Back to Chavagnes

I am returning to Chavagnes International College on January 21. I got a very cheap price from Adelaide to Paris via Singapore on Singapore Airlines for $968 Australian. Needless to say, I am looking forward to it. I am sorry that I will miss the Christmas play, "Macbeth" , the lovely carols and boys' singing for elderly, the Carol service in the lovely chapel, the celebrations for St Nicholoas' Day, the musical treat on St Cecilia's Day, the fun surrounding the Feast of All Saints and much more in the first term. However, I will be back for Burns' Night on January 25th and that is always great fun.

On November 28th I am going to Perth to celebrate my Diamond Jubilee with a Mass at Aquinas followed by a reception on Dec 4th. Celebrating it with me there will be Bas Hickey and Phil O'Loghlen while at the same time time Mick Coghlen will be celebrating his Golden Jubilee. I am looking forward very much to catching up to Roseanne, Brian, Trish, Naomi, Michael, Sam, Joe, Jack and Harry. They are the closest living members of my my family - my brother , sister-in-law, their children, children-in-law and grand-children. I will be back in Adelaide on Dec 5th. God in His Providence arranged that on November 29th, one day after my arrival in Perth, there are Church archives opening in Collie. There will be a High Mass with the Bishop of Bunbury chief celebrant. I had nearly three years in Collie so it was a wonderful opportunity to catch up with some of my past pupils from this coal-mining town.

It won't be long before I go to Waverley College on Dec 10th preparatory to making a retreat with French Benedictines at Plumpton near Paramatta from Dec 13th to 18th. Back to Adelaide on Dec 19th, to Middleton to holiday with the Brothers in SA from Dec 26th to January 16th before my Adelaide Diamond Jubilee celebrations (Mass and reception at Rostrevor) on January 20th. I set out for France the next day. I will be away until July 2011.

I received a very nice invitation to go to Wagga to visit Bob and Joanne Andrew's school, Blessed Mary McKillop College, during Novemember, but even though I would have loved to have gone, I had so many things to tie up, I had to defer this treat. I would have loved to have seen this school, Anna Andrews, Jane Morton, and possibly Annabel, past students of Chavagnes sister school, La Notre Dame de Bonne Nouvelle.

The Andrews have got two flourishing Catholic schools going which seem to be, like Chavagnes, everthing one would love to see in a Catholic school to provide the students with a rich experience of what the Church has to offer in a context tht is unmistakably Catholic. There was a very fine article about it in a recent AD2000