Sister Judy Foster SGS recently spent a week sharing the charism of the Sisters of the Good Samaritan with students and staff at Saint Mary’s Catholic College in Kingaroy, Queensland, as part of the school’s inaugural Sister in Residence program.
By Debra Vermeer
The program organiser and Mission Lead at Saint Mary’s, Carrie Lock, said the initiative was a creative attempt by the College to find ways in which the students and staff could connect with the College’s Good Samaritan history and Benedictine spirituality.
The school, located in the Archdiocese of Brisbane, was founded in 1929 under the leadership of the Sisters of Charity. The Sisters of the Good Samaritan served in the Kingaroy parish and the College from 1934-2002.
Last year, during the Jubilee of Hope, Carrie organised a pilgrimage around the school grounds in which the students visited six sites of importance in understanding the school’s origins and charism.
“A number of our buildings are named after Sisters and priests and religious orders who have been connected to the College,” she said.
Sister Judy Foster SGS with Mandy Sullivan, Head of College, and the plaque for the Good Sams. Photo credit: Saint Mary’s College.
“For example, we have the Sister Mary Hedwige Music Centre, named after the Sister of Charity who was the first principal, and the Sister Dolores Carroll Trade Training Centre, named after the Good Samaritan Sister who was the first principal of the secondary school (1965-1979) and a great supporter of trades education. I could see that it was important to our Catholic mission and identity that the students and staff were familiar with these great pioneers in our local Catholic education.
“The students and staff loved hearing those stories and it just seemed to be the natural next step for us to have a Sister spend time here. As the Sisters had left the parish some years ago, none of the students had actually seen a Good Sam in the school.”
Carrie said the College approached the Congregation to see if they would be interested in being part of the Sister in Residence program and Judy, who had recently retired as Liturgy Consultant for the Diocese of Townsville, jumped at the chance.
“I said yes immediately,” Judy said. “I didn’t even need to think about it. I thought it was a great initiative. I have a passion about schools knowing their charism and motto and linking the two. I wanted to be that connection point for staff and students and because I’m retired, I had the freedom to be able to do it.”
During her week in Kingaroy, Judy visited every year level from Prep to Year 12, speaking with staff, visiting the art classes and the school’s trade training centre, and mingling with students in the playground. The key focus of her interactions with both students and staff was exploring the College’s motto, ‘Realise your Dignity’.
“This is the Good Samaritan story,” Judy said. “It is about realising your own dignity and respecting the dignity of others.”
Sister Judy Foster SGS with Carrie Lock, Mission Lead at Saint Mary’s College. Photo credit: Saint Mary’s College.
Judy broke open the message with the various year groups by recontextualising the parable with students, giving an example based on local issues and places. She also shared the story of the foundation of the Sisters of the Good Samaritan by Archbishop John Bede Polding and Sister of Charity Scholastica Gibbons and shone a light on the works of the Sisters’ ministry in Australia, Kiribati, Japan and the Philippines. This underlined the College’s long-term fundraising support for the Good Samaritan Kinder School in Bacolod, the Philippines.
For the Prep students, Judy helped them to learn a fun, action-packed song she had written some years ago about farmyard animals and the God who created them.
On the last day of her stay, Judy led a reflection for the staff, linking the parable of the Good Samaritan with the school motto, and inviting teachers to recognise the dignity of every child.
Carrie said Judy was the perfect person for the first Sister in Residence program. “Not only with her enthusiasm, but her background in liturgy and just the way she was able to adjust her content and style from the little Prep kids to the senior students and staff.
“She was completely at home here and the way she broke open the connection to the Benedictine charism, the parable of the Good Samaritan and the school motto was really embedded into everyone she met, so that legacy itself will carry on for years.”
Year 9 student Harmony said she felt “inspired” after listening to Judy while Ethan, also from Year 9, said Judy helped him to appreciate the College motto.
“I learnt that we can realise people’s dignity by showing respect to other people and understanding why everyone deserves respect. Everyone deserves respect because everyone comes from God,” he said.
Year 7 student Kasaydia said the program had shown her that, “History can go on”.
“There’s so much in the past that can go on into the future, like how the Sisters helped the children,” she said.
Sister Judy Foster SGS with Nikki Law, Aboriginal Liaison Officer and artist. Photo credit: Saint Mary’s College.
Judy said the program was “a real gift” for her to be able to play a part in keeping alive the legacy of the Sisters who had been part of the life of the College.
“It was a beautiful week, a great experience to be there with the kids and to be able to tell our story and share our history as Good Sams,” she said.
“I’m always aware that when I do something like that, I’m walking in the footsteps of all those Sisters who’d been there over the years and helped shape the place. So, in a sense, it’s not me there, but it’s being a Good Samaritan and carrying that flame, the flame of our lives.”
While in the district, Judy also led two liturgical workshops with parishioners at Kingaroy and Blackbutt on the topic of Sunday celebrations in the absence of a priest. Another highlight of the experience for her was the opportunity to visit the nearby First Nations community of Cherbourg.
In her farewell address to Judy, Saint Mary’s Principal, Carmel O’Brien, thanked her for her presence in the College as a witness to the respect for one another which exists at the heart of the Good Samaritan parable.
Carrie said the program was “a great experience for the College” and she hoped other schools might pick up on the idea as a way of honouring their own history and charism and the extraordinary contribution the religious orders have made to current day Catholic education.
This article was published in the August 2026 edition of ‘The Good Oil’.
