New Ways of Living the Gospel
Spiritual Traditions in Catholic Schools
Be inspired with new ways of linking faith and your educational mission!
How do the Spiritual Traditions of past that built our Catholic Schools adapt to meet the changing needs of modern Australian school communities and maintain a strong Catholic Identity?
This fourth volume in The Mission and Education Series from the team at Broken Bay Institute is a must read for all Catholic School leadership teams.
Explore how religious congregations and the lay movements they inspire are evolving their Charism, traditions, Catholic identity, and pedagogy, and finding new ways to live, and espouse, the Gospels.
Uncover the range of exceptional initiatives currently bringing the Gospel to life for and with Catholic educators from congregations including the Good Samaritans, Sisters of St Joseph, Salesians, Marists, Christian Bothers and Edmund Rice Education Australia, Jesuits and more
‘This excellent resource explores the critical connections of personal spirituality, charism, Catholic identity and the mission of Catholic education. The book provides theological and scriptural foundations as well as a wealth of practical examples of Catholic educators addressing the critical work of formation and evangelisation. It enables us to learn from the past, to reflect on the present and inspires us into new ways of linking faith and the educational mission.’
David J Hutton OAM
Director of Catholic Education,
Emeritus Executive Director of Catholic Education, Archdiocese of Brisbane.
‘In this outstanding piece of work we are taken on an incredible journey through our Catholic education history. Its focus on tradition, mission, spirituality and leadership, from a range of perspectives, places and times, challenges the reader to take a holistic and long term view of where we have come from and how we need to progress in order to both maintain and grow the Catholic identity of our schools and communities. Reality and dreaming carry equal persuasive weight in this exceptional compilation of significant voices from the past and the present. This is a work which should find a place not on bookshelves but in the hands of Catholic educators across Australia.’
Maria Kirkwood
Director of Catholic Education,
Diocese of Sale
‘The first sentence of chapter 1 of New Ways Of Living the Gospel, in a way sums up the whole work – ‘Our Christian understanding is that God is not distant, but rather that God has taken on our human condition and is actively involved in it’. Therese and Jim D’Orsa have produced for us an outstanding, reflective, challenging, and courageous work that provokes even more questions than it addresses. Out of reflections on our tradition, on the Gospel of John, and on living and lived evangelisation, it gives new and encouraging insights into the way ahead. The reflections remind us that evangelisation is ever new, challenge some of our past ‘orthodoxies’, and demonstrate that newness is a courageous realism. They provide indications that the Church in its laity, in its leaders, in its religious congregations, in men and women of inspiration and faith, takes on the call to ever renew itself. The contributors’ reflections are not nostalgic, but enlighten us as to what has happened, and is happening, in the whole Church. They are particularly enlightening about the Spirit at work in the life and journey of Catholic schooling and Catholic education. Jim and Therese D’Orsa are to be congratulated, and all of us to be encouraged to read this book, and to take on courageously the consequences.’
Monsignor Tom Doyle, A.O.
Emeritus Director of Catholic Education
Archdiocese of Melbourne