College Dean | Mr Chris Ryan

St Joseph the Worker

This week we celebrated the life of our Patron Saint, Joseph, with a wonderful liturgy. I attended St Joseph’s College, Toowoomba as a boy, worked at St Joseph’s College, Nudgee for 20 years and have been here at St Joseph’s College, Gregory Terrace for almost seven years.  I have had some time to consider Joseph and to hear and read many things about him over this time and he is certainly a formative example to me. Something that has always struck me about Joseph is his silence in the scripture. We do not hear a word from him. We read about him but no words are attributed to him. Joseph is a person of actions and deeds in the stories of the scripture; a person of example, service and humility. The Terrace Gentleman can learn much from him. In our formation spiral, we see the term ‘Talk the Talk and Walk the Walk’ when we reflect on the Touchstone of Gospel Spirituality. Joseph ‘walked the walk’ of the Gospel as he was dedicated to the mission of raising Jesus to his full potential; he is absolutely a person of knowledge, humility and wisdom. 

We are blessed in abundance with Josephs and Marys throughout the Terrace Family; people who are dedicated to our mission but are known through their actions more than their words. We are blessed by 19 Support Groups of people gathering around tables at night in their own time to promote opportunity for young men. We are blessed by people who bring their expertise to the table generously across the College Board, Foundation, Finance Committee, Master Planning Committee, The Cardinals, Terrace Ladies Group, Terrace Timor Network and all of the Sport and Culture Support Groups. Much of this work is not heard or seen by the majority but it builds the mission of Terrace. Ultimately, the mission of Terrace is about building relationships that bring about an experience of God for and in each other, between each other and among each other. It is difficult and challenging stuff, but so was Joseph’s mission, a mission from God as the Blues Brothers would say! As we approach the end of another busy term, St Joseph reminds us to say thank you to all of our volunteers big and small, across all aspects of College life who are the Josephs of Terrace, the quiet workers who help to build up God’s time and place for us in the ordinary and every day.