Balloons of memory and hopes

When a hundred Sixth Year Cross & Passion College students released their blue-and-white balloons into the sky above Kilcullen recently, they were marking a rite of passager to a new stage in their lives.



School Principal Paul Tyrrell told them it was a 'very special' night on a number of levels.

"It is a new stage in your life's journey, with new freedoms, new responsibilities and new challenges," he said at the Mass which preceded the symbolic release of the balloons.

He said there will be new opportunities for them, which will mean choices that would bring them in different directions, make them new friends.

"We hope you will sieze those opportunities, and grasp them with enthusiasm and confidence," he said, adding that the only limitations on their lives would be the ones that they place on themselves.

"You are the powerhouse, the driving force in your lives. Please make sure you use that power."

The school's chaplain, Fr Paddy Ryan, asked them to 'be a light to the world' that would bring goodness and hope into the lives of all those around them'.

"Think what you can bring to the world," he said. "You will get from the world exactly what you put into it, no more, no less."

He concluded by expressing his hope, and the hopes of their parents and teachers, that they would live up to the ideas and values which had been set before them in their homes and at the school.

The Mass concluded with music provided by the students, and presentations to Fr Paddy and to their teachers.

A reception back in the CPC Assembly Hall was organised by the Parents Association.

Brian Byrne.

(This piece was originally published on the Kilcullen Page of the Kildare Nationalist.)