energy to do what they are doing?' The Eucharist. - Mother Teresa
After a highly successful day, the students have asked the sisters to come back and teach them a little more about what they do and to present them with the earnings from the day to help with all of their charity work. The students' passion is something we can all learn from. Their innocence and genuine empathy is inspiring, and in the words of Mother Teresa, may we all learn that "Peace starts with a smile [and] if you can’t feed a hundred people then feed just one”.