Our Saints In Our Daily Lives
The purpose of naming our schools after saints is to highlight particular aspects of their lives to influence our words and actions. We have always followed the examples of St Martin De Porres and St Dominic. In 2010 we were also excited to join with the rest of the world to commemorate the canonisation of Mary MacKillop as Australia’s first Saint, Saint Mary of the Cross. Not just celebrating her as an Australian, but also as a woman of our time!
Although St Martin lived in Peru about 400 years ago, his legacy lives on in our school name and the ethos of our school. Martin was born out of wedlock to a Spanish nobleman and a daughter of African slaves. Even as a brother in the Dominican order he experienced racial prejudice because of the colour of his skin and was given the most unpleasant jobs around the monastery. Despite this, he always helped those in need – orphans, the sick and the hungry. He was canonised in 1962 and is the patron saint of Social Justice.
At St Martin’s we aspire to keep these saints in our minds in the hope that they will influence our words and actions as we strive to highlight social justice, truth, love, persistence and our authentic self.
At the first assembly each week we begin with our school creed which embodies the Dominican motto of living the truth:
“This is St Martin’s. Let love abide here. Let us always speak the truth, love the truth and live the truth. May contentment dwell in our hearts. Let our school be a place of joy and companionship where the love of God reigns. St Martin De Porres pray for us.”
St Dominic Guzman founded the Dominican order over 800 years ago. The order’s motto of “Veritas” which means truth, was founded on their mission to preach the truth about Jesus and God and counter the many lies and misconceptions of at the time. We, at St Martin’s, strive to live St Dominic’s ideals in our daily lives by supporting children in their life long journey of learning and reaching their full potential: to be true to themselves and be as authentic as possible. By doing so we are striving to truly be Dominican.
Mary MacKillop – a saint for Australia! 2010 certainly was a year where we focused on more than just St Dominic and St Martin. October 17th – the date of Mary’s canonization – was the culmination of many months of meaningful and prayerful activities at our school. To include this significant event in our daily school lives, we adopted a song by Gary Pinto. The whole school became proficient at singing it, and even signing the words. In our daily prayers in classrooms and assemblies, we prayed “Loving God, Mary MacKillop spread the message of your love to all those she met. May we try to follow her example. We make our prayer through Jesus our friend. Amen.”
Our culture of “You can do it!” which teaches children resilience and persistence fits in well with one of Mary’s favourite saying: “Never see a need without trying to find a remedy.”
We have always followed the examples of St Martin De Porres and St Dominic. In 2010 we were also excited to join with the rest of the world to commemorate the canonisation of Mary MacKillop as Australia’s first Saint, Saint Mary of the Cross. We use all of these Saints to influence our words and actions in our daily lives.
Image -
San Martin de Porres huaycan
AnonymousUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons