IT is the grace of God that stands at the heart of Villanova College, Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge said in his homily at the 75th anniversary Mass for the college last Friday.
He said it was St Augustine of Hippo, the patron of the college, who was the great proclaimer of grace – the free gift of God’s love.
“The love of God,” he said, “is infinite and costs you nothing – it’s sheer gift in the most extraordinary way.”
“You don’t have to earn anything, the gift is on offer constantly, says St Augustine.
“That’s the good news of Christianity and it’s that power that founded this college 75 years ago.”
Archbishop Coleridge celebrated the Mass with South East Asia Augustinian Province provincial Fr Tony Banks and Australian Augustinian Province provincial Fr Peter Jones concelebrating.
Among the special guests at the college were 10 Augustinian priests.
Archbishop Coleridge said, like the college, he was born in 1948.
“Like this college, I was born into a vastly different world,” he said.
“It was the bleak period immediately after World War Two, which was the second part of the twin apocalypse that shadowed the whole of the 20th Century.
“A college like this, (and) whatever about me, was a glimmer of life in the half-light that followed the twin apocalypse.
“In the meantime, both for me and for Villanova, and for the world, there has been vast change.
“When I survey the journey of my own life, it is staggering to contemplate the change of the world and indeed of the Church, which I have been called to serve.”
He said at the centre of all this change was one thing that never changes – God’s grace.
That too was what had been the unchanging centre of Villanova College, he said.
Villanova College was founded by five Irish priests in 1948.
It opened on a 10-acre property in Hamilton, with the large onsite residence, called ‘Whinstanes’, functioning as three classrooms, a chapel and sacristy.
Students also had access to tennis courts, a cricket oval and other sporting facilities.
Forty boys attended Villanova that first year and by 1951 it was clear the Whinstanes property could no longer adequately house the growing student population.
After much searching, the Augustinian Fathers eventually chose Coorparoo as the new site for the College in 1954.
From 40 students to over 1,500, Villanova has continued to grow since.
