Anyone familiar with the Bedford area of today would be surprised to learn that when I started attending Christian Brother High Preparatory School at the end of Beaufort Street, the school consisted of four classrooms and was next to a dairy farm.
In 1965, the school commenced the next stage of development and the science lab and three more classrooms were built.
This was when CBHS Bedford became a high school. It was eventually renamed and became St Mark’s College, and is known as Chisholm College.
At the recent “Making Jesus Real” Symposium, I gave an introduction for Peter Mitchell, who authored the MJR books and provides support for its approach to living with the Spirit of Jesus in our schools that have embraced MJR.
Peter taught my class at Bedford in Year 6 and moved with us into Year 7. I took the opportunity to reminisce on those days at Bedford and on the impact that Peter had on us.
Peter quickly endeared himself to us with his great energy, care and fairness.
He was relational, a motivator and encourager.
We have very fond memories of his time with us, including the long bike rides and picnics during school holidays and our exquisite exile to the unused school building in Embleton while the construction took place at Bedford. We spent nearly our entire Grade 7 year off campus, with a lot more freedom.
Peter was assigned to Kalgoorlie in 1966, and from there to Victoria and Tasmania, and he kept in touch with us by letter.
I met him again, nearly a life time later, when I called on him at Mercy College where he was presenting MJR. It was probably a great surprise to him that by then I was a bishop.
He told me about his work in developing MJR. We shared a few memories from those years.
Later, I received copies of MJR books from Marty Ogle who succeeded Peter. It was in reading the Handbooks that some words and ideas struck me, and triggered memories of what I heard and learned from Peter about living positively with the Spirit of Jesus when in Years 6 and 7, which I had tried to imitate.
These, it occurred to me, have remained with me and have contributed to my growth as a person, in character and faith.
A consciousness of the presence of Jesus had begun to grow in me, and a reflective conversation with Him has largely continued since those days.
Jesus began to be someone real, someone who is interested in me, someone I could trust because I began to recognise that he wants only the best for us.
Jesus wants to accompany us through life and share with us his living Spirit, who is “working for the good of those who love Him” (Romans 8:28), in my relationships with others, God and myself.
When Peter taught us, Religious Education was titled ‘Religious Knowledge’ or simply ‘Religion’.
So for me it was more than anything the handing on of information, facts and rules. We know how this approach has changed, and the pedagogy for teaching the units of study begins with the life experiences of the young person, leads on to learning about Jesus, his life and message, and on to how this can be received, accepted, and formative for the young person.
Knowledge alone about God, Jesus, the Church, the Sacraments, prayer, moral living, and our destiny is not enough. Something more is needed. That thing that is more is a meeting with God through Jesus, the One who is Risen and alive.
Looking back, I realise that Mitch got this, and so the seeds for what became MJR were sown. He is probably amazed at how, at that very early stage in his teaching career, he was having an impact and something began to stir within us.
He made this possible by letting the Spirit of Jesus into his life and by being transformed himself by the Spirit of Jesus.
Peter knows that the Spirit of Jesus is alive and is there for anyone.
A question that Peter poses for children
and those who know MJR is: Where did you see the Spirit of Jesus in you
today?
He is convinced that anyone can learn to recognise the presence of Jesus
working in our ordinary lives, and as we seek to grow to be the best that we
can be.
He believes that we can be agents of positive change when we allow the Spirit of Jesus to find a place within us.
Making Jesus Real is not a program nor an alternative to our RE units. This is a common misconception. It is meant to accompany the teaching of RE.
MJR is a Christian way of life and easily complements our RE units.
Peter presents us with a way to bring together knowledge about our faith and the experience of living with faith through MJR. It draws on the spirituality of St Ignatius of Loyola. It has something to offer staff, students and families for their lives.
It has been demonstrated that it can transform our school communities. MJR has been taken on by schools in WA and the other States and it has become a key element in School Evangelisation and Strategic Plans.
I have noticed the difference MJR makes.
An experience of this was a visit that I made to St Denis Primary School in Joondanna some years ago. In those schools where it is embedded the children are naturally welcoming and ready to help.
This, I believe, is because they are learning how to reflect on their actions and those of their fellows who show them consideration and kindness.
They learn to recognise and celebrate when they were able to see and respond to the need of another.
They say that this was a “God Moment”. They realise that when they were a giver, rather than a taker, they experienced real happiness.
I have no difficulty in recommending MJR for our schools.