FINDING GOD IN ALL THINGS
A group photo of the Saint Ignatius’ College Adelaide staff formation day held on 27 April at Sevenhill in the Clare Valley, the spiritual home of the Australian Jesuits. All photos by Luke Librino and Warren Bradley, courtesy the College.
By Fr Peter Hosking, Rector of Saint Ignatius’ College, Adelaide
with Emma Lilley – Director of Faith Formation, Senior School,
Shane O’Brien – Director of Mission, Senior School
and Anne Mercorella – Director of Faith and Service, Junior School
Belonging and Connecting: Where belonging meets our Jesuit traditions and connection inspires a hope-filled future.
On Monday, 27 April 2026, staff gathered at the historic Jesuit site of Sevenhill for our annual Staff Formation Day, with many colleagues arriving the day before to begin the experience on Sunday. This year’s formation carried particular significance as we celebrate two remarkable milestones: 75 years of Ignatian education in our College community and 175 years of the Jesuits at Sevenhill.
This Jubilee year invites us to pause and give thanks for the rich Jesuit traditions and Ignatian identity that continue to shape who we are. For 75 years, our College has been grounded in an Ignatian vision of education, one that forms the whole person and calls us to live lives of faith, reflection, service, and justice. Ignatian education encourages us to be thoughtful learners, compassionate leaders, and people attentive to God’s presence in the ordinary moments of life. Today, this tradition continues to give us a strong sense of purpose, urging us to seek excellence, act justly, and move forward with hope.
This year, the Faith and Service theme is Belonging and Connecting: Where belonging meets our Jesuit traditions and connection inspires a hope-filled future. Therefore, our time at Sevenhill offered not only historical and spiritual depth, but a unique opportunity to strengthen our sense of belonging, deepen relationships with one another, and reconnect with the Ignatian spirituality that grounds our shared mission. The celebration of the Eucharist on both Sunday and Monday anchored the gathering in prayer and thanksgiving.
The keynote address was delivered by Father Brendan Kelly SJ, Superior of the Jesuit community at Sevenhill, who shared a range of personal and historical insights tracing the history of the Jesuits in Australia and the formation of our College at both Norwood and Athelstone. Fr Kelly’s genuine and considered sharing of the courage, mission and faith; past, present, and future, of both the Jesuits and College families, staff and students resonated with the staff present.
Fr Brendan Kelly SJ, Superior of Sevenhill, delivering the keynote address at St Aloysius’ Church, which was completed in 1875. A former student of the College, he said: “You, the staff, stand today among a pantheon of Jesuits, lay staff, non-teaching staff, and parents who have contributed to the making of this school over the past 75 years.”
He said (and these are just excerpts):
“I feel very privileged to speak to you about Saint Ignatius’ College with which I have enjoyed a long association, and especially here at Sevenhill as we celebrate our 175th here this year. Indeed, I have been blessed to serve in both places as a Jesuit. I was a student in Grade 4 at Saint Ignatius in 1960, being with my three brothers at St Joseph’s Memorial before that and missing the Grade 3 class of the famous Mrs Anne McCusker, the first lay teacher at St Ignatius.
“In 1967, as a Year 11 student, I was among the pioneer group of students to go to the Athelstone Campus, graduating in 1969. During my time as a scholastic in Melbourne, in the 1970s and early ‘80s, I accompanied other Jesuits over the years in giving retreats to Saint Ignatius students. My first appointment after ordination (1982) was to Athelstone in 1984, where I served for six years, as teacher, Religious Education and Community Service Coordinator, Year 12 Form Master, Chaplain, retreat giver, and footy coach. From 1990-2020, I was ‘in exile’ in Sydney for some 30 years before returning home to South Australia to take up what I expected to be my appointment as parish priest at Norwood. However, COVID ensured that the incumbent parish priest of the time, Fr Paul Mullins SJ, could not move on, so I was asked to help here at Sevenhill, where I have remained ever since. On my return to South Australia, I was appointed as a Director on Saint Ignatius’ College Board.
“The Jesuits who began the school brought with them an incredibly rich tradition of education. They came out of a deep faith, humanistic and renaissance tradition and legacy. So successful were they over time as teachers that they became known as the ‘Schoolmasters of Europe’ in the seventeenth century.
“We are the inheritors and the custodians of that tradition and legacy. How did that rub off on me as a boy? Well, the Jesuit mystique grew as Fr Lou Lachal SJ, a Jesuit missionary to India, used to visit us annually to raise money for the Indian Missions, and talk to us about elephants and tigers marauding villages in far off places like Hazaribag, taking off livestock, and even children! Over the years we grew tired of the same story and asked him for a new one. Without hesitation, he changed the elephants into locusts and the tigers into anacondas!
At the altar, from left: Fr Ramesh Richards SJ, Fr Brendan Kelly SJ, Fr Kieran Gill SJ, Fr Gaetan Pereira SJ and the Rector of Saint Ignatius’ College, Fr Peter Hosking SJ.
“When I was in Year 9, I remember being introduced to the great French Jesuit palaentologist, Fr Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ. He was in the expedition that discovered the remains of an ancient hominid named ‘Peking Man’. I was fascinated that Teilhard was a man before his times, and he still fascinates me, as he is frequently quoted in discussions of new evolutionary theories and ecological issues. There were stories from Fr McAreavey about ants and bees that had us enthralled. More fascinating was it that ‘Macca’ found new species of ants, and one was named after him. Then there was learning about certain craters on the moon being named after Jesuits for their scientific research. I know now that there are at least 35 craters named after Jesuits.
“When the senior campus at Athelstone was opened in 1967, there was a welcome new influx of enrolments from that suburb and the surrounding region. The cultural mix of students was preserved and extended. We used to arrive at school on a Slattery or Langs bus, driven along roads with multiple, extensive market gardens on either side. For us as students, this was a time of excitement and adventure. No longer confined as we were at Norwood, we now had extensive space to explore and play in, against the backdrop of Black Hill and the Adelaide Hills. The terrain was sparse but expansive.
“Again, this was a humble beginning. The school had little money, which went into paying off the property and buying the few resources that could be mustered. What amazed me in those early years of Athelstone was the way in which the learned Jesuits, at day’s end, and on weekends, would work the grounds, gardening, pulling weeds, watering and landscaping. Fr Charles Dennett SJ, and later his brother Fr Frank Dennett SJ, Fr John McAreavey SJ and Martin ‘Skippy’ Wallace SJ, Fr Steve Bowler SJ, scholastic Greg O’Kelly SJ, and Br Paul Callil SJ all worked the property. Br Paul ‘Satch’ Callil SJ was the only cleaner of the campus in the beginning, and he was also the cook for the Jesuit community. A group of students pitched in to help him with the cleaning on a regular basis. Risk and Compliance today would have a pink fit seeing us cleaning windows inside and out on the third floor of the Bellarmine Wing. And the reward for that work was always, in the words of ‘Satch’, ‘large plates of sandwiches, even more bottles of soft drink, and the inevitable ‘fag’.
“The current leadership on the ground at the College of Lauren Brooks as Principal and Peter Hosking SJ as Rector is exceptional. They work together as a strong team. They embody the spirit and ethos of the school, and they inspire in their caring leadership. I was at dinner recently with some friends where Lauren was referred to as Lady Tech Smart. What a courageous and timely innovation this program is! It places the student at the centre of the learning process and not technology. Something critical to Ignatian pedagogy and spirituality is enjoying space to daydream and reflect, enabling imaginative creativity from within, and not simply always borrowing from a screen. I also informed the dinner group that Lauren was smart in a lot of other ways. Peter, in his speeches and writings, presents well the Ignatian worldview, informed by faith and sound theology.
“And you, the teachers and support staff of the school, are to be commended and congratulated. The past three years of the school have realised consistently outstanding results, which speaks volumes for your commitment and professionalism.
“You, the staff, stand today among a pantheon of Jesuits, lay staff, non-teaching staff, and parents who have contributed to the making of this school over the past 75 years: from the likes of a Br Jim Madden SJ, who walked across the school yard at Norwood of a morning, with a rubbish bin lid on his bald head, juggling 8 to 10 golf balls, who faithfully opened and closed the parish church daily, and who knew our birthdays, even those of our siblings; and the likes of a Peter Joseph, founding, influential parent, and a Brian Polomka, creative architect, and Bert Baulderstone, generous builder, through to the present day leadership and governance of the school; and all in between, from a Fr Phil Hosking SJ, Fr David Strong SJ, Fr Norbert Olsen SJ, Fr Michael Ryan SJ, to a Br Paul Callil SJ and Br Bruce Robertson SJ; from a Bishop Greg O’Kelly SJ, a Fr Paul Mullins SJ, Fr Chris Middleton SJ, Fr Robert Davoren SJ, Fr Jack McLain SJ and Fr Terry Kelly SJ to an Otto Nocka, a Nan Mortimer, Carmen O’Brien and a Kelly Ramsay; from a Mary Joseph to a Maggie Klingberg, to an Emma Marks and Nik Villios; from a Richard Flynn, Bernie Donnelly and Jim Carey to a Mirko Petkovic, Richard Duddy and David Harben; from a Peter Coffey and Wally Armitage to a Nick Boys and a Barbara Watkins … this pantheon is too legion to name fully here. But to those named and unnamed, and there are many more, we owe a great debt of gratitude. They gave the school, along with the students over the years, its character, the same way in which you are giving the school its character today and shaping its future.”
Staff also participated in two of four formation session offerings, each grounded in Ignatian spirituality and facilitated by a Jesuit, with support from College staff. These sessions included:
- Fr Ramesh Richards SJ and Ms Jane McCaffrey – The Cardoner Network on Faith in Action: Living Justice the Ignatian Way;
- Fr Kieran Gill SJ, Parish Priest, on Grounded in the Word: Prayer and practices for today’s contemporary world;
- Fr Brendan Kelly SJ, and a local First Nations leader – Aunty Angelina, on Together on the Road: Growing a Reconciled Future;
- Fr Peter Hosking SJ, College Rector, on Listening for God and the Art of Discernment.
Each workshop involved 50 to 60 participants, repeated twice, allowing all staff to engage deeply with the formation themes.
Together, this year’s Staff Formation Day was both a celebration and an invitation honouring our past, renewing our shared identity. At Saint Ignatius’ College, we believe that all that we offer, and all that we do, forms our staff, leaders, students, and community. Through relationship, reflection, prayer, learning, and service, we are continually shaped for mission where belonging is strengthened, connection is deepened, and a hopeful future is inspired in the Ignatian spirit of finding God in all things.
Banner image is a drone shot of the Sevenhill property.