THE guest speaker at Mount Lourdes Grammar School was former principal Sister Rose Marie Keenan.

She said she was honoured to be invited as guest speaker in this, the school's centenary year.

"One hundred years ago, she said, "Mount Lourdes started off as two rooms in the convent, seven pupils and a few intrepid Sisters of Mercy who had a vision for the further education of girls in Fermanagh and beyond.

"Now we can look down the years and see how that vision has flourished: how many hundreds, thousands of girls have passed through since then; how many wonderful staff have come and gone; how those two rooms have grown to the present lovely and ever-expanding school campus; and how all over the world past-pupils are to be found, carrying memories, values, learning, and commitment to the task in hand.

"Mount Lourdes's school shield encapsulated some of its founding ideals. We find inscribed a Latin quotation: Fide et labore - with faith and work.

Sister Keenan said there was a sense that hard work was necessary if girls were to take up their rightful positions in society.

"There was also a deep sense of God's love and providence surrounding the project, that true growth was a call to develop — not just academically — but as well-balanced human beings, physically, socially, culturally and spiritually.

"As a past pupil, teacher and principal, I am deeply aware of these life-giving currents that flow in and around the entity that is Mount Lourdes, Since I first came here in 1950, I have witnessed the development of this school over a period of nearly 60 years."

Yet to her she said, it still seemed the same.

"The girls come and go. The staff come and go. Buildings come and go. But something deeper remains. It is a spirit, a companionship, a shared memory, a shared pride in something good and true and beautiful that has stood the test of time. It defies definition, but you and I are marked by it. We owe it our appreciation and our gratitude. We are built on a sure foundation and are called to pass on a rich heritage."

She said that heritage went back to Catherine McAuley, Foundress of the Sisters of Mercy who in the 1830s wrote of her vision for the education of girls:

"The Sisters shall be convinced that no work of charity can be more productive of good to society, or more conducive to the happiness of the poor, than the careful instruction of women; because, whatever be the station they are destined to fill, their example and their advice will always have great influence."

She then recalled an article she read by President Obama on what he wished for his daughters.

"To Malia and Sasha he writes: 'I hope that you will right the wrongs you see and work to give others the chances you've had... .because it is only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you will realise your true potential. I want you grow up in a world with no limits on your dreams, and no achievements beyond your reach, and to grow into compassionate, committed women who will help build that world'.

"It's a marvellous vision he has - compassionate, committed women, hitching your wagon to something larger than yourself, working to give others the chances you've had.

That was the vision at the heart of Catherine McAuley and of the early Sisters in that two-roomed school in the Convent in 1909, 100 years ago.

"It is the vision that I would like to leave with you this evening.

The words of a contemporary American poet, Mary Oliver may help you ponder it. She writes,

'Tell me, what is it you plan to do With your one wild, precious life?'"