Embedding a Catholic Perspective

REAP 2019

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Genuinely Christian

Genuinely contemporary

Genuinely practical

Re-contextualisation

Today we live in a diverse and

pluralised

culture, and it is therefore necessary for us

to look for a renewed and

contemporary Catholic profile

that remains meaningful within

this context, and that invites all to

engage in authentic dialogue.

KEY THEMES OF BCE’S STRATEGIC PLAN

2017-2020

1.Strong Catholic

Identity

2.Excellent

Learning and

Teaching

3.Building a

Sustainable

Future

https://curriculum.bne.catholic.edu.au/

Focus Areas

“Education has fundamental connections with the idea of human emancipation, though it is constantly in danger of being captured for other interests. In a society disfigured by class exploitation, sexual and racial oppression, and in chronic danger of war and environmental destruction, the only education worth its name is one that forms people capable of taking part in their own

liberation.”

Connell R et.al. 1982 Making the difference Allen & Unwin

Learning to know(knowing with one’s entire being)

Learning to doLearning to be

Learning to live together

Learning: The Treasure Within UNESCO 1996

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With its distinctive worldview so thoroughly committed to human

thriving, and having access to the very best of educational insight and practice, Catholic education

has enormous potential for relevancy and possibility.

BCE’s RSE System Report 2014

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Why?

• Why is the Christian faith not often experienced as ‘good news’ by the young, as wonderful and attractive?

• Why do the claims that we make for our faith often seem to be irrelevant, unconvincing and even boring?

• Timothy Radcliffe

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Don’t throw out

the baby with

the bath water.

“In the gospels, all the people who encountered Jesus only by hearsay, by what somebody else believed about him, by what they’d been told, by what they

hoped to get out of him: all those people left.

They still leave today.”

Bourgeault C. 2008 The Wisdom Jesus p. 12

“The ones that remained – and still remain – are the ones who have met him in the moment: in the instantaneous, mutual recognition of hearts and in the ultimate energy that is always pouring forth from this encounter”.

Bourgeault C. 2008 The Wisdom Jesus p. 12

Do you know that his vision was and is

radically

inclusive and compassionate?

Tertullian wrote in the second century that

people were

astonished at how

Christians loved each other.

•Can we even comprehend the

vibrancy, breadth, diversity, and inclusiveness of early Christianity?

•Can we regain some of that breadth of vision?

Bourgeault C. 2008 The Wisdom Jesus London: Shambala p.11

Is there anything

astonishing about

how we live and love?

Radcliffe T 2005 What is the Point of Being a Christian? P. 3 Bloomsbury

When you reflect on your encounters with others……what are the

qualities or characteristics that release life in you?

CRISIS IN PERSONHOOD

21ST CENTURY

WE CAN’T AGREE ON WHAT IT MEANS TO BE HUMAN

Humans become the God we worship

• Your image of God creates you.

• If you get the image of God wrong, everything else that builds on it is going to be rather inadequate. (Rohr)

.

As Catherine LaCugna writes:

• The God whom Jesus loves, relies on, by whose power he heals and forgives sin, is not a political monarch, a tyrant, an aloof authority figure, a castled king or queen whose subjects cannot visit, an isolated figure who cannot suffer because he does not love. . . . The God of Jesus Christ is, as Bonaventure put it, the fontalis plenitudo, the fountain overflowing with mercy and justice, and also the telos, the end and fulfillment of every creature. [2]

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Rational and sincere people wonder, “If God is almighty and all-loving, then why is there so much suffering in the world?”

If God is all-vulnerable, then perhaps God stands in solidarity with all pain and suffering in the universe, allowing us to be participants in our own healing.

LoveAt the heart of everything is relationship

Labyrinth Heart. Photo by EF. Used with permission under Creative Commons license. (CC0)

… by mutual self-giving, by freedom from shame, by radical equality, by mutuality, by inclusivity, and by justice with mercy.

LOVE IS CHARACTERISED BY…

When you are in touch with the energy of your origin, LOVE, you offer the world your authentic intelligence, talents and behaviours.

You are co-creating with the you that originated in God, that originated in Love

And then….

When we look at one another with an inner-seeing, a heart-to-heart inner seeing …

…we become a mirror to each other in which we see not only the face of God but our own true face

Embedding a Catholic Perspective across the curriculum is a response to:

• The human being’s ongoing quest in seeking the purpose and meaning of life and relationships

• The Christian narrative, theology and Church tradition

• The Catholic vision for human thriving

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In what ways can we advance Jesus’ radical vision of love, inclusion and human flourishing in our communities?

In what ways can Iadvance Jesus’ radical vision of love, inclusion and human flourishing

in my relationships and communities?