Arise, shine: schools celebrate Catholic Education Week

Students from Catholic schools across Melbourne have celebrated a Catholic Education Week inspired by the motto of Jubilee 2025—Pilgrims of Hope—hearing the call to radiate the light of faith in every aspect of their lives.

This year’s theme, ‘Arise, Shine’ is taken from the Book of Isaiah; Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you’ (60:1).

The theme mirrors that of the Australian Catholic Youth Festival, to be held in Melbourne in late November and early December, capping off a busy year for young Catholics.

The annual Mass of St Patrick for Schools began on the morning of Friday 21 March with a banner procession to the sound of Celtic pipers. Scores of the Archdiocese’s schools were represented, filing into a packed St Patrick’s Cathedral. A host of special guests included the Minister for Education and Deputy Premier Ben Carroll and several state MPs and senators, as well as the heads of a number of Catholic education authorities.

Students read the Scripture readings, and the choir of Aquinas College Ringwood led the liturgical singing.

Walking to the front and each side of the sanctuary, Archbishop Peter A Comensoli delivered a conversational homily to the students, many of whom were sitting cross-legged in front of him on the floor of the Cathedral, which was packed to the brim.

The Archbishop recounted the story of St Patrick’s enslavement as a teenager in Ireland, ‘feeling the Lord’s mercy in him ... and growing in his faith and prayer’.

He spoke of Patrick’s escape, his studies in Europe to become a priest and missionary, and his return to Ireland.

‘It was the gift of faith from God that allowed him to see a new home, a home among the Irish people. He really wanted to share with them the faith that he had received from the Lord.

‘In faith, he was given his purpose in life.’

If we allow ourselves to be found by Jesus, the Archbishop said, we can each be like St Patrick. ‘Jesus is calling you, each one of you. With the courage of St Patrick, may you hear him and respond.’

This year’s schools Mass had an element of surprise: the unveiling of the new icon of St Patrick, written by Australian iconographer Sue Orchison.

As Archbishop Comensoli noted, it is the first image of St Patrick in the Cathedral.

‘You would think in our marvellous, beautiful Cathedral we would have an image of St Patrick, but we actually don’t,’ he said. ‘Well, we do now.’

Sue Orchison and her family were present for the blessing of the icon, which is installed on a pillar to the left of the altar, opposite the icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour.

Archbishop Comensoli’s prayed that those who venerate the icon will be strengthened by St Patrick’s missionary zeal.

‘Just as you called St Patrick to preach the gospel to the Irish people, so now call us to be witnesses to your kingdom here. May this icon serve as a window to heaven.’

At the conclusion of the schools Mass, more than a thousand students headed to the nearby Treasury Gardens for a concert, and even the rain couldn’t dampen their spirits.

Senior school bands from Padua College, De La Salle and Kilbreda College wowed their audience of younger primary school students, whose enthusiastic dancing gave the grass in the gardens a pounding.

The concert capped off the celebrations for Education Week’, which also featured an impressive creative arts exhibition that ran all week at the Catholic Leadership Centre, also the venue for a dinner on Thursday 19 March for the chairs of school advisory councils.

At the dinner, MACS Executive Director Dr Edward Simons expressed his gratitude to parents for taking the Catholic mission forward with wisdom, passion and commitment. Auxiliary Bishop Thinh Nguyen spoke of the importance of welcoming strangers and extending compassion, drawing on his experience of emigrating from Vietnam with his 12 brothers and sisters.

The MACS Creative Arts Exhibition is an annual platform for the best artistic expressions of primary and secondary students across the Archdiocese of Melbourne. Judges from the National Gallery of Victoria, Zart Art and Australian Catholic University—alongside Archbishop Peter A Comensoli and members of the MACS Creative Arts Committee—awarded prizes to the two best works in eight different categories, and highly commended dozens of others.

Among the prizewinners was Jesus—from darkness into light, a collaborative artwork created by Years 4, 5 and 6 at Mary Queen of Heaven Primary School in Greenvale, which won the Archbishop of Melbourne award for religious art in the primary school category. The other prize in that award went to year 12 student Mario from Kolbe Catholic College with his stunning The Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ.

It wasn’t all music and art. Important conversations were held and ideas exchanged at the Young Speakers Colloquium held in the Catholic Leadership Centre on 21 March.

A group of students who had been on a recent study tour of Rome spoke about how the trip had changed them. The audience heard how the students had grown in confidence in their faith, developing new prayer routines they have shared with their schools and forming important friendships and leadership skills.