Dean of Identity | Mr Terry Thompson

Edmund Rice Feast Day – Live Jesus in our Hearts…Forever

Yesterday, as a worldwide Christian community, we celebrated the Feast Day of Edmund Rice, the Founder of the Christian Brothers. We gathered as a Terrace Family to celebrate the person who made a real difference in providing hope to young men over 200 years ago; the person who founded the Christian Brothers; the person who inspired the establishment of Catholic schools across the world; the person whose tradition we have carried as a Terrace community for 146 years.

While we celebrated this significant day in the Terrace calendar, 170 000 students from five other continents also gathered to commemorate the life and spirit of our common founder, Blessed Edmund Rice. It is a day of celebration for students and teachers at schools in North America, South America, Ireland, England, East Africa, West Africa, Southern Africa, India, and New Zealand, who all are part of the Edmund Rice family.  

As members of a Catholic school in the Edmund Rice tradition, we are challenged to be stewards of an Edmund Rice education, expressing this identity in an authentic and relevant manner. The essence of an Edmund Rice education remains as relevant as ever before - an education is based on the presence of walking with others, compassion for the hopes and challenges of others and the liberation from our mutual fears and limitations.

  • We are present to each other when we take the time to listen without judgement, correction, or suggestion.
  • We are compassionate to each other when we place the needs of others before our own.
  • We liberate others when we encourage them to realise their true potential, leaving behind self-doubt and fears.

As a Terrace Family and as members of a global Edmund Rice family, we are on a journey to wisdom. As we walk humbly serving others with becoming the best they can be, may we enact the same wisdom that Edmund Rice prayed for, to Live Jesus in our hearts … Forever.

God of justice and compassion
We place before you our needs.
We thank you for the life of Edmund Rice as he opened his heart to Christ present in those oppressed by poverty and injustice
Nourish and inspire us to follow his example of faith and generosity as we strive to live justly.
Open our hearts and minds to accept and welcome all into our community.
May we work together to build a better world
And seek to live lives of love and service, justice and peace,
To be signs of faith to all.
We ask this through Christ our Lord, Amen