Forming hearts of hope

By Edwin Bakker, Faith Formation Manager, Catholic Mission and Identity, at Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS).

MACS values each member of our community and believes every person plays an essential part in our mission (MACS 2025, p. 1).

As Term 2 commences, we may ponder what this term will bring. Our hearts might be filled with hopes and dreams about the opportunities ahead. Yet, at the same time, that same heart might experience a sense of anxiety, fear and concern.

Reflecting on the Scripture from the book of Jeremiah might help us to stand strong through the challenges we face: 'But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. He is like a tree planted by the waters that sends out its roots toward the stream...' (Jer 17: 7–8).

This is a powerful encouragement, ensuring we guide our roots toward the stream of life, which is Christ. Key moments such as personal prayer and reflection help us to nourish and flourish as a person and leader.

Reading Scripture and journalling or praying the Examen at the end of a long day may help us to consider where we encountered God through the good, bad and ugly moments of our day. Nourishment can also be found through communal moments of prayer and liturgy, like weekly Mass at our schools, or within the local parish community.

Forming hearts

The recently launched Forming Hearts: MACS Faith Formation Framework (MACS 2025) clearly illuminates the hope that each person in the MACS community will flourish by discovering their role as a disciple of Christ and as an active participant in the evangelising mission of the Church.

Recognising the diverse background and experiences of its members (students and families; principals and senior leaders; teachers; staff; MACS board and executive leaders), Forming Hearts states that MACS is committed to accompanying each member on their discipleship journey and that senior leaders within MACS are supported as they strive to lead authentically and cultivate prayerful discipleship communities (p. 5).

With Christ at the centre of that discipleship community, senior leaders are invited to encounter the living Christ daily, allowing them to orient their day, their lives and their leadership style on that encounter, which Pope Benedict XVI expressed beautifully in his encyclical Deus Caritas Est:

Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction (2005, n. 1).

When you centre your day, your life and your leadership style around that encounter, you can draw upon that source of truth and goodness in situations and struggles of daily life (Benedict XVI 2008). This will help you become a Pilgrim of Hope while facing what lies ahead.

Renewed hope

Leaders are encouraged to consider how they are called to be a leader, while being committed to their personal vocation to holiness and recognising the invitation to follow Christ.

How do leaders accompany others on their own journey towards their encounters, so they too will be given new horizons to life?

We can be grateful for what lies ahead. Embracing this new approach of a hope-filled term, we can experience a renewed desire to grow in hope, faith and love.

Inspired by Pope Francis' papal bull Spes Non Confundit (2025), consider what anchors of hope you should add or strengthen in your weekly routine, providing a way for your roots to grow:

• consider commencing the day with the Litany of Trust (Sisters of Life 2023), which anchors our identity in Christ through a simple yet profound prayer of placing our trust in God's promises
• identify moments throughout the day to rejoice in hope (Rom 12: 12), by taking time to celebrate events and people
• at the end of the day, aim to reflect on all your encounters by praying the Examen (Loyola Press, n.d.).

These simple instruments of prayer and reflection help detect and discern God's new horizons and orientation.

Call to respond

I invite you to prayerfully consider what the anchors of hope would be for you as a senior leader to your school community? What nourishment do you need to flourish as you face the blessings, celebrations, struggles and conflicts in the term ahead? How will you sustain a renewed sense of that new horizon and renewed orientation?

MACS school leaders should be confident that the hope they have in Christ will continue to form their hearts. And since the heart is the starting and ending place of every relationship, with God and with all those around us (Francis 2024), school leaders will bring hope to all members of their communities.

References

Benedict XVI (Pope) 2008, Angelus 1 June 2008, The Holy See, accessed on 8 April 2025 www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/angelus/2008/documents/hf_ben-xvi_ang_20080601.html.

Benedict XVI (Pope) 2005, Deus Caritas Est (On Christian Love), The Holy See, accessed on 8 April 2025 www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20051225_deus-caritas-est.html.

Francis (Pope) 2025, Spes Non Confundit, The Holy See, accessed on 8 April 2025 www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/bulls/documents/20240509_spes-non-confundit_bolla-giubileo2025.html.

Francis (Pope) 2024, Dilexit Nos (On the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ), The Holy See, accessed 10 April 2025 www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/20241024-enciclica-dilexit-nos.html.

Loyola Press, The Daily Examen, Loyola Press, Chicago, accessed 8 April 2025 www.ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian-prayer/the-examen.

Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS) 2025, Forming Hearts: MACS Faith Formation Framework, MACS, East Melbourne, accessed 10 April 2025 www.macs.vic.edu.au/MelbourneArchdioceseCatholicSchools/media/Documentation/Documents/formation/MACS_FFF.pdf.

Sisters of Life 2023, Litany of Trust, Annunciation Motherhouse, New York, accessed 10 April 2025 https://sistersoflife.org/litany-of-trust.

Edwin Bakker can be contacted on 9267 0228 or via ebakker@macs.vic.edu.au.

Image: Use Your Kind Heart – Mercy, Peace and Love, by Elena Stott, in Foundation at St Jude's School, Langwarrin from the Creative Arts Exhibition 2023