The Psalmist declares that God created everyone in His image, and as such, with intention and for amazing things, “You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb. I praise You, because I am wonderfully made; wonderful are your works!” (Psalm 139:13-14).
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We know that our Heavenly Father purposefully plans for excellence. His plan for salvation culminated in the person of Jesus Christ, who fulfilled all of the prophecies about Him throughout the Old Testament. Depending on the Biblical scholar cited, this amounts to over 300 prophecies about the Messiah that Jesus satisfied completely.
Jesus’s life also demonstrates intentionality leading to excellence. Jesus declares the excellence for which He came, “I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). Similarly, He understood and remained committed to His mission, “For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth” (John 18:37).
In Mark’s Gospel, we encounter Jesus “(r)ising very early before dawn, (leaving) and (going) off to a deserted place, where He prayed” (Mark 1:35). In Luke’s account, Jesus tells Peter, “The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised” (Luke 9:22). Jesus’s life, ministry, passion, and death lead those of us called to be His disciples to purposefully lay down our lives, take up our crosses, and follow Him to the highest form of excellence: salvation.
As ministers of Catholic education in the Diocese of Cleveland’s Office for Catholic education, we remain committed to our mission to “(l)ead and serve those who carry out the education mission of the Catholic Church.” Using this mission as our compass, we also purposefully consider our root beliefs in advancing this important goal.
Therefore, we take time at the beginning of our meetings to collectively commit to our purpose, remember our root beliefs, and consider ways to actively bring these to fruition in our work.
We incorporate these foundational statements in our communications, intentionally invoking them to infuse our efforts with direction and life.
We share the rationale behind these guiding principles, use them during onboarding efforts, and periodically revisit them to assess our fidelity to them and make necessary adjustments to more closely align our actions to them.
More than catchy slogans, our root beliefs and mission serve as the core of who we are and the engine driving what we hope to achieve. Through our belief that excellence happens on purpose, and our deep faith and trust in God, we purposefully add our efforts, “consciously and overtly, to the liberating power of grace, (becoming) the Christian leaven in the world” (Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, 1977, para. 84).
