Keep Moving. Be Strong. Focus on What's Ahead.

“With eyes of faith consider the greatness of your mission and the wonderful amount of good which you can accomplish.” 

-Bl. Basil Moreau, Christian Education

My daughter Elizabeth has been trying to ride a bike, with pedals and without training wheels, for about the past year. On a steady program of balance bikes since she was about 3, we spent copious amounts of time outside throughout the spring, summer and fall of this past year on a pedal bike trying to help her master the steering, balance, movement and stopping required to ride without the steady hand of myself or my wife.

There were moments. She would get a few pedal revolutions and a bit of coasting before she would either push off with a grounded foot or stop altogether.

My main advice throughout this process was simple: moving forward helps you to stay balanced, be strong with your arms, and keep your head up so that your eyes focus just a bit out in front of you.

Keep moving, be strong, keep your head up, and look at where you’re going.

Movement will help you stay balanced. While the other pieces of advice made sense, this one is counterintuitive. It seems that going slowly would provide more safety. However, this actually makes riding that much harder, if not impossible. As part of a faculty retreat, I had teachers try to ride a bike as slowly as possible the length of our basketball court without putting down a foot. No one was able to do it. Going slowly inhibited their ability to move forward.

Vision is the movement which can help us stay balanced and continuing to move forward. It can help propel us into the future by focusing not on what something currently is, but rather by unleashing the hope of what something can become.

You can’t ride a bike by just sitting on it. You have to start moving. You have to begin and believe that you will keep moving. You must have vision. You must have faith. You must have hope.

Hope has immense power. Imagine trying to learn how to ride a bike without the hope that one day you will be able to ride it? Without the vision and hope of actually being able to ride, you wouldn’t even try. Howard Hendricks, a long-time professor at the Dallas Theological Seminary, stated, “Discouragement is the anesthetic the devil uses on a person before he reaches in and carves out his heart.”

Hope, on the other hand, sustains and fuels the vision of what something, or someone can become. It is the power of “yet” in growth mindset theory. It is the belief that students can improve and learn anything through deliberate practice. It is the trust that formative discipline can create disciples. It is the conviction that there is no progress without struggle; death must proceed the Resurrection.

As a principal I had the blessing of working closely with a student who struggled both academically and behaviorally. In severe danger of either failing as an 8th grader and/or facing expulsion before the end of the year, I began working with this student on a daily basis. At one point, after about two weeks of making progress toward academic proficiency and behavioral stability, the student looked at me and with a seriousness I hadn’t witnessed before and asked, “Do you really think this will work? Do you really think I can do this?”

To which I responded, “Of course I do. You just need to keep moving forward. Be strong and keep focusing on what you can become.”

Hope is the fuel that propels vision.

It is the necessary ingredient to passing 8th grade.

It is the way that we can, on Christmas morning after months of wobbles and falls, successfully ride a bike.

It is the movement that can enable us to accomplish the God-sized dreams He has planted inside of our hearts.

Keep hoping.

Keep dreaming.

Keep moving and be strong, with your head up and eyes focused on what lies ahead.

We Are in a Fight

We are in a fight.

There’s a powerful moment in the first book of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring, when Frodo meets Aragorn (at this point known as Strider) for the first time. This is after Frodo puts the One Ring on for the first time, vanishes, and draws the attention of the Ringwraiths. Strider grabs Frodo and takes him into closed quarters.

Strider asks Frodo, “Are you frightened?”

Frodo responds, “Yes.”

Strider continues, “Not nearly frightened enough. I know what hunts you.”

Up until this point in the story, Frodo doesn’t quite understand the magnitude of the Ring or the danger involved in carrying it. While he definitely senses his task to take the Ring to Rivendell is important, this is the first moment that his journey changes. His quest takes on new urgency, his travels become more treacherous. Carrying the Ring will be a battle.

We are in a fight.

Up until the early 1900s, Notre Dame’s athletic teams were known as the Catholics, Rovers or Ramblers.

The origin behind Notre Dame’s current nickname, the Fighting Irish, is debatable. Some claim that it came from irate opposing fans, others that it was part of a player’s halftime pep talk, while a few credit a newspaper reporter with coining the title.

Regardless of the exact origin, the association between being Catholic and Irish was laden with negative stereotypes, bigotry and oppression. Fr. Charles Carey, a Holy Cross priest, eloquently spoke about the history of our University’s mascot in a religious bulletin on the eve of St. Patrick’s day in 1953, writing:

“Fighting Irish! It’s more than a name; more than a people. It is the Faith! In narrow, little New England, it began as a slur -- a term of opprobrium. But we took it up and made of it a badge of honor -- a symbol of fidelity and courage to everyone who suffers from discrimination; to everyone who has an uphill fight for the elemental decencies, and the basic Christian principles woven into the texture of our nation. Preserving this tradition, and this meaning of Irish at Notre Dame does honor to everyone of us.”

Fr. Carey, C.S.C. continues,

“Tomorrow you can take this one lesson from the Irish: they were never so poor in all their wanderings and sufferings that they bartered their Faith for the comforts of this life. They had little to take with them wherever they went; but the Faith was always the most precious of their paltry possessions. Their spirit has made it easier for you to practice your Faith here in America today. May the Fighting Irish always be with us!”

Even our University’s current mascot, the Leprechaun, was modeled after racist cartoons that depicted Irish and Catholics as apes.

Like the Holy Cross of Jesus, the nickname of Our Lady’s University and the iteration of its mascot are transformed symbols of pride, unity and hope. What were intended to be messages of inferiority and oppression now at the University of Notre Dame stand for an unwavering spirit - a fight - to make God known, loved and served.  

Our University gained respect and national notoriety through the athletic efforts of the Four Horsemen, Knute Rockne and Moose Krause, but also academically through the work of Frs. Zahm and Newland, and the legendary progress achieved by the late former President of the University, Fr. Ted Hesburgh. Infused with the spirit of Fr. Edward Sorin, the University of Notre Dame truly is a force for good in our world today.

We are the Fighting Irish and we are in a fight.

As Catholic educators, those holy men and women that came before us and built the foundation for Catholic education in our world faced bitter hatred, violence, unjust laws and oppression all aimed at removing Catholic schools from our country. The pioneers in Catholic education in America had to fight to preserve our faith and maintain the existence of Catholic schools. Catholic immigrants in America wanted to ensure that the education offered by common or public schools upheld Church teaching and when it didn’t bishops, priests, religious sisters and parents fought for the right to establish schools that would pass on the Catholic faith to their children.

As such, Bishops mandated that all Churches have Catholic schools and that all Catholic families send their children there. The Church vehemently encouraged heroic support from parents and parishioners as schools were built, curriculum was designed, and the tenets of Catholic education were developed.

Some battles have lingered into our current times almost two centuries later. Others were fought for and won, allowing us to enjoy some rights and freedoms as Catholic educators that our forerunners did not.

Make no mistake: our ancestors in Catholic education were in a fight and this fight continues today.

May we, the Fighting Irish, embody the zeal of our University’s founder and may this spirit - this fight - enliven our hearts and elevate our minds for the work set out before us.

We are fighting to make God known, loved and served.

We are fighting to educate children and young people through the inspiration of our Catholic faith.

We are fighting to get our students to and through college.

We are fighting to get our students into heaven.  

We are fighting to change the world.

We are the Fighting Irish.

https://www.nd.edu/features/whats-in-a-name/

https://www3.nd.edu/~wcawley/corson/whyfightingirish.htm

https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2011/01/28/irish-apes-tactics-of-de-humanization/

https://www.nd.edu/about/history/pioneering-leadership/

From Humble Beginnings...

In the 13th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to a mustard seed. “It is the smallest of all the seeds,” Jesus teaches, “yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants. It becomes a large bush, and the ‘birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches’” (Matthew 13:31-32).

A mustard seed, something small, can take root and grow and bloom into something much, much larger.

From humble beginnings...

The Log Chapel at the University of Notre Dame is a recreation of the first building planted here at Our Lady’s University. 175 years ago, Fr. Sorin and a group of his companions had the zeal, vision and hunger to turn their work - this University - into

“one of the most powerful means for doing good in this country.”

The University started as a trade school. Its first students were orphans who were trained as apprentices to help assist manual laborers in the area.

Fr. Sorin and other members of the Congregation of the Holy Cross endured a fair amount of hardship. Cruel winters. Impossible deadlines. Fires that decimated their work. A scarcity of workers and support.

Yet, Fr. Sorin was able to see the large bush in the small seed. He possessed absolute faith in his work, utter dependence on the Eucharist, and unwavering trust in the protection of Mary. During a particularly discouraging period of the first winter here, Fr. Sorin found hope in the light of the sanctuary lamp. He even states, “They tell us we won’t be able to afford to keep it burning. But we have a little olive oil and it will burn while it lasts...We can see it through the woods and it lights the humble home where our Master dwells. We tell each other that we are not alone, that Jesus Christ lives among us. It gives us courage.”

From humble beginnings…

As educators within Catholic Schools, our story, too, has humble beginnings. Countless men and women, priests and nuns, parents and students dedicated their entire lives - like Fr. Sorin - to the establishment and building up of Catholic schools within our country. And yet, despite hardship, despite oppression, despite financial challenges, despite humble beginnings, our Catholic schools continue to be one of the most powerful means for doing good in this country and in our world.

In 1977 the Vatican’s Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, in a document titled, The Catholic School, affirms the importance of Catholic schools:

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).

Leaven, like a mustard seed, is small. Like a mustard seed that grows into something much bigger, leaven - or yeast - is the quickening agent, the animating ingredient in bread that makes it rise.

I hope this metaphor offers you encouragement and inspiration to know that your work within Catholic education is the leaven that is causing hope to rise up in our world.

I hope that you understand that your work within Catholic education is building up the Kingdom of God. I hope that you understand your work within Catholic education is erasing ignorance, reversing poverty, and inspiring the hearts and minds of others.

I hope you know you are affecting eternity.  

I hope you know that you are literally changing the world.

And while you’re too humble to believe that this is true, be humble enough to believe that with the liberating power of grace something amazing can come from humble beginnings.

http://ethicscenter.nd.edu/about/inspire/great-figures/rev-edward-sorin/

http://www.archives.nd.edu/about/news/index.php/2014/edward-sorin-the-founding-of-notre-dame/#.WZHhXjvnt0A

Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School

I was blessed to be invited by Dr. Timothy Ulh, Superintendent of Schools in the Diocese of Montana, to be a guest blogger for his podcast, Catholic School Matters, where he has been unpacking Church documents on Catholic education over the past few weeks. This post is in response  to his podcast on:

The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School: Guidelines for Reflection and Renewal.

In his latest podcast, Dr. Uhl and John Galvan, Director of Schools from the Diocese of San Diego, address three areas of The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School: Guidelines for Reflection and Renewal for ongoing consideration:

1. The need for Catholic schools to respond to the dangers children face
2. The importance of establishing a vibrant Catholic identity within the school
3. The responsibility of teachers to be authentic witnesses of Jesus Christ

1.  This document opens with a call to action. The opening paragraphs speak of the trials faced by children and how Catholic schools must heroically respond to their needs. The Congregation recognizes that young people find themselves in “radical instability” (#10) and “in an environment devoid of truly human relationships; as a result they suffer from loneliness and a lack of affection” (#11). Written almost 30 years ago, the urgent need for Catholic schools to offer to students "something of value in their lives" (#13) has both lingered and intensified. Our kids need what Catholic schools offer.

2. Given this urgent need, there is grave importance to establish an unabashedly Catholic climate within the school so that

"From the first moment that a student sets foot in a Catholic school, he or she ought to have the impression of entering a new environment, one illumined by the light of faith, and having its own unique characteristics" (#25). 

This Catholic school climate “must create favorable conditions for a formation process” and includes: “persons, space, time, relationships, teaching, study and various other activities” (#24). The Congregation covers each of these facets of the Catholic climate with a heavy emphasis on the role of the teacher in creating this atmosphere, stating, “Prime responsibility for creating this unique Christian school climate rests with the teachers, as individuals and as a community” (#26).

3. The Congregation, in highlighting the importance of teachers within Catholic schools, echo the words of Bl. Pope Paul VI in 1975, when he proclaimed:

Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses. 

Bl. Pope Paul VI installing Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI as a Cardinal in 1977.
By brak - https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:P6_ratzinger.jpg, Public Domain,
 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=39131386

The responsibility of teachers to establish and uphold this Catholic culture and to be authentic witnesses of Christian discipleship "includes such things as affection, tact, understanding, serenity of spirit, a balanced judgment, patience in listening to others and prudence in the way they respond and, finally, availability for personal meetings and conversations with the students" (#96). The teachers within our Catholic schools must make Jesus incarnate in every interaction, relationship, and moment.

Dr. Uhl and Mr. Galvan highlight the quote-worthiness of many passages within this document from the Vatican's Congregation for Catholic Education while also recognizing that it merely reinforces and extends concepts and ideas from documents that preceded it.

Nonetheless, The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School centers itself on ensuring that Catholic schools maintain, harness and ultimately unleash the qualities and characteristics that make our schools, along with grace, instruments that can and will change our world.

For the Guest Blog page at Dr. Uhl's site, visit this link: https://tduhl.wordpress.com/2017/12/15/guest-blog-michael-zelenka-from-notre-dame/

Enter the Dance

My kids love to dance. You put a song on that has a good beat and all three of my kids will start to bop and sway and before long my house turns into a dance party. My daughters, who are 7 and 5, are showcasing their moves, my son, who is 1, is moving his head, even my wife and I are dancing. And the best part is that the room is filled with smiles, laughter and joy.

Now, a disclaimer: no one in my family has formal training in dance. And, at least in my case, I’m not sure that you can actually qualify what I do at these family dance parties as dancing. So, the joy is not a by-product of dancing prowess. It is not because we’ve executed some move perfectly or nailed the choreography. 

But none of that matters. We dance. 

This is the difference between a dance party and a dance audition (https://www.rjgrune.com/blog/shut-up-and-dance-with-me). 

At a dance party everyone is invited. All are welcome. There are no qualifications or prerequisites. There’s no admissions test. Show up and enter the dance. 

Dance auditions, however, involve judgement. Most likely the invitation to audition is the result of a dancing pedigree or resume listing out one’s experience. Even if the auditions are open to all, the criteria to enter the dance are limited to those with the abilities, with certain gifts and talents that are conducive to dancing. Lack the necessary qualifications and you are sent home, you are turned away, you are left out of the dance. 

I think our Catholic schools need to stop acting like dance auditions and start functioning as dance parties.

The word catholic means “universal” and this is one of the four marks of our Church - one, holy, catholic and apostolic. Our schools need to represent our universal Church and live out this universality. Our Church doors are open to all, but oftentimes our schools are limited to those with enough money and enough skill - think dance audition - to uphold our high academic standards. We set the limits and despite an open invitation, some are turned away. 

In the 19th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel account people are bringing their children to Jesus so that He might lay hands on them and bless them. To the disciples and others in Jesus’ time this was scandalous. Children were beneath everyone but especially someone of Jesus’ importance. Matthew recounts that the disciples rebuke the people bringing their children to Jesus, to which Jesus responds, “Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Let the little children come to me. Notice that Jesus isn’t asking for their Math or ELA scores. He’s not interested in their lexile number. The invitation is open to all and all of the children brought to Jesus receive His grace. Enrollment actually has moral implications. As Catholic schools, we must ensure we have the resources to meet the needs of the students we accept. No matter how noble our reasoning, if we don’t have the resources to support the students entrusted to our care their potential failure is on us. This isn’t an excuse or rationale to help perpetuate Catholic school elitism. Instead, it is an imperative to have educators within our schools who can meet the needs of students with exceptionalities. If we are to let the little children come to Jesus, we must ensure that we have the appropriate mechanisms in place to guarantee that all students can and will learn. We must fulfill this important need - families and students require and deserve it. 

Let the little children come to me. 

And do not prevent them. We must courageously live out these words of Jesus. We must enable our schools to “let the little children come to” Jesus. We must heroically allow our Catholic schools to cast a wider net and increase the number of people on the dance floor. Catholic schools must make incarnate Jesus’ words. We must remove barriers. We must provide access. We must ensure that nothing stands between students with exceptionalities and their learning. 

So, the next time you’re feeling discouraged or overwhelmed or thinking about just how hard this work really is, I encourage you to dance. Dance and know that our work in Catholic education is about a dance party, not a dance audition. Dance in the joy that you are following the command of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Dance and remember that you, like your students, aren’t invited because you’re qualified. But rather, we are qualified because we are invited. 

Let the little children come to me. And do not prevent them. 

The music’s playing. The floor is wide open. It’s time to enter the dance.

This was a part of a reflection for the Program for Inclusive Education within the Alliance for Catholic Education at the University of Notre Dame: https://vimeo.com/240057745

Enter the Song

"Gather us in, the proud and the strong; Give us a heart so meek and so lowly, Give us the courage to enter the song."

-From the hymn, Gather Us In, by Marty Haugen

In my first summer of the Remick Leadership Program, I was coerced into being a cantor for the Responsorial Psalm at one of the weekday masses for RLP participants. I was sitting behind a Nashville Dominican, Sr. Anna Laura, at Mass and afterwards she turned around and said, “You have a beautiful voice. You should cantor sometime,” to which I replied,

“And you must be tone deaf, because I cannot sing.”

Sr. Anna Laura continued to urge me and I continued to resist. We went back and forth for some time. I thought her persistence had subsided after not hearing about it for the next few days, until she came to me and told me that I would be cantoring at the next RLP mass. After more back and forth, I finally conceded on only one condition: that she would do it with me.

Before Mass I was terrified. There are few things in my life that have made me more nervous. My heart was both pounding and racing. I felt dizzy. I have absolutely no recollection of the first reading. I’m not sure how I got up to the ambo. For all I know, Sr. Anna Laura dragged me up there. But once there, I took a deep breath, uttered a small prayer and, along with Sr. Anna Laura, I entered the song.

While I can’t say that I did well, I made it through the entire Responsorial Psalm and I lived to talk about it.

I had the courage to enter the song...and sing.

Much like Sr. Anna Laura did during my first summer of RLP, God has given all of us an invitation to sing through the ministry of Catholic education. He has scripted the notes. He has composed the score. And He has called us, despite any inadequacies that we may feel, to enter the song and to sing.

St. Paul urges the Ephesians (4:1-7) to:

“Live in a manner worthy of your call," a call to greatness together with others.

It’s not for us to second guess our abilities or to shrink from tasks we think may be above our capacity.

St. Paul encourages the Ephesians by reminding them that “grace was given to each of us
according to the measure of Christ's gift.”

Live in a manner worthy of your call. Live in a way that honors the God-sized visions that He has planted inside of your heart. Enter the song and sing and trust that grace has been given you according to the measure of Christ’s gift for your life.

Have you ever thought of your call - your ministry - your song within Catholic education as a gift?

That’s how Christ views it, because His gift to you will be your gift to the world and your gift back to Him.

Accept this gift and live in a manner worthy of it.

Enter the song, invite others to join you in the greatness for which you have been called, and sing.

Christian Education

Learning and formation occur through both immersion and repetition.

As a high school English teacher, I would use this approach to the various "language arts". Things like grammar, vocabulary, writing and reading comprehension were immersed in the context of our literary texts and students' own written work. Instead of having a separate vocabulary workbook, we used words from the stories we read as vocabulary words. Similarly, instead of performing grammar work in an isolated context, we would study grammatical constructs like semicolons in light of what we were reading or what students were writing. This integrated approach allowed students to see the interconnectedness of these concepts and skills. Their reading comprehension increased because they knew the meaning of complicated words. Their writing improved because they were able to get instruction on how to grammatically support their writing, instead of a fabricated and isolated sentence about Johnny throwing a ball. They saw that good readers re-read and that good writers re-write. They saw that their advancement in one of the language arts helped them advance in others. This, in turn, helped students to apply these concepts and skills across various contexts and even subjects.

They didn't just become better readers, or writers, or grammarians.

They became more effective communicators.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ASoccer-490669_960_720.jpg

In his book, The Talent Code, author Daniel Coyle details the success of the Brazilian national soccer team. Coyle recounts the journey of Simon Clifford to Brazil in an attempt to discover the secret to the country's soccer success. Once there, Clifford uncovers the game futsal or futebol de salao - soccer in the room - and credits its fast pace, small yet heavy ball, and short-sided teams all as reasons that contribute to Brazil's dominance in soccer on the world's stage. This "deep practice" is immersive and repetitious. Players in futsal touch the ball more often than in traditional soccer - six times more per minute (Coyle, 27). Passing and ball handling, because of the size of both the field and the ball, become imperative skills in order to find success. These compressed characteristics of the game also demand improvisation; merely trapping, dribbling and kicking as you would on a broader field will result in more errors and turnovers. Instead, players must come up with tricks and tactics yet unseen in order to maintain control of the ball and the game.

In other words, futsal is soccer's baptism by fire. Immersion and repetition reign as king and queen.

The same is true of our spiritual life, too.

We can't just be faithful on Sundays or while at Mass or even just when it's convenient.

True faith cannot be compartmentalized; it naturally influences every aspect of our lives. In this way, the development of our faith will be most successful when it is integrated into all aspects of who we are.

Consider the following:

-You listen to music. Why not listen to Christian music? Some of it is really good:

-You read books. Why not read books about Christian themes? C.S. Lewis, GK Chesterton, any of the saints?!

-You listen to podcasts. Why not listen to podcasts about Christian topics? It just may be better than your Sunday homily: http://bulldogcatholic.org/homilies-archive/

-You watch TED Talks. Why not watch videos from Catholic speakers, too? http://ascensionpresents.com/

-You watch TV, but do you need to? Why not spend time with your wife, kids, parents, friends, in prayer? Really...

In other words, imagine the lift your spiritual life could receive if you started to integrate Christianity into all aspects of your life.

In the same way that your physical fitness would improve if you biked or walked to work, in the same way that your soccer or language arts skills would improve through immersion and repetition, our spiritual lives would receive an awakening if we started to allow faith to permeate all facets of our lives.

And as for Catholic schools, imagine if all parts of the school were infused with Christianity. The Congregation for Catholic Education states,

"Complete education necessarily includes a religious dimension. Religion is an effective contribution to the development of other aspects of a personality in the measure in which it is integrated into general education” (The Catholic School, #19).

The Congregation also declares,

"We need to think of Christian education as a movement or a growth process, directed toward an ideal goal which goes beyond the limitations of anything human. At the same time the process must be harmonious, so that Christian formation takes place within and in the course of human formation" (The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, #98).

Imagine discipline policies that focused on formation instead of punishment.

Imagine athletic teams that focused on sportsmanship, teamwork and development of skills instead of winning.

Imagine teachers who understood that their subject and their delivery of it created an atmosphere in which students became smarter, better, and holier.

Imagine Catholic schools that focused on the Eucharist and bringing students, teachers and families into deeper communion with Christ and each other.

Imagine a Catholic school that has, as the Congregation writes in The Catholic School, "the courage to follow all the consequences of its (the Catholic school's) uniqueness" (#66).

We wouldn't just have better soccer players, or better writers, or higher test scores, or more students.

We would have World-Changers.

We would have Christians.

Coyle, D. (2009). The Talent Code: Greatness isn't born. It's grown. Here's how. New York, NY: Bantam Dell.