Consultative Discernment in Common: Towards strategically planning our College’s future

Monday 31st May was not only the last day of a busy month but also the culmination of a series of discernment sessions organised for our College’s Senior Leadership Team, which involved a close and reflective look at the key global identifiers of a Jesuit education. ​

A consultative discernment seminar was held at Mount St. Joseph Retreat House. Following an initial prayer and a welcome address by our Rector, Fr Jimmy Bartolo sj, our respective Heads of School presented the key objectives for the next three scholastic years ​as chosen after the discernment processes in the respective School Leadership Teams.  It was very consoling to see that many of the objectives chosen were common among the three schools and touched upon various aspects of the school life: the identity of the school, formation of the school community, discipline, teaching and learning, global citizenship; and maintenance works throughout College. The fruit of the reflections on the ‘Jesuit Schools: A Living Tradition in the 21st Century’ were then reviewed in light of the suggestions made by all team members, including the ​St. Aloysius Jesuit Community.

The Coordinator​ of this whole discernment process, Fr Ray Pace sj, then moved on to introducing some personal prayer time ​where each member spent one hour of ​individual reflection and conversation with the Lord ​to listen to where the Spirit moved every person and to come up with one or two points which they felt were important for the whole College to consider as objectives. Following this hour, the participants were divided into sharing groups for a spiritual conversation exercise.​ Through the group sharing, the participants listened to where the Spirit could be leading the College for the next three years, and chose specific themes to give direction to the College.

These common themes, which surfaced from each group’s sharing exercise, ​were then shared with all the participants again. The College Board will now be gathering the fruits of this consultative discernment day to choose objectives for the whole College, which alongside those of the respective schools, will foster a deeper growth of our College community in the coming three years.

***