books ...

 

 

 

Mater Dei School at Camden, New South Wales, strives to live out the story of the Good Samaritan in its work for and with children with developmental delay, students and young adults with cognitive disabilities, their families and carers.

 

Journey to the Heart celebrates 50 years of special education and life at Mater Dei.  The children on the front cover draw the reader into their lives with the invitation to draw meaning from disability through community.

 

These healing and heart warming stories are told through the personal experiences of Good Samaritan Sisters, principals, parents, ex-students, teachers and teachers' assistants, social educators, nurses, doctors, researchers, bus drivers and Board members. They tell personal stories - of the sisters, about the pride of parents and related to issues such as the fight for legislation in Australia.

 

The students at Mater Dei are such a strong witness to a society that too often applauds intelligence, productivity and power.

 

They show the reader how to 'be' in a world, which emphasises doing; how to forgive and how to accept one's own weaknesses and to enjoy life with all its limitations.

 

In this book, Mater Dei becomes the storyteller on behalf of its children.  It is an invitation to the reader to learn from the children; to surface one's own questions about disability and, as one makes a personal journey to the heart, to search there for fresh insights.

 

Journey to the Heart should demonstrate to society, the churches and to education systems that they sustain a tremendous void when they ignore and deny the immeasurable contributions that people with disabilities can make if they are allowed to participate in the social and spiritual development of our world.

 

This hard cover book of 240 pages of stories and beautiful photos sells at $30 (plus $10 postage).  Orders should be sent to Sr Francis Maher SGS, email  fmaher@goodsams.org.au  before November 16.

 

Jeanie Heininger SGS is the editor of Journey to the Heart