Welcome to the 2025 school year!

My role in the school as the APRE - Assistant to the Principal - Religious Education, is to assist the Principal Mrs Petersen to manage the religious life of the school here at St Joseph’s. This includes the Religious Education curriculum taught in the classrooms as well as coordinating the prayer and liturgical celebrations for our school which supports our Catholic Identity.

Mercy Charism

Our school was established by the Sisters of Mercy in 1923 and has been educating students from across the Tablelands for over 100 years.  Sometimes, you might hear the phrase “charism of our school.” So, what does this mean?

A Catholic Christian school like ours, draws upon the rich heritage of spiritual gifts used for the service of the whole community.  The central influence on the charism of any school is the person of Jesus Christ.  All charisms seek to provide a pathway through which a school community might interpret and give voice to the centrality of Jesus Christ.  A school can also draw inspiration and direction from the stories of the founding religious congregation and the patron saint on which the school was named.

Therefore, “charism” can be viewed as the spiritual energy that permeates a particular school based on the significant people, values and stories in the school’s history and how they exemplified particular gifts of the spirit in living out the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our school is influenced by our Mercy tradition and our Patron Saint Joseph.  Students will learn what it means to be a “Mercy” school and about the founder of the Sisters of Mercy, Catherine McAuley.  If you hear us talking about “The Mercy Way @ SJA” that is where it comes from.

St Joseph

We can also recognise the wonderful gift that our patron Saint Joseph brings to the charism of our school.  Although the bible tells us very little about St Joseph, it is enough for us to appreciate what sort of father he was, and the mission entrusted to him by God.

Pope Francis describes Saint Joseph as a beloved, tender, and obedient father; an accepting father; a father who is creatively courageous, a working father, and a father in the shadows. 

St Joseph’s School Prayer

Do you know the words to our St Joseph’s School Prayer?  Our new staff and students will receive a bookmark with our patron saint, St Joseph, on the front and our school prayer on the back.

We pray our school prayer each week on assembly and the words of this prayer are really important to us.  It tells everyone why we look after and care for each other in our school family. 

2025 Jubilee Year

In 2025 the universal Church will celebrate a year of Jubilee with the theme, “Pilgrims of Hope”.

Jubilee years find their roots in the Jewish tradition. In the Scriptures, Moses prescribed a time of Jubilee for the Jewish people allowing them a year of rest from their labours, an opportunity to return to their families, to receive a remission of their debts and for slaves, liberation (Leviticus 25:10-14).

In the history of the Catholic Church, the frequency of Jubilee Years – or Holy Years as they are often called – has changed over time. At first, they were celebrated every 100 years, then 50 years and since 1470 every 25 years. Successive popes have also chosen to have “extraordinary” Holy Years to commemorate or highlight a significant theme for our Church, for example, the Year of Mercy in 2015.

Jubilee Years are opportunities for transformation. When a theme for a Jubilee is offered, Catholics are invited to enter deeply into that theme through prayer and reflection, formation and missionary action.

Mary MacCallum