St Mary’s is a Catholic secondary girls’ College that provides a dynamic and nurturing educational community where students and staff strive to realise the full potential aspiring to the motto:
'I am born for higher things'AD MAIORA NATA SUM
Our motto serves as a constant reminder and challenge to strive to follow Christ and to set for ourselves the highest standards seeking to create a just and inclusive world; to pursue lifelong learning and establish a meaningful relationship with God.
Our Charism
We draw on the ongoing relevance of the model offered by the Parable of the Samaritan and the possibilities for love, compassion and peace when the dignity of each person is respected and every person is recognised as our neighbour.
Who is my neighbour? This was the question a good Jewish lawyer asked Jesus. (Luke 10:25 - 37) He already knew the great commandment to love both God and neighbour. His question of who is my neighbour continues to echo in our complex modern world. Jesus’ story of a compassionate Samaritan helping a wounded Jew was unexpected, even shocking. The story reminds us that our neighbours are everywhere; they are the people who are like us and the people with whom we share nothing in common. They are the people we love and the people we struggle to even like. The parable challenges us to embrace all we meet
In naming the Congregation as Sisters of the Good Samaritan in the 1850s, Archbishop John Bede Polding said that their given name “sufficiently indicates the scope” of their work. The Good Samaritans were called to be ministers of mercy and messengers of compassion, to be neighbours to all those in need.
We are inspired by the works of the Sisters of the Good Samaritan who have long ministered to women in all circumstances. We too are invited to be neighbours to others, to recognise those people in our society who wait on our commitment and our willingness to invite them into our lives and our story. Our neighbour in need might be a destitute boy from a squatter village in the Philippines, a prisoner in Melbourne, a young woman searching for God.
We share in the particular concern the Sisters of the Good Samaritan show particularly in our support of their ministries which work with communities across Australia and the Pacific, including Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander people, people with disabilities, refugees and asylum seekers, women subjected to human trafficking and more
As a Good Samaritan College we strive to live the according to the values that define who we are as individuals and how we live as a community. Our values are key to our understanding of the Parable of the Samaritan in the Gospel of Luke in a school founded by the Sisters of the Good Samaritan in the Benedictine tradition.
- Love of God
- Love of learning
- Hospitality
- Stewardship
- Peace
are embedded in our everyday lives and experiences of the College.
Our Name
St Mary, Star of the Sea is an ancient title of Mary the mother of Jesus, especially loved by those Christians who live and make their livelihoods by the sea.
They, like us, prayed to Mary Star of the Sea to guide and help navigate the sometimes rough and difficult waters of our world. Stars of the Sea have always guided people back to their true home which for this community is centred on and nurtured by God.
Our Life Together
As a faith community our prayer and liturgical experiences are central to the way we live together.
Students have opportunities to pray daily in tutor groups. The key feasts of the church and the significant moments in the lives of the students are celebrated in liturgy. Students are encouraged to assume leadership and take responsibility for all ministries as they live out their full, conscious and active participation in faithful relationship with God and each other.
Students take up the invitation to transform our world in their varied responses to injustices in Australia and internationally. Our community is focussed on faith and good works and the students willingly initiate and involve themselves with issues of justice at a local, national and international level.
Within the College there are many ways of being community; in tutor groups, house groups, classes and year groups. Students choose to take up membership in other communities within the College. Clubs offer students other ways to involve themselves while working to make a difference. Clubs, ranging from Amnesty International through to Zonta give students a place to belong and meaningful work to undertake.
