Seeking Wisdom – The Catholic Student’s Vocation

In March 2009, the Australian Catholic Students’ Association welcomed the Icon of Our Lady, Seat of Wisdom to Notre Dame University, Sydney in Mass presided over by the Most Rev. Anthony Fisher OP, Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney. The Icon, which will tour the country over the coming year, will be present at ACSA's National Conference, held this weekend in Brisbane.

The Icon, commissioned by the late Pope John Paul II, is a sign for university students and an object of their contemplation and prayer.

What is to be the fruit of such contemplation? Wisdom. New Springtime is extremely privileged to publish the Homily of the Most Rev Anthony Fisher OP, Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney given on 16 March at that welcoming Mass. In it, he emphasises that the student’s search is not simply a search for knowledge or technical expertise, but wisdom, the consideration of the highest things. In a world that privileges continuous activity, the call to seek wisdom is ever-urgent. Let us contemplate Our Lady, the Seat of Wisdom, and her Son, the Word of God Himself.

So how is wisdom achieved? Above all, through prayer. However, as Fr O’Donnell’s article wonderfully illustrates, an important feature of the human condition and, it may be interpolated, the transmission of Wisdom, is the place of memory. It is memory through which our Faith is transferred and lived. Related to the transmission of memory is the art. Dan Hill continues his series of articles on the nature and history of art.

Integral to attainment of Wisdom is the proper exercise of freedom. As Matthew Buckley points out in his well-referenced, freedom, an important and prominent object of human desire, is necessarily conditioned by the Good; our freedom is for God and we are only truly free in choosing Him.