MISSION is at the heart of the Church, Xavier School of Mission leader Sr Maeve Heaney said.
She said formation for mission was essential because “if we’re not outward looking, all we do is get into arguments and discussions which take on a totally different colour if in those opinions that we have, shared or diverse, we’re thinking what about those who need to receive Jesus from us”.
“I think mission is essential.”
Sr Heaney saw the Xavier School of Mission, based at Banyo’s Holy Spirit Seminary, as part of that “essential formation”.
Last month, 90 people – the maximum under coronavirus restrictions at the time – spent six days at Xavier School of Mission learning about the spirituality of mission in a conference tagged, “the Spirit calls, apostles listen”.
Each day was bookended with prayer, beginning with the Divine Office and ending with Mass, and the days were filled with speakers including Lismore Bishop Greg Homeming, Darwin Bishop Emeritus Eugene Hurley, La Trobe University’s Professor David Tacey.
The conference began on a Sunday night with a panel featuring Bishop Hurley, Dr Doseena Fergie, Father William Aupito Iuliano, and Professor Tacey.
The panel spoke about their experiences of being a Catholic in Australia in their respective contexts of being a clergyman, indigenous woman, young immigrant, and academic.
On Monday, Dr Tacey spoke about examining the relationship between the sacred and the secular in Australia.
Using insights from the late poet Les Murray, he suggested that Aussies were not “godless”, but were instead “quietly spiritual rather than explicitly religious”.
It is therefore necessary, he said, to take account of this as we seek cultivate the life of faith among the broader Australian community.
Bishop Homeming delivered two spiritual talks over two days on what it means to be a praying “apostle”.
Evangelisation Brisbane project officer Lisa McKerr praised his talk.
“Bishop Homeming strengthened our desire to want to know and love Jesus more,” she said.
“I could feel my soul filling up through just listening to him.
“As a witness through stories, often referring to the lives of St Teresa of Avila and St John of the Cross, Bishop Homeming shared how to live a life in the Spirit.”
Associate Professor Robyn Horner and Dr Teresa Brown then presented their research outlining the attitudes of students to faith in Australia’s Catholic schools, drawing for the Enhancing Catholic Schools Identity project born in Leuven.
Three senior schools students – one of whom recently became a Catholic – also spoke of their experiences as students of Catholic schools in Queensland.
The final keynote was delivered by Fr Joshua Whitehead.
Fr Whitehead spoke about a move away from treating the Mass as the entry point for people interested in the faith, and towards developing systematic pathways in which people who have contact with the parish, but who are not very involved in the Church, are gradually invited to participate in the spiritual life of the parish community.
While coronavirus restrictions were tightening at the time, Sr Heaney said the school and its programs, which travelled around the Queensland province, dodged every lockdown that had come.
“I did read it as a nice present (from the Spirit),” she said with a laugh.
Xavier School of Mission is an annual event with the next one set to start on June 19 next year.
