As is our tradition at St Patrick’s College, each year we focus our communal prayer life on a particular set of Benedictine values. At this point it is worth being reminded that, while our College bears the name of St Patrick, we also follow St Benedict because the Sisters of the Good Samaritan—who have had a long association with our school—are known as the Sisters of the Good Samaritan of the Order of St Benedict. Together with the blessings of St Patrick, our College is graced with the added patronage and guidance of St Benedict and his Rule.

This year, the Benedictine values we will centre our prayer life upon are Communio through the lens of Compassion and Stewardship, with a particular emphasis on stewardship. A gospel story that speaks to us of stewardship is found in Matthew’s

gospel. It is the story of a manager leaving three of his workers in charge while he was away. One worker was given five talents to look after, a second worker was given two and a third worker was given one. Upon the return of the manager, the three workers had to explain what they had done with what had been entrusted to them. The first worker said he had been given five talents from which he had gained five more. The second worker said he had been given two talents and had made two more. The third worker said he had been given one talent and had done nothing with it.

This story has a clear link to stewardship. The earth and its total environment (which includes humanity) has been gifted to us by God and we have been entrusted to take care of it. Each one of us has a certain level of responsibility according to our capacity—just like the three workers who received different amounts of talents to manage. Interestingly, in the story of the manager and his three workers, there is an expectation to not only look after what is entrusted to us—we are expected to make things better too, to add value rather than diminish value.

Christians are called to see stewardship as an act of love—love for the environment and love for each other. Caring for this shared world should be an enterprise which is a top priority with the view of leaving the world a far better place than how we found it. May the St Patrick’s College community be, in this year of celebrating stewardship, a place where stewardship is seen as “love in action” and “heart work”.

Angelo Gattone - Mission Coordinator