We were very fortunate to have our College Captains break open this years Notre Dame College theme which is: Pursuing Peace with Grace. Over the next two weeks I would like to share with you their reflection which provides great encouragement for how we can all achieve peace with grace.
College Captain - Kiera Shaw
This year’s College theme is “Pursuing Peace with Grace.” While it may sound like a big idea, at its heart, it is about how we choose to respond to one another every day. “Pursuing peace,” means working hard towards harmony, resolving conflict, avoiding unnecessary fights, and seeking understanding rather than meaning. “With Grace,” can be defined as kindness, patience, forgiveness, and giving people the room to be imperfect. Together, it encourages us to approach challenges in a way that maintains respect and understanding.
And the reason this matters is because… we’ve all been there. For example, friendships that feel fine one day can suddenly feel awkward the next. Maybe someone left you on read, a joke didn’t land well, or something small turned into silence, and suddenly you are sitting next to someone you used to talk to every day, unsure of what changed.
Most of the time, those moments are not about someone trying to hurt us. They come from misunderstandings, stress, or reacting instead of thinking. That’s where “pursuing peace with grace” begins, in those everyday moments when it would be easier to ignore, hold a grudge, or react, but instead, we choose to pause. Because one moment does not have to ruin a friendship, a class, or a whole year.
College Captain - Gabe Garner
When we focus on “pursuing peace” in our College theme this year, these words go beyond pretending a conflict never happened or altogether avoiding someone you had a falling out with. Instead of holding grudges and letting a one-off moment ruin a relationship with someone, “peace” lies in choosing to be the bigger person, stepping up, and making amends. Peace is in actions like reaching out, apologising for what went wrong, being patient and moving on together, growing rather than falling apart. It is better to forgive than forget and this is the difference between making and breaking a friendship.
As we all go through this year, there will no doubt be moments of anger, conflict or disagreement with the people around you. Rather than throwing away opportunities to create connections with each other through focusing on the negatives, let’s focus instead on the positives and the value in simply being on good terms with your peers. If you ever find yourself struggling to understand the actions of others, pursue peace, put yourself in their shoes and try to imagine how they’re feeling, because at the end of the day, you won’t know and perspective is everything.
Have a great week ahead,
Brendan Lindsay, Deputy Principal - Catholic Identity
