Set the World on Fire

"Be who God meant you to be, and you will set the world on fire."

-St. Catherine of Siena

Growing up, I wanted to be just like my older brother. As a young boy and adolescent, I would wait to see his choice of shirt before choosing my own so that I could try to match or come close. I yearned to be as good at sports as him. I admired his confidence and humor. I mirrored his tastes in music and hobbies. In short, I wanted to be just like him.

It wasn't until he left for college that I realized that even though my brother is worth emulating in many ways, I needed to become the best version of myself, not an inferior model of him. More than embracing the adage "you do you," I started to become who God created me to be.

I offer this peek into my teenage maturation to illustrate an important point for our schools: be who God meant your school to be, and we will set the world on fire.

Last week, principals from across the Diocese of Cleveland learned more about the innovative approaches of St. Benedict's Prep in Newark, NJ. Ever since I came across the 60 Minutes segment (linked here) about the school almost 10 years ago, I have been fascinated and inspired by their unique approaches to student leadership, community, experiential learning, and social-emotional supports.

While there are core philosophies within each of these categories that could apply to many schools, St. Benedict's Prep (SBP) has found great success - even though it closed in 1972 and reopened a year later in 1973 - because it has become who God created it to be. Other Catholic schools would not experience St. Benedict's success by merely adopting any or all of their programs, pulling SBP's strategies off the shelf and forcefully inserting them into our schools. It would be like putting a foosball table into the faculty lounge just because you heard that it improved teacher morale at another school. Whereas it could have a similar impact, if it doesn't stem from your school's unique identity and situation, it will feel contrived and fall flat.

Instead, we need to consider what can be adapted from SBP's and each others' successes so that it fits with our missions, beliefs, values/pillars/charisms. We can lean on similar sentiments - believe that the Lord is calling us to this work, love our students, listen to the community, and provide empowering and life-giving opportunities for community members - and consider the ways in which these approaches will get lived out in our schools.

Don't become the next imitation of your childhood hero or St. Benedict's Prep. 

Become who God meant you and our schools to be.

Unique in our gifts and identity. United in the one Holy Spirit.

Let's become who God meant us to be.

Let's set the world on fire.

Time to Advance the Mission

Growing up in the 80s, there was a commercial from Dunkin' Donuts featuring Fred the Baker in which his refrain was, "Time to make the donuts." Through fatigue, wind, and snow, this series of commercials saw Fred diligently rising to bake these tasty, albeit unhealthy, breakfast treats.

Fred's refrain can serve as a rallying cry for our efforts to be diligent: "Time to carry out our mission."

Time to write thank you notes. Time to be with the students in the hallways/lunchroom/after school. Time to do observations. Time to meet with teachers. Time to call a donor. Time to pray. Time to analyze the data. Time to eat lunch with a colleague. Time to check references. Time to ensure volunteers have background screenings and safe environment training.

Unlike Fred's singular pursuit of delivering delicious donuts, our work takes on many forms and tasks. But, our unrelenting pursuit to accomplish the mission of our schools should match the diligence of Fred the Baker.

Time to advance the mission.

This week, consider what you can do to more singularly pursue the most important aspect of your roles as Catholic school leaders: the mission of our schools. What do you need to do more of? What do you need to delegate to others? What do you need to dump altogether?

Similarly, how can you offer even greater clarity and shared understanding about what it means to advance your missions? Ask community members what it looks like to "serve" or "excel" or "strive" or "inspire life-long learners" or "lead with integrity" or any other words and phrases from your missions. Interrogate your handbooks and policies for areas in which what we do misaligns with who we say we are. Engage people in conversations about how you will know that the school has accomplished/advanced its mission. What data will you collect and/or construct? 

In other words, provide the directional clarity to your school communities to "make the donuts" as it pertains to your specific mission.

It's time. It's always time.

Go make the donuts.

Go advance your mission.

The Better is Yet to Come

In the book, Better, Dr. Atul Gawande (2007) proposes three essential components to get better in any endeavor that requires risk and responsibility: diligence, to do right, and ingenuity.

These three core concepts from Gawande work together and interconnect with each other.

First, using the practice of medicine as his canvas, Gawande (2007) paints the picture that leadership requires a diligent approach to the tasks we need to accomplish. Gawande (2007) offers the example of his father’s medical practice and the extreme lengths he would take to ensure his patients received the highest level of care possible. From wearing examination gloves to taking notes to washing hands, physicians must diligently execute these and other tasks associated with the medical profession in order to meet the high standards of excellence demanded by this important work. Gawande illustrates how taxing the faithful practice of these behaviors can become over time, leading to cutting corners and to the detriment of the patient’s care. Leaders - and in Gawande’s (2007) case, doctors - must remain diligent in the core practices of their professions.

This points to the second essential component of high performance in any endeavor that requires risk and responsibility: to do right. Being diligent in the many functions of one’s sector is the right thing to do. It is right for doctors to wash their hands prior to visiting patients in order to mitigate the spread of infectious diseases. Similarly, it is right for doctors to maintain atmospheres within examination rooms that prevent the appearance or actual occurrences of impropriety. In other words, doing the right things requires and demands diligence. Once again, cutting corners and taking shortcuts often leads to detrimental outcomes from huge lawsuits to revocations of licenses to abuses, destruction and even death.

This leads to Gawande’s (2007) third essential component to leading in situations that involve risk and responsibility: ingenuity. Gawande (2007) explains that even the most diligent practice of functions that are the right things to do can become stale, plateau, and/or even perpetuate less than ideal performances. In these circumstances leaders must be willing to deviate from current practices and innovate in order to do what is right.

For example, Gawande (2007) explains this three-pronged approach - diligence, doing what’s right, and ingenuity - allowed him to see that in most parts of the world, saving lives was most likely to take place by raising the performance of doctors, not in some sort of medicinal breakthrough. Instead of relying on the newest technology, Gawande (2007) argues that understanding the mundane, ordinary details that must go right in a particular situation is the key to finding solutions. Despite potentially having limited resources or power, Gawande (2007) proposes that enhancing one’s skills and collaborating with other people in complex situations can spark ingenuity and progress.

As Gawande (2007) remarked, in the face of seemingly insurmountable problems, better is possible through diligence, a commitment to doing what is right, and the willingness to embrace ingenuity.

Consider ways in which you can invite, guide, and challenge yourselves and your schools to get better: through diligently pursuing the procedures, checklists (sorry), and policies that ensure the safety and security of our communities, the mission alignment of our behaviors, the fiduciary soundness of our budgets, the pedagogically proficient teaching and learning in our classrooms, and the philanthropic moves of our advancement offices.

Similarly, may you lead your schools to do what is right - supervising students, communicating with families, having a plan to ensure efficiency, using research based teaching and assessment practices, showing gratitude, holding people (and ourselves) accountable through performance monitoring and review, and putting every decision through the rubric of "what would Christ do?"

Finally, improving performance and working with others - collaboration multiples our forces - can lead to ingenious innovations and enhancements to our efforts. Our communities and our commitment to our unifying missions are our greatest commodities. From third options to the synergistic effects of working with others, let us rally our efforts around our missions and pray for the intercession of the Holy Spirit to keep getting better.

Using this recipe: diligence, doing what's right, and ingenuity the best - or at least better - is always yet to come.

Reference:

Gawande, A. (2007). Better: A surgeon’s notes on performance. New York: Holt and Company.

Step by Step

St. Francis has a number of quotes misattributed to him. One such error includes: "Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible."

As I researched the origin of this quote St. Francis never said, I came across these other axioms from other saints that resemble the former:

“With God’s grace, you have to tackle and carry out the impossible because anybody can do what is possible” (St. Josemaria Escriva)

“Blessed is he who loves and does not therefore desire to be loved. Blessed is he who fears and does not therefore desire to be feared. Blessed is he who serves and does not therefore desire to be served. Blessed is he who behaves well toward others and does not desire that others behave well toward him. Because these are great things, the foolish do not rise to them." (St. Giles)

While I appreciate the simplicity of the non-quote, I like the words actually spoken by these other saints even better.

Two takeaways:

1. Do the next right thing. Greatness doesn't necessarily come about through grand efforts and majestic accomplishments. You climb a mountain - "to the heights" - one step at a time. Send the email. Have the conversation. Pick up the piece of trash. Visit the classroom. Stop by the lunchroom. Go to the game/event. Enforce the dress code. Start with prayer. Provide the feedback. Perform the emergency drill. Change the clocks.
2. Realize that with God's grace, we can accomplish the impossible. Greatness can happen when we strive to accomplish things "far more than all we ask or imagine, by the power at work within us" (Ephesians 3:20). Bring to life the God-sized dream He has planted into your heart. Be ambitious for God, asking Him what He wants you to accomplish in this ministry at His schools. Have an apostolic spirit to build the Kingdom of God anew in your schools, our diocese, and the world. From bringing the entire school to the HS Mass and Rally, to aligning your school operations to the school's mission, beliefs, values/pillars/charisms, to revamping the service requirements, to challenging the school's outdated traditions, dream big for our great God.

Do the small things.

And, put out into the deep and traverse "verso l'alto" to accomplish amazing things.

Step by step. Leap by leap.

For the greater glory of God.

Our Words Make Our World

As a newly confirmed junior in high school, my mom gifted me with an book that attempted to show the universality of our faith by taking prayers from other faith traditions and connecting them to Catholic beliefs.

One such prayer from the Buddhist tradition resonated with my adolescent insecurities (the following is a paraphrase from my memory):

We are what we think. With our thoughts we make our world. Speak or act with an impure mind and trouble will follow you as the wheel follows the ox that draws the cart. Speak or act with a pure mind and happiness will follow you as unshakeable as your shadow.

We inherit similar guidance from St. Paul in our Catholic tradition:

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. (Philippians 4:8)

Put even more simply, our words create our world.

This speaks to the importance of clarity on your school's mission, beliefs, and values and communicating them, reinforcing them, and overcommunicating them. 

For some examples, consider these statements and follow-up actions/behaviors: 

• We encourage one another and our communities. One of the ways we do this is by presuming positive intentions.
• We creatively look for third options. One of the ways we do this is by reframing challenges as opportunities to lead and minister.
• We offer clarity about the school's mission, priorities, and values. We do this by focusing on the mission of our schools, building a cohesive leadership team, reinforcing clarity (mission and values), and overcommunicating clarity (mission and values again and again and again...). We also do this by separating the important from the urgent - doing what requires our top license, delegating what others can and should do, and dumping things that do not align with the mission and values of our schools.
• Every person is a gift from God. We look for ways to pray for each other, honor their roles, and celebrate their accomplishments. 
• Collaboration multiplies our forces. We invite others into our work as thought-partners, co-generators, fellow work-shoppers, and coordinated task completers. 
• We strive to be authentically human. We eat with others. We connect with others. We take time to rest - and encourage others to do so as well. We honor our primary vocations.  

Using these statements repeatedly and explaining their underlying meaning will help us to more consistently and effectively work together as teams within our schools. Using them as our compasses will provide direction and guidance in moments of tension, surprise, and complexity.

Our words create our world. Through the keystone words we use at our schools may we create the world God desires.

Appreciate

When I served as a principal and since my arrival in the diocese in the fall of 2022, one of the approaches to fiscal leadership I have tried to implement is accounting for - and actually using - depreciation in our budgets. Instead of including it as a part of our expenses but not actually using it to maintain our facilities and assets, we need to use these earmarked funds for repairs, renovations, and multi-year budgeting for larger maintenance projects. By doing this we set the future versions of ourselves and our schools up for success, displaying the responsibility that will help our schools remain viable for many years.

To depreciate means to decrease in value over time or to disparage or belittle. 

I bring up this understanding of depreciation, something we talk about every year and (hopefully) guard against by reinvesting in our facilities and assets, as a way to focus on its opposite: appreciation.

The most commonly understood meaning of appreciation is the act of showing gratitude. To appreciate something or someone means to be grateful, to recognize the full worth of something/someone, or to fully understand something.

I recently learned, and it makes sense, that to appreciate also means to rise or increase in value (if you're interested in the source of this new understanding, go here: https://youtu.be/q6yPcEk93nk?si=LhM-DRm_C1fU_kmh&t=3290).

The cool part: when we show appreciation for something or someone we appreciate - increase, enhance, grow - its/their value.

The takeaway: we should show appreciation to our school communities for the efforts we want to see more of. To put this another way, recognizing the good work and improvements of our school communities in appreciative ways will make these types of behaviors increase in both frequency and magnitude.

As St. Paul writes in his first letter to the Thessalonians, "Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus" (1 Thessalonians 5:16 - 18).

It is Jesus's will for us to give thanks in all circumstances. To appreciate what we have - both giving thanks for it and increasing its value.

As we near the end of the first quarter of the 2025-26 school year, take some time to appreciate your school communities, knowing that as you show gratitude you will also be enhancing and amplifying the good work taking place across our campuses.

Thank you for appreciating your communities - faculty, staff, administration, volunteers, benefactors, students, and families!

I say it again: THANK YOU!

Keep Moving

In last Monday's Gospel, Jesus calls Nathaniel to follow him as one of the apostles:

Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, "Here is a true child of Israel. There is no duplicity in him." (John 1:47)

What does it mean to have no duplicity? To be duplicitous means to be dishonest, deceptive or two-faced. So, the opposite of this would point toward someone honest or sincere.

Why does Jesus describe Nathaniel in such a way? The short form centers on a reference to Jacob, who deceived his father Isaac so that Jacob, instead of his brother Esau, would receive Isaac's blessing (Gn. 27:35-36).

Nathaniel acts in an honest and direct way, standing in sharp contrast to Jacob's duplicity.

Catholic schools would do well to imitate Nathaniel and remove the duplicity in our schools and ministries, uniting our actions and words to the missions, beliefs, and values/pillars/charisms of our schools.

For example, let us unite our efforts to keeping students safe and secure in all areas and times of our operations - before and after school, at games, assemblies, and events, with paid staff and volunteers. In those areas where we are currently duplicitous with our efforts for safety and security - in other words, areas in which we could improve - let us take steps to get better. 

Similarly, how can we remove the duplicity in our classrooms where a student's grade can be a reflection of supplies, extra credit and other non-academic (as in areas other than concepts they understand and skills they can perform) factors? Let us do the same for teachers, offering them low-inference feedback that is rooted in objective, measurable, verifiable time stamps, counts, words spoken, and actions taken. Dig deeper into the details of gradebooks, classroom management, and other ways in which our teachers form our students so that they will more closely align their efforts to our missions, beliefs, and values/pillars/charisms. 

Finally, Fr. Ted Hesburgh, long-time former president of the University of Notre Dame, famously said this to inspire excellence across the school: Mediocrity is not how we honor the Blessed Mother. Anything less than excellence in all facets of our schools is not how we honor the title "Catholic". It is not how we will evangelize the next generation of builders of the Kingdom of God. While we can't improve everything all at once, we can take steps to remove the ways in which we are duplicitous - where we say one thing in our missions, beliefs, and values/pillars/charisms but act in ways that misalign with those messages. 

Take one step, however small, to unite what we do to who we say we are. Then, once you've taken that step, take another, and another, and another...

Keep moving.