Dear Parents and Caregivers of Good Samaritan,

As we head into the last term of the school year we continue to instill in the students our 3 school rules of Be Safe, Be Respectful and Be Responsible. I often think that even as adults we can have difficulty interpreting what these rules may mean for either ourselves or how others may come to understand them over time. 

I was encouraged when I read that the word “respect” means “to look at a second time”: Re-speculate. Re-spect. 

Richard Rohr writes: Our first gaze at anything is always taken in a practical sense, and it almost totally takes over after a while. We tend to think, “What’s in it for me? What can I get out of it? Does this make me look good? Will this give me pleasure?” If we don't recognize the narrowness and the emptiness of that gaze, it will keep us forever at the center of a very small world.

Last week I wrote about St Francis of Assisi. Francis is considered a mystic - one who actively seeks contemplation in their lives. Mystics like Francis see an equivalence between the future and their present reality. This is how they allow all to speak to them because they grant respect to all that is outside of themselves. 

If we were asked to find one particular object, not a whole landscape, but one leaf, one twig, one lizard, and grant it respect and actually talk to it.  And then, even more daringly, in that state of respect, we asked them to let it talk back! I’m sure that this would be difficult for many of us. There would be a range of feelings including that of others seeing us and being afraid of what they may think about us. 

The same would be true for the way we may go about respecting someone who doesn’t ‘fit the norm’. Someone whose views may be different from ours can be difficult to think about however without taking that second look we tend to stay in an egocentric place not allowing ourselves to move beyond our own thoughts and opinions.

To take that second look can be just as difficult for our students and, particularly so, when they may come into conflict with one another. We encourage the children to have another go - to try to wonder what they could do next time, to speculate - re-spect.

I encourage you to take some time with this clip to reflect this week:

Toni Sillis

Principal