valete

Yesterday was my son Nick's last day of school. This is an excerpt from his Headmaster's [Fr Ross Jones] farewell speech:

Some of you now have quite a clear idea of what you want to do with your lives when you walk through those Wyalla gates for the last time. For others, your vocation will work its way through you like leaven over the next year or so. Then, what seemed like the dull dough of self you have been working with, will suddenly rise and take shape. Others still will make a dramatic change and choice later in life when some catalyst suddenly fires you up.

When you are deciding, when you are discerning ... go into your heart of hearts. That’s where you find truth. Search out that answer to “What must I do?” Not what pays most, or what mum and dad want, or what comes with more status and kudos. No – find that place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hungers meet. Because if your “must” does not embrace others and serve others, it’s not a vocation. It’s simply self-indulgence. Find that “must” in your deepest self. Accept both the blessings and the burdens it will bring. And having chosen what you must do, then, as Rilke writes, “build your life in accordance with this necessity”.

I want you to leave here being “interior men” – not being seduced by the slick and superficial, not taken in by the transient, not chasing tinsel in the wind. I want each of you be a man of interiority, who knows where his heart is. A man who can read the heart’s signals and know its language. I want you each to go from here listening to your heart. And being bold and generous enough to follow its constant invitation.