Signadou Snippets: March & April

Feast of Saint Thomas Aquinas

“St Thomas Aquinas Feast day was very exciting. The juniors (years 7 -9) had to prepare and practise their speeches and the seniors (years 10 – 13) had to prepare debates. We had approximately one week to get ready. It was very stressful and tiring putting it all together. As third speaker I had to repeat the points of the negative side, sum up our team case and end up the whole debate. I was very nervous. My knees were shaking when I got up to speak. My house team Prouille won over all. We all had an enjoyable and intellectual feast day. St Thomas Aquinas, pray for us!”   (a boarder of Signadou)

This day was
celebrated by debates and speeches which were judged and house points were
given.
  The speech and drama
teacher of some of the girls judged the debates and Reverend Father Bochkoltz judged the speeches.

The debate
topics were:
1) Schools
should not have a school uniform
2) Catholics
should spend less time listening to classical music
3) It is
better to watch Shakespeare than to read it
The topic for the junior speeches
was “How to become a Saint” – a topic everyone was eager to receive
advice on!

Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows

The school’s day of recollection fell this year on the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows.  It was a perfect day to prepare for the upcoming Holy Week and the priests gave inspiring conferences on the Sorrows of our Blessed Mother, as seen in the stations of the cross. The children also attended a sung high mass, stations of the cross and several rosaries throughout the day.  With the time being spent in silence, it afforded a great opportunity to ponder and meditate upon the sorrowful mysteries.

Feast of the Annunciation

On the Feast of the Annunciation, the Children of Mary received many aspirants to the sodality, including several boarders of Signadou.  Following the reception ceremony was Benediction and a sung Mass of our Lady. The girls then happily gathered for a reception afterward. May they persevere in their good intentions!

ANZAC Day

“We were woken at 4.30am by the beautiful National Anthem played by one of the boarding school helpers on the violin. I was pretty excited as it was my first time going to an ANZAC Day Service. ANZAC Day is a day where New Zealanders and Australians come together in their towns to pray for and remember the soldiers that have died for their country in the past wars. There is a march of all soldiers current and old, to a memorial icon called a cenotaph. It is a very special day. By the time we got there, I saw tons of people coming out of their houses looking like they just woke up. There were lots of groups in uniform and we were one of them, proudly representing our school. We finished off by going to Holy Mass.”  (a boarder of Signadou)      

Feast of Saint Catherine of Siena

On the Feast of St Catherine the girls competed in a small inter-house competition. It is a special feast day for the Dominican Sisters and pupils and after the school Mass there was to be a shared lunch for the Feast & Sister Mary Bernard’s first profession ceremony.

Before Mass the girls divided into their houses and employed their feminine skills in a spirit of teamwork to see which team could produce the most attractive table for the festivities. Each team had to utilize their team colour and so a red (Bologna), a blue (Prouille) and a gold (Calaroga) table appeared after less than an hour. Though it was difficult to judge, Prouille was awarded the first prize for best table and best teamwork, with Calaroga coming in second and Bologna third.

 The Feast of St Catherine is a perfect feast for a Dominican religious profession to take place upon. St Catherine is an incredible saint, who received the crown of thorns, the stigmata and the bridal ring from Our Lord and she is not only a model for Dominican Sisters, but is also a special patron of this particular congregation. 
Therefore it was fitting that our novice, Sr Mary Bernard (who is also the PE teacher for the girls at school), make her first religious vows of poverty, chastity and obedience on this special day.   Mother General came all the way from Australia to receive the vows of the newly professed and the confessor for the sisters, Reverend Father MacPherson, presided over the ceremony and preached a brilliant sermon on the religious life. It was a special event for the students to be able to witness such an important step in the life of a religious and all of the girls were all delighted to give Sister Mary Bernard their affectionate congratulations.