Sent

Congratulations to the Incarnation Catholic School Class of 2015. May God bless them everywhere they GO.

The following is the transcript of the address at their commencement ceremony from Saturday May 30, 2015:

The final line of the Mass, "Go in peace" has its basis, like many of the Mass parts, in Scripture.

The Deacon / Priest has three scripturally based options:

Deacon/Priest:
A Go in the peace of Christ. [Your faith has saved you; go in peace. (Luke 7:50)]
B The Mass is ended, go in peace. [Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. (John 14:27)]
C Go in peace to love and serve the Lord. [Serve now the LORD, your God, and his people Israel. (2 Chronicles 35:3)]

http://www.auremcordis.com/media/mass_&_bible_verses-0509.pdf

All contain the word "GO". At the end of Mass, we are sent out into the world - in peace to love and serve the Lord.

In the Latin rite, the words "Ite, missa est" are used. Literally, these words translate as "Go, she [the Church] has been sent". We derive the term Mass from this concluding rite - from missa comes missio, the root of the English word mission - an important assignment carried out for specific purposes.

So, we may paraphrase this concluding prayer as, "Go, you have been sent on a mission."

Or, more fitting for today, ICS Class of 2015:

"Go. Do what you believe and believe in what you do."

ICS Class of 2015, I want to speak to your hearts today. My message isn't for your parents. It's not for your teachers. It's not for me or Fr. Michael or Twitter feeds or Facebook posts or Snapchat messages.  It's for your hearts.

Because, you see, your hearts know something that no one else in this room knows - the mission that God has in store for you. I don't know it, your parents don't know it, Mrs. Gonzalez doesn't know it, Mrs. Stahl doesn't know it, your friends - despite knowing so much about you - don't know it.

It's in your hearts, placed there by our Creator, and it's longing to explode out into the world to make it a better place, to bring peace, to serve the Him.

If possible, I'd like for you to close your eyes. If possible, I'd like for you to listen with the ears of your heart. If possible, I'd like for you to allow yourself to forget that it is me that is delivering this message. Hear my heart, ICS Class of 2015. It is purer than I am. Truer. Stronger. It is more authentic, more organic, more genuine, more of the me that God created me to be than I am. Listen to my heart.

The first spoken words by Jesus in the Gospel of John are, "What are you looking for?" I believe, graduates, that it is the question He asks you today, "What are you looking for?" The interesting part of this question coming from Jesus is that He is both the question and the answer. If I were to ask it, it would have different meaning for you, as if you had lost something or as if you were in trouble - because if I'm talking to you you must be in trouble, right? But, when Jesus asks it, and when we allow His question to penetrate into our hearts, the answer becomes profoundly simple.

What are we looking for? We are looking for You, Jesus! We are looking for purpose. We are searching for passion. We are longing for clarity. We are craving conviction, to know that we can and will make a difference. When we allow His question into our hearts and we answer from the depths of who we are, we recognize that we seek that which can finally quench our thirst, satisfy our hunger, retire our restless hearts.

What are we looking for? Jesus, we are looking for You!

Fittingly, the disciples respond to Jesus's probing question by asking, "Teacher, where are you staying?" This was the collected way of answering, "We are searching for the Messiah! If you are Him, as John the Baptist says you are, we will leave all behind and follow you unconditionally, unabashedly, courageously."

Jesus, it is you who we seek. Where can we find you?

Jesus's response, "Come, and you will see."

Our hearts know where to find Jesus.

Here. Right here. At this altar. At His Table. In those pews. In His Holy Word. In the Eucharist. In the Sacraments.

You'll find Him in your hearts.

In the Eucharist, we become what we receive. We receive His grace - His life in us - through Holy Communion. We come into union with Him. We are given our "daily bread", our source of strength. We aspire and ascend to this summit, this mountaintop, upon which we come into intimate contact with the Risen Jesus. The Eucharist is how we become who we were born to be.

Jesus has a specific purpose for your lives, Class of 2015. Seek it. Find it. Live it. It's in your hearts. Listen to it. Pray for the courage to follow it. Receive the Eucharist; receive your mission. Then, explode out into the world and do what you believe and believe in what you do.

Go create. Paint. Write. Dance. Build. Innovate. Discover. Design. Make something wild and pure and beautiful and powerful because you are wild and pure and beautiful and powerful because you were made by a God who is wild and pure and beautiful and powerful.

Go learn. Never stop learning because life never stops teaching. Learn for your life and about life and to have more life.

Go awaken. Rouse our sleepwalking world with words of truth, with acts of peace, with deeds of justice. Bring to the light those evils silently suffocating our world and drive them out of our temples, our homes and our hearts.

Go inspire. Let your words speak life. Let your lives spread hope. Let your thoughts lift up and encourage and enliven and light-hearten and excite and elevate and consecrate. Let your light shine.

Go teach. Give to others what you have received. Help. Pass on knowledge, wisdom, perspective, experience, advice, assistance. Feed others for a lifetime, not just a day. Preach; use words if necessary.

Go excel. You were not made for mediocrity. You have a spirit of power and love and self-control. You were made in His image - fearfully, powerfully. You are a child of God, the One, True King, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, the Almighty. You have royal blood.

Go change. Don't settle for the way we do things around here, the status quo, the tradition, the stereotype, the pigeonhole. You're royalty! Be the change you wish to see in the world. Don't sit back and complain about your situation. Go and change your situation.

Go serve. Wash some feet. Lower yourself. Humble yourself. The Son of God took on our human flesh and became a slave and died for crimes He didn't commit. You can push a broom, clean a toilet, heal the sick, feed the hungry, free the oppressed, liberate the captives, put Jesus first, others second and yourselves last.

Go love. They will see our resemblance to Jesus not by our status or our fame or our power or our money or our religion or our righteousness but by our love. Love when you don't have to. Love when it's hard to do. Love those who don't love you. Love. Forgive. Love. Spread peace. Love. Unite. Love because you are loved. Love because you are beloved by God who is Love. Love.

Go pray. Often. Always. In all ways. For all of your days. For your daily bread. So that you can be leaven in His stead. To receive His grace. To make the world a better place. For the entire human race. To end up back in His embrace.

ICS Class of 2015, you have a mission to go do what you believe and to believe in what you do.

Go from ICS and out into the world in peace to love and serve the Lord.

You have been sent.

Congratulations, ICS Class of 2015!

Branded

Last week at Mass, my family and I had the blessing of witnessing a baptism. The priest invited all children from the congregation to join him and the family around the baptismal font. Surprisingly, both Elizabeth and Catherine went for an up-close view. Luckily, this experience prompted a great catechetical opportunity throughout the course of the day - what is baptism, why did the priest pour water over the baby's head, can I look at my baptism pictures, can I wear my baptism gown, why can't we have our baby dolls wear our baptismal gowns all the time? Furthermore, it seemed to be an evangelical experience as well - both girls acted out baptisms of their own that day. 

You know you must be the principal of a Catholic school when your daughters incorporate elements of our faith into their creative play. What an immense blessing this was for me and Emily - we can see the roots of the gift of faith we are working so hard to give to our children. 

More importantly, we can see that God has truly claimed them as His own.

They, through their baptisms and lives of faith, have been branded as God's. They bear His mark. It is my hope and prayer that Emily and I and our Church community may be able to make this brand even more indelible as they age. 

The week after Easter I had the privilege of representing Incarnation Catholic School and the Diocese of St. Petersburg at the National Catholic Education Association Conference in Orlando. Two of the sessions I attended dealt with branding, something I believe our school desperately needs. I learned the difference between a brand and a logo / trademark. A logo or trademark is often just a symbol of the company or organization or, quite simply, its name. A brand, though, is the visual, emotional, rational and cultural image that you associate with a company or a product. While a logo or trademark supplies easy recognition of a company or "brand", a brand pulls on the heart strings of its consumers, instilling loyalty and even allegiance with the overall experience of the product. 

As Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, attests, "The most powerful and enduring brands are built from the heart - if people believe they share values with a company, they will stay loyal to a brand." 

As Catholic Schools, our brand is that we promise eternal significance. We work on the souls. We form students spiritually. We build future citizens of heaven. We educate and catechize and evangelize and socialize and emotionalize and exercise. 

You can't get this at your local public or charter or private school - only Catholic Schools are offering the Eucharist as the source and summit of its educational program.

Our brand, in order to be successful, must show that God has branded us, indelibly, as His. Consistency with our fonts and methods of communication and use of colors and logos is important. Paramount, however, is that we bear the mark of God in all that we do.

Be blessed. Be bold. Fight for JOY!

Be Incarnational.

Be His.  

Strengthen Your Hearts

I don't watch a whole lot of TV, especially not over the course of the past 5 years and definitely not over the course of this past one. But, one of my favorite shows was Friday Night Lights​. Not just a football highlight reel, this television drama touched on many themes and issues. 

One of the key mottos, repeated by one of the main characters, Coach Eric Taylor, and the teams that he coached was, "Clear eyes. Full hearts. Can't lose."

As I watched the show during its run on air, this mantra resonated deeply with me. It was a rallying cry that united his teams. It was a message for them to (re)focus. It was an attitude that he instilled into his student-athletes. 

We focused on our hearts over the course of Lent, and as such this motto resurfaced from the depths of my heart. The importance of strengthening our hearts, and in turn the hearts of our students, struck me in a revelatory fashion. We want kids to grow their capacities. We desire our students to persevere through difficult tasks. We hope that they will develop morally. We would like for them to see past the pain of the temporary for the joy of the future / long-term / something else. 

No matter what we want students to do, though, they will be unable without firm hearts. 

They will give up. They will give in. They will stay put. They will decline. Academically, behaviorally, emotionally, socially, spiritually. 

A strong heart entails grit. Grit leads to growth. Growth leads to success. Add God into the mix and this success becomes heavenly.

We challenged students to complete a Crossfit exercise (Stations of Cross coupled with light physical exercises) as part of our Lenten journeys. I reflected on those students, regardless of age, who could not complete various parts of the program. Maybe they talked. Maybe they ran. Maybe they sat. Maybe they needed water (after every lap) or the bathroom. Maybe they stopped doing the physical exercises. The students who struggled in any or all of these ways did not come as a surprise (again, regardless of age). It may have stemmed from a lack of prompting prior to beginning (expectations were unclear) or perhaps outward signs beguiled an inward focus (even though the student appeared to be off-task, they were actually quite attuned to the spiritual exercise).

But, it may be that it indicated weak hearts - hearts that have received too little love, and have had too little support, and have endured too much hardship, and have not had enough structure. 

Hearts that have been beat up and bruised and hurt in ways that no one should endure. 

So the challenge as educators is how we get our students to have "clear eyes" and "full hearts" so that, no matter the situation, they "can't lose"? 

Lent offered great perspective and insights on a solution: pray, fast, give. The more opportunities we can afford to our students to do these three spiritual habits, not just during this liturgical season but all year long, the stronger their hearts will become. Of course, we must realize that in order for students to grow the capacity of their hearts through these practices, we will need to both chunk / scaffold their prayer, fasting and giving, and also train them in how to do these things as well. 

We must teach students to enter into relationship with God through prayer. We must teach them how to pray. We must give them opportunities to pray. We can't love what / who we don't know. We come to know God through prayer.

We must give students opportunities to fast. These must be intentional and they must be incremental. Explicitly mentioning the connection between their sacrifice and their improvement will motivate more sacrificial behavior. Furthermore, celebrating the effort of students to grow in this domain will also inspire more progress. Challenge students to be silent for increasing amounts of time. Push them to read independently for greater lengths incrementally. Encourage them to develop their grit - their internal resolve - and draw attention to those times when it actually happens.

We must give students chances to give. Social interactions are incredibly important. We must teach and train our students how to speak and act with each other. Typically this happens almost naturally with younger children. We give them the words to say and the times that they should say them. But, as students get older we stop instructing and coaching them on what to say and how to talk with others, especially in difficult situations. It is one thing to serve in an anonymous way; it is true love to serve those in front of you. 

As Catholic educators we must believe in our ability to strengthen the hearts of our students and in turn give them the grit to follow God's will for their lives. 

We must believe that our time spent instructing them academically, spiritually, socially and emotionally can help to clear their eyes to focus on all that is truly important. 

We must believe that we can strengthen the hearts of our students through opportunities to pray, fast and give. 

We must believe that we can get kids to believe that with a committed focus on God and a heart full of grit they can't lose.

Strong hearts. Strong minds. Strong Catholics. 

Can't lose.  

The Teacher

I have often quoted Fr. Pedro Ribadeneira, S.J. in speaking about the importance of teaching. He famously said this of teachers, "all the well-being of Christianity and of the whole world" depended on their work (Heroic Leadership, Lowney, pg. 208). 

All the well-being of Christianity and of the whole world depends upon your work. 

While at Church this past weekend, the homilist cited a study which stated that a person's moral compass is somewhat complete by age 5. In talking about the importance of the domestic Church, the priest argued for the families to be places of love, compassion, fairness, justice, forgiveness and humility. 

As I listened to his words, I reflected upon our work with students through our PBIS system of student management and our philosophy of transforming discipline into the formation of disciples of Christ. According to the study mentioned above, our efforts are feeble. Little can be done to morally influence someone else.

Whether or not there was validity and / or reliability behind this research, we know that the life of a child at home is vital. We know that the number of words to which students are exposed by age 4 significantly impacts their development of language. We know that parents are the primary educators of their children and that the home, according to our Catechism, is the place where the virtues are taught and learned. 

But, as Christians, we believe that people can change. Peter became the Rock. Saul became Paul. The blind man saw. The deaf man heard. The deceased girl lived. Lazarus came out of the tomb. Christ conquered sin and death.

We believe in a God of miracles. We believe that the Christian walk is highlighted by formation. We believe that through Lenten journeys and retreats and prayer and reflection we can strengthen our hearts and become better than we were yesterday, last month, last year or last decade. 

We can change. 

In turn, the work that we do with students can ​help them to change. We take students from ignorance to understanding. We move them from incompetence to fluency. We transition students from unable to skilled. We take them from good to better. We form them from misguided to led. 

We do the most important work in the world. 

You do the most important work in the world. Ever day. With every student. Through ever interaction and every miraculous moment you spend with them. 

You change the world. 

Because you are a teacher.

The Habit of Excellence

St. Augustine, in his work Confessions, whittled the spiritual fight down to mere moments. If you can do good, if you can follow God's will for just one moment, you can find spiritual success. The past is over, the future has not yet arrived. All we have is the present moment. All we need to do is be fully present to it - be heroic in that moment, be loving in that moment, be strong, be good, be holy - in that one moment. 

In this way, every moment is sacred. Every moment of our lives is all that we truly have - the future is no guarantee and the past has already faded into nothingness. Every moment is our one chance to do good. Every moment is a gift to be embraced, appreciated and cherished as we would any other immense blessing in our lives. 

If only we could live every moment in such a way, as if every moment mattered.

Imagine how different we would be. Imagine how different our world would be!

What type of strategy could we employ to capitalize on and make the most of every moment of our lives? 

Aristotle famously said this about excellence and how to achieve it: 

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."

We become excellent by doing excellent things in excellent ways - one moment at a time.

Easier said, or typed, than done. 

In a book titled, Leverage Leadership by Paul Bambrick Santoyo, the author argues that school culture directly impacts student learning. Citing numerous case studies, Santoyo demonstrates that schools which adopt a philosophy of "making every second count" are only as good as the individual teachers that implement this belief on individual levels. In order for such a philosophy to be successful, Santoyo states that it must be coupled by meticulously crafted systems of school-wide management. 

Every moment of the day - from how students enter homeroom, to how you pass out papers, to walking in the hallways, to opening plastic containers during lunch - must be scripted. Expectations for all members of the school - students, teachers, leaders - must be known. These expectations must be so clearly known, because of the level of detail associated with them, that there is little opportunity for moments to be wasted or left to the variability of chance. 

Without this structure, Santoyo writes, "in every moment which we as adults allow our students to do less productive actions, we are unintentionally the authors of their bad habits." Even the best of students, teachers, administrators or even people, when given the freedom and flexibility to fill time on their own, will waste time.

The second piece of this strategy, after accounting for every detail, requires practice. Whether it's getting students to practice performing the expectations successfully or getting teachers to implement the system consistently, practice is what will produce real results. A system doesn't work by itself; it must be executed. 

Finally, practice will only instill bad habits if that practice isn't critiqued, monitored and assessed. Feedback and reflection is essential, allowing our improving practice to lead us to where it is we want to be. 

Not a bad recipe for success in any aspect of our lives. Employing it in any venue can help us to maximize the moments in our lives that create our days which lead up to our years and make our lives.

Finances? Make a detailed budget and practice good spending habits - and you should enter into some semblance of financial stability. Health? Track your nutrition, exercise and sleep and practice good habits for all of these - and you should start to experience better overall fitness and well-being. Faith? Intentionally schedule out time for prayer, fellowship, reflection and education and then consistently follow this regime - and you should start to reap the spiritual benefits of such a lifestyle. 

Seal these great plans and dedicated practice with the insights of a trusted colleague, friend, advisor, family member or with honest self-reflection and assessment and excellence in any aspect of your life will surely follow.

Maximize every moment.

Don't be the unintentional author of bad habits. Be excellent by repeatedly doing excellent things in excellent ways, turning these actions into habits and these habits into excellence. 

Start to teach, love and live so as to make every second count and over time every second will count.

You'll start to recognize that every moment is sacred, a gift.

Start to do the things that would make you into the person that you hope to be. In fact, it's the only way to become that person.

To paraphrase Bl. Mother Teresa of Calcutta:

Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only this moment. Let us begin.

Make Your Hearts Firm

"Make your hearts firm" (James 5:8).

Pope Francis I, in an address to Catholics and Christians across the world in preparation for Lent 2015, cited this passage of scripture as the main purpose of this penitential season:

Make your heart firm.

The traditional practices of Lent - prayer, fasting and giving alms - can help our hearts to grow stronger. These practices, if observed in the right spirit, should temper our spiritual hearts. More than giving up chocolate or soda or swearing or eating crab legs on Fridays, our Lenten exercises should offer us more time for reflection, service and worship. In turn, this orientation will allow us to fast in manner prescribed by the prophet Isaiah:

This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; 

Setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke; 

Sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; 

Clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own. 

Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your wound shall quickly be healed; Your vindication shall go before you, and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard (Isaiah 58: 6 - 8).

Our Lenten sacrifices and practices should inspire us to do more than "give up" ______________, and instead to "give in" to the will of God. But, this can't happen without time spent with God in either prayer or reflection or some combination of the two. It can't happen without a strong heart.

In our over-connected world, finding time to do this may be difficult. In fact, giving up ______________ may be easier than turning off your phone / iPad / computer / device and disconnecting from social networks, news feeds, emails, texts, messages, pins, posts, tweets, and other distractions! Wouldn't the world just stop entirely if you didn't respond immediately?!

Take Jesus's cue and make time to sit with God every day during Lent (Jesus spent 40 days in a desert to be alone with God!). Start small with just a few moments. Then work up to minutes. Attempt a quarter hour, maybe even a third. There's no set amount of time that equates to the magic amount. God will lead you. Listen. Bring yourself - all of yourself - and just pray where you are. If you're angry, pray about that. If you're overwhelmed and resentful of spending precious time away from electronics and in prayer / reflection, pray about that.

Come as you are - not as you want or hope to be.

Sr. Melannie Svoboda, SND, explains this posture of prayer - meeting God exactly where you are - in the following way:

If I’m worried about something, for example, I begin to talk to God about that. Chances are, it is something or someone I’ve been worried about before. Then I ask God to let me know if I can do anything about this particular worry. If I can’t, then I simply entrust that worry anew to God and I move on. If I’m mad, I reflect on what is causing my anger. Sometimes anger is the Spirit urging us to do something we are reluctant to do. (It’s often easier to stay mad than to take action—especially an action that is hard like forgiving someone, or letting go of something, or having a difficult conversation with someone.) If I feel greatly blessed, I sit with that for a few moments, thanking God for whatever those blessings might be (from her blog, Sunflower Seeds, and a post entitled, "Lent: God's Great Come As You Are Party").

As Catholic educators, think of the power this could wield with students. We constantly ask students to do hard things and we constantly encourage them to believe that they can DO hard things. We push them and pull them and lead them and guide them and tutor them and review with them and remediate them and yet we seem to affect little change overall. Those who struggle seem to continue to do so; those who excel do somewhat independently of us.

The same is true of behavior. We work with those who have a harder time self-regulating and we form those who have made poor choices, but little lasting change takes place. The same students seem to keep making the same mistakes.

With the many demands placed upon us to advance academics - standards, standardized tests, grades, unit plans, course timelines - the things that may actually help students to have a strong enough spirit to do all that we ask of them are the very things that either take a back seat or get pushed aside altogether.

Make our hearts firm. Make our hearts more like Yours - "firm and merciful, attentive and generous, a heart which is not closed, indifferent or prey to the globalization of indifference" (Pope Francis I).

Enter self-reflection. Enter more prayer. Enter service and then time to both pray and think about that service. Enter self-assessment. Enter time etched out in the midst of and in place of academics to chisel out a stronger heart.

Enter awakening.

Enter Lent.

The Catholic Foundation

This past weekend, I was blessed and honored to represent ICS at the annual Catholic Foundation Dinner in support of tuition assistance for Catholic education within the Diocese of St. Petersburg. 

The evening focused heavily on two very important issues:

1. The power of Catholic schools

2. The importance of this power being made available to all

The first focus - the power of Catholic schools - was a topic common to just about all of the speakers. Many answered the question, "How has your life been changed because of Catholic education?" From the essay contest winner - a student from Bishop Larkin who lost his father a few years ago to cancer; to the keynote speaker - Lino Rulli, known as "The Catholic Guy" on Sirius Radio; to the Catholic Education Leadership Award winner - Scott Riley, a prominent business man, graduate of Mary Help of Christians and stout supporter of Step Up for Students; all touched on the fact that the environment created in their respective Catholic schools changed them for good and for the good. 

The student from Bishop Larkin found the strength of community during a confusing, emotional and disheartening time of his life. Lino found the depth of faith after his roommate during his junior year of college died. Scott found the compassion of others during his time at Mary Help of Christians - he was able to go there thanks to a generous donor and it was there that he learned of the importance of helping others.

In each case, the power wielded by their respective Catholic schools, changed them for good and for the good. 

As is written in The Catholic School:

It is when the Catholic school adds its weight, consciously and overtly, to the liberating power of grace, that it becomes the Christian leaven in the world (#84). 

The second topic, the importance of making this type of transformative education available to all, was nearly just as important. The evening will probably bring in over $500,000 for tuition assistance across our diocese. Additionally, a heavy emphasis was placed on the good being done by Florida's Tax Credit Scholarship - Step Up for Students, and how this good is in jeopardy of being taken away because of a lawsuit being filed by the Florida Teachers Union and the NAACP (#dropthesuit).  The pastoral and missionary aspects of Catholic education were highlighted, celebrated and encouraged. 

We teach our students not because they are Catholic, but because we are Catholic. 

We plant the seeds of faith and justice and peace and wisdom and compassion. 

We change lives.

For good and for the Good.