Students, staff and past students from St Augustine’s Priory gathered for Mass celebrated by Cardinal Vincent on Tuesday 30 June to mark the school’s centenary. On 21 September 1915 a community of Augustinian Canonesses Regular of the Lateran moved their convent and school in Paris to a new site of Hillcrest Road in Ealing.
At the opening of the Mass, four pupils performed short monologues which provided a snapshot from the past century; one representing 1915, when the community first moved to the site, one for 1945, another for 1968 and finally the present day. The piece demonstrated that the school has seen many years of change, but has been sustained and nourished by the faith which is at the heart of the community of the convent and school.
In his homily, Cardinal Vincent discussed the gospel from the Mass, explaining that it is the rock of the faith on which the school was founded and which has sustained it since its foundation.He told those assembled that we are must be clothed in compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience and forgiveness.
At the end of Mass Cardinal Vincent blessed the new Prayer Garden, worked on by pupils of all ages and supported by the Parents’ Committee and gardener, Mrs Molloy. A beautiful and colourful mosaic was created to make One Hundred Years of Faith, into which each pupil had laid a tile and was completed by artist Mrs D’Sousa.
