The final two form-led assemblies of this Senior School year, led by 10KS and then by 7LH, have both focussed on the theme of ‘gratitude’.
Usually we try to avoid too much overlap or duplication with our assembly themes, but this was a good exception. As we come to the end of the year it is important to look back with gratitude on all of the blessings we have received and all the joys we have experienced. Sometimes it can be too easy to look back with regret, or perhaps with some frustration or even disappointment, but we shouldn’t take too much for granted and we shouldn’t try to place a limit on gratitude. Gratitude cheers the soul.
I have written before about the words of St Paul in the first chapter of his letter to the Philippians, beginning, ‘I thank my God each time I think of you.’ There is a beautiful hymn which begins with these words that in the first school in which I taught we used to sing to the departing Year 6 pupils on the last day of the Summer term each year.
When I think back with gratitude it is with gratitude for the people with whom I have spent this last school year: every one of the people here at Notre Dame. It is in one another that we can encounter Christ; it is through one another that we have the opportunity to serve and to grow as individuals and as a community.
I thank my God each time I think of you, and when I pray for you, I pray with joy. (1 Philippians 1:3-4)
