Term 3, 2025 Newsletter: week 10
- SMMC Admin
- Oct 19
- 2 min read
The following is an edited extract from Mr Smith's address to the Year 12 Final Assembly held today.
I finally summoned the courage - it took me several days - to listen to Erika Kirk’s speech at her husband, Charlie’s, memorial on Monday our time in Arizona. If you hadn’t heard of Charlie Kirk before, you have now. Many in our community and all over the world have been grief-stricken and, perhaps initially, at a total loss at what has happened.
Remarkably, the response to Charlie’s assassination has not been more violence, rioting and mayhem, but - and in complete contrast - with an outpouring of love, prayer, forgiveness, mutual support, soul searching, renewal and the proclamation of the Gospel. The witness has been so compellingly true, resolutely good, so disarmingly beautiful that I am in no doubt many souls will find a way to their true home in the Church as a result.
In her address, Erika referenced a speech Charlie had made that was based on one of his favourite bible verses, Isaiah 6:8, “Here I am, Lord. Send me.” Charlie also kept a journal of important moments and insights. One of those insights Erika mentioned was, in Charlie’s words, “Every time you make a decision, it puts a mark on your soul.”
What I want to say to the Year 12s today is, mark your soul with these words of Isaiah and this intentionality: Here I am, Lord. Send me. So that, when you leave here this afternoon you are not merely finishing school, but you are accepting an invitation from God himself to say, Here I am, Lord. Send me. Make it a promise - now - to our Lord. Mark your soul with this choice.
When you are attending your celebration this evening, swotting for and sitting your exams you are saying above all, Here I am, Lord. Send me.
And know, as you discern your pathway to work, training, uni, a missionary apostolate and your life’s vocation, that you are keeping your promise to the One who made and redeemed you, Here I am, Lord. Send me.
Jesus has more confidence in you than you do in yourselves. Jesus sees you and hears you. This is his invitation to you. You have only to respond, Here I am, Lord. Send me. And he will.
Comments