Because

Our son Gabriel will turn two and a half later this month. While I have come to appreciate all of the ages of my kids as they've gotten older, Gabriel's current range has been one of my favorites. The explosion of words. The emergence of personality. The exploration of movement. I understand why this age is considered terrible, but to me it's also, thankfully, a lot of fun.

One of Gabriel's current sayings is "because..." in response to questions about how something happened.

For example, if you ask, "Gabriel, how did that train get over there?"

He might respond, "Beduz, da doo-doo oer dere."

Or, if you were to pose, "Gabriel, how did you jump so high/run so fast/eat so much?"

Most likely the first word out of his mouth would be, "Beduz" followed by something like "I do dat."

It has reminded me of how Elizabeth referred to herself using the pronoun "you" or how Catherine was already telling detailed fantasy stories around the same age.

As I think about his response in regard to Catholic school leadership, though, I find it to be incredibly profound.

In response to questions about how something happens, he responds with rationale. He responds with an explanation of why it happened in describing how it happened.

Because...

This is something that Catholic school leaders should do, too. We should lead from our deepest convictions, our beliefs, and use them as the purpose behind all of our decisions, words, actions, and programs within our schools.

For example, if a teacher were to ask, "How am I supposed to turn in lesson plans next Monday with so many other events between now and then?"

A dynamic, transformational Catholic school leader may respond, "Because we believe that excellence happens on purpose, we ensure that we are adequately prepared to impart this excellence to our students."

When our why is strong enough, we will figure out the how. This is what can make leading with beliefs and responding with "because" so powerful. It puts the issue on something more fundamental than logistics. It pushes the issue into the emotional realm. It makes it something that cuts to our hearts...if others share in this belief in their hearts, too.

Or, maybe it's a response to a parent or family, questioning the use of time during the school day for religion or liturgy, "How can you meet your instructional minutes by spending so much time on God?"

"Because we believe that we are disciples with hope to bring, we tap into the source of that hope as often as we can. In this way, we have greater zeal and focus for the other portions of our days and weeks."

Simon Sinek calls this starting with why, stating, "People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it." Our decisions and behaviors, Sinek argues, stem not from the neocortex, but from the limbic region of our brains, where emotion and desire are housed and transmitted. This is what can create loyalty organizationally, connecting us to more than just products and end results.

Here are some other examples:

How can we meet the needs of all students? 

• Because we believe that all children can and will learn, we utilize a variety of instructional methods and assessment strategies to engage students in ways that best suit their needs so that we can help all of them to achieve our standards and benchmarks. 

How can we compete with charter schools and a declining sense of the value of Catholic education? 

• Because we believe that God is in all things, we see the world in a sacramental way and we recognize God's presence in it, especially in developing the religious dimension of our students. 

How?

Because...  

I've also heard it said that while how is powerful, why is magical. Focusing on how or what can get us trapped in the details and arguments over particulars. Being rooted, however, in your purpose - your why - can unlock the constraints of personal preferences or logistical demands and usher in creativity, innovation, collaboration, excitement and synergistic effects.

Starting with why, being purpose-driven, mission-minded, intentionally-inclined.

Whatever you call it, living from your deeply held beliefs can infuse your life, and in turn your ministry, with new energy, momentum and spirit. It can invoke the power of the Holy Spirit to transform your efforts into something greater than what we can ask or imagine.

Start with why.

Return to why.

End with why.

And the next time someone asks you how something is to take place, lead with because... 

Remember

“When faced with change, conflict, relativism, and bleak prospects for the future, people are beginning to despair under the burden of daily life and have forgotten how to be protagonists in history.” 

-Archbishop Christophe Pierre 

In the first reading from last Thursday, Moses is conversing with God on the top of Mount Sinai when God’s people, delivered from slavery and saved from death multiple times, erect a golden calf and start to worship it. In response to this idolatry, God wants to wipe them out. Moses, however, intercedes and gets God to turn back His destructive wrath.

For a bit more context, we can read earlier in Exodus to know that Moses has been on the top of the mountain for some time. This is when Moses receives the ten commandments after which God offers more in-depth instructions about the prescriptions of the law. Scripture scholars believe that Moses stayed on the top of the mountain for 40 days, enough time for the Israelites to grow weary of waiting, and to want to put a face and shape to this God who had delivered them. Culturally, this is what they knew to do. Aaron, at the people’s urging, solicits all of their gold, melts it and forms it into this idol. He then declares a festival to the “Lord”.

In the responsorial psalm we hear that the people “exchanged their glory for the image of a grass eating bullock” and that “they forgot the God who saved them, who had done great deeds in Egypt.”

They had fallen short of their call as God’s chosen people. They had forgotten that they were to be protagonists in history.

How often do we fall into this trap? Weary of the work, impatient for God to move, how easily do we despair? How often do we forget the good things that God has done for us, that He has been faithful before and that He will be faithful again?

But, just as Moses pleads to God for mercy, inviting God to remember the good deeds done to save His people, we, too, must remember that we are children of God. We must believe that the Holy Spirit courses through our veins in no smaller measure than any of the saints. Whereas Moses was privileged to converse with God and see His back, we have the living God inside of us!

We need to remember.

Jesus warns us in last Thursday's Gospel, “You search the Scriptures, because you think you have eternal life through them; even they testify on my behalf. But you do not want to come to me to have life.” Let us not forget or fail to realize that all the scriptures pointed to Him! Let us listen to His words, and recognize His ongoing presence in our world.

We must remember that He has called us to a relationship, an encounter, a covenant. He does not a desire a contract.

We must remember that we are God’s, created for a specific purpose, called to bring Him honor, glory and majesty.

Change, conflict, relativism, and bleak prospects for the future, cause us and others to despair. The burden of daily life overwhelms us.

In these times, though, we must remember that we are His chosen people, that He has been faithful before and will be faithful again, that He desires mercy, not sacrifice, our hearts, not just our heads and hands.

We must remember that we are His protagonists, called to advocate and fight for others, and in doing so calling them to this same remembrance: we are His.

We must remember...

The Deepest Reason

What is the deepest reason that you do what you do?

This question, posed by Fr. Lou Delfra in January at a retreat for the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program, has lingered with me.

Why do we do what we do? Why do we have Catholic schools? Why do we expend resources for Catholic schools? Why do the women and men working there fight so hard? Why do parents and families sacrifice so much to send us their children?

Why?

Answering this question and then operating from this response can energize, inspire, animate and enliven us and all those with whom we come into contact.

Why do we do what we do?

We do what we do because we were created for joy.

We do what we do because Catholic school communities and everyone in them deserve this joy, this fullness.

We are made for dancing and intended for the divine.

Jesus tells us, "I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly" (John 10:10). "They" is us. You. Me. Them. All. Everyone.

Our Catholic schools need to be dance floors, not auditioning stages. Feasts, not invitation-only events. All should be welcomed, known, and cherished. All nations, every tribe and tongue.

Everyone.

The mission of our Church is the salvation of all souls and the total human formation of every person, to build up the Kingdom of God in heaven and establish it here on earth. We are called to "generate new creatures in Baptism" and to awaken in everyone a life in Christ (Divini Illius Magistri, #94). Our Catholic schools are a ministry of the Church to accomplish this mission. In fact, they are "privileged means" used by the Church for this purpose (The Catholic School, #8).

Salvation and total human formation for everyone.

In Plato's Allegory of the Cave, the experience of liberation is intended for all members of the state, not just the philosopher queens and kings meant for leadership.

Our Church offers a similar stance:

A Christian formation process might therefore be described as an organic set of elements with a single purpose: the gradual development of every capability of every student, enabling each one to attain an integral formation within a context that includes the Christian religious dimension and recognizes the help of grace. (The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, #99)

That's every capability, of every student. Fullness of life. For all.

Our Church also poses this:

In its ecclesial dimension another characteristic of the Catholic school has its root: it is a school for all, with special attention to those who are weakest. (The Catholic School on the Threshold of the Third Millennium, #15)

We are called to be schools for all, with special attention to those who are the weakest. Fullness of life. For everyone.

For those of us called to work in Catholic schools, this is a huge task. But, we can do hard things. Our ongoing formation in greatness, holiness and sainthood must lead us to an apostolic boldness that invites others onto the dance floor.

What is the deepest reason we do what we do? The answer isn't a what, it's a Who: Jesus Christ. We do what we do because Jesus Christ conquered sin and death and desires a personal relationship with everyone.

In the Father's House there are many rooms and a huge dance floor, big enough for everyone to fit. In the words of Fr. Lou Delfra, paraphrasing Notre Dame, Our Mother, "I didn't go through the Virgin birth so people could live comfortably. I want people on the dance floor!"

So, keep dancing, continue inviting others into your schools, into relationship with Christ, and into fullness of life, because that's what Jesus did.

And, He is the deepest reason we do what we do.

"For the love of Christ impels us, once we have come to the conviction that one died for all; therefore, all have died. He indeed died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. Consequently, from now on we regard no one according to the flesh; even if we once knew Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer. So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come" (2 Corinthians 5:14-17).

Affecting and Upsetting

“(Evangelization) is a question not only of preaching the Gospel in ever wider geographic areas or to ever greater numbers of people, but also of affecting and as it were upsetting, through the power of the Gospel, (human)kind’s criteria of judgment, determining values, points of interest, lines of thought, sources of inspiration and models of life, which are in contrast with the Word of God and the plan of Salvation.”

-Pope St. Paul VI, 1975 in Evangelii Nuntiandi

My daughter Elizabeth's piggy bank shattered unexpectedly and suddenly in the fall of 2017. In an attempt to help ease her emotions following the drop, I told her I would collect the pieces and that I would work on putting it back together for her. The shattered pig sat in a box on the top of a shelf in our house, though, for the better part of a year. The task just seemed to be too big and Elizabeth did not mention its repair. "Best Dad Ever" I am not.

An unexpected Christmas wish - I want Santa to bring me my piggy bank put back together - roused and inspired me to make good on my initial promise. 

The work was slow and difficult. The bigger pieces were the easy ones. Their placement was immediately evident and their adhesion seamless. These early victories fueled much needed momentum. 

However, as the pieces shrunk, the difficulty of this task grew. Their placement was more puzzling, their adhesion more likely to result in my fingers getting cut and/or superglued to the shard or to another finger. Gaps resulted and the once smooth exterior of the pig was now rough and jagged. 

On Christmas morning, Elizabeth showed genuine surprise and appreciation. While not the version of her restored pig that she had envisioned, she was grateful to have her piggy bank back. 

To me, this long, slow, difficult, and sometimes painful work of repairing a broken ceramic is much like the work we are called to do repair the various ways in which our society is shattered. 

Responsiveness. 

Equality and equity. 

Fairness. 

Community. 

Love. 

As a white, middle-aged, middle class, straight, Christian, married with children, non-disabled, cisgender man, there is not an area of my life that is not in a dominant category (at least in America, which is another way that my life is incredibly privileged). 

My parents are white. They, too, fit all of the above categories. As such, my upbringing was as privileged as it could have been. We lived in a suburb of Cleveland that was predominantly white. We had access to a strong education, where the teachers in my school looked like me. The curriculum favored my life experiences. I had a plethora of extra-curricular activities from which to choose and I had the recreational time to pursue them all the way through college. I had easy and ready access to healthcare and medical services. 

My high school, a private, all-boys, Catholic high school - another example of my privilege - was one of only two aspects of my life that bucked against my white privilege. The school was not located in a white neighborhood. The student population was almost an even split between black and white. I had teachers, coaches and a principal who were black. 

The other aspect of my life that embodied this type of diversity was the school where I served as principal for seven years. Its surrounding neighborhood is richly diverse and its student population enjoyed a similar composition. 

In both instances, I experienced coded language as people talked about my schools. Do you feel safe going to school there? That's just a football school, right? The school population sure has changed since you became principal. We are leaving because we feel the education will be stronger where there are more families like us. Is there a quota on the number of students on scholarship that the school can accept? 

But, no matter how much these questions irritated and annoyed me, and despite the fact that they hardened my pride to be a part of either school, I still got to go home to my white privilege. While I believe that my life has been enhanced by these experiences, my circumstances were not improved as a result of them. Any success I've had is due in large part because the intersection of my race, gender, class, sexual orientation, religion, marital status and nationality has been the corner of Easy Street and the Yellow Brick Road. My life is the result of my privilege. 

Therefore, this is why it is so important that I leverage all of this privilege and do the long, slow, hard yet vital work of cultural responsiveness. This is why I must push past and own white fragility and critically self-reflect on the many ways I maintain my dominant position, the many implicit biases I hold, and the many ways that I must fight and change in order to make our world more just, equitable, fair and right. 

This is why I can't just bring in the Responsiveness Team to do this work for me. This is why I can't just ask the Diversity Expert to do the work that I must do. This is why, given my privilege and my current position, I must affect and upset others to put their own fragility aside and partner in critically looking at our intersections and working against the systemic racism that is rampant in America. 

As Pamela Nolan Young, the University of Notre Dame's Director for Academic Diversity and Inclusion, stated in a recent presentation on inclusive excellence, the work is difficult. Young remarked:

I was not feeling passionate about the work I was doing on diversity, inclusion and equity. As Fannie Lou Hamer said, "I am sick and tired of being sick and tired." I'm not feeling that hopeful either; however, I do have faith. And as first Hebrews teaches us, "Faith is confidence in what we hope for, and assurance about what we do not see."...So when all seems lost, I return to my faith to restore my hope. Working for diversity, inclusion, and equity is difficult, but I have faith in God and trust in His promise for the Kingdom.

The work of responsiveness is hard, but we can do hard things.

The work of diversity, inclusion and equity is long, but that does not make it any less urgent.

The work of building the Kingdom of God here on earth will require "affecting and as it were upsetting, through the power of the Gospel, (human)kind’s criteria of judgment, determining values, points of interest, lines of thought, sources of inspiration and models of life, which are in contrast with the Word of God and the plan of Salvation” (Pope St. Paul VI).

This work is uncomfortable, but we were not made for comfort. We were born for greatness, made for holiness and destined for sainthood.

This work is ours.

Let us begin.

The Mission

Over the course of the past week, I found myself drawn into the whirlwind that was the students from Covington Catholic and their interaction with both participants in the Indigenous Peoples March and members of the Black Hebrew Israelites. 

I was caught up in how forcefully divided we are as a country. Some quickly chastised the students. Others came to their defense and propped them up as models of behavior and restraint. As is the case with so many events in our country, vehement polarization ensued. 

This situation was a powderkeg. From racism to abortion to immigration to the Catholic Church to women’s rights to all of the many associations with MAGA hats, there were so many emotionally charged aspects of this event.

As I emerged from the vortex still trying to figure out what really happened, I was overwhelmed by the great and urgent need throughout the world for healing, justice, peace, reconciliation, and love. 

If we ever needed the Lord before, we sure do need Him now. 

We believe that Jesus Christ conquered sin and death through the Resurrection. As His disciples, we are charged with carrying on His salvific mission: the salvation of souls and the total formation of all humans.

As such and in light of our world’s dire need, “There must be nothing little about us, we must have hearts of apostles” (St. Julie Billiart). We must embrace the apostolic boldness that is the Spirit of God within us. We must harness the zeal that has animated countless holy women and men throughout history. We must then “cooperate with divine grace in forming the true and perfect Christian, that is, to form Christ Himself in those regenerated by Baptism” (Divini Illius Magistri, #94).   

Pope Pius XI states that Catholic education should result in the formation of super-humans. “Hence the true Christian,” Pius XI writes, “product of Christian education, is the supernatural [person] who thinks, judges and acts constantly and consistently in accordance with right reason illumined by the supernatural light of the example and teaching of Christ; in other words, to use the current term, the true and finished [person] of character” (Divini Illius Magistri, #96). 

People of character. 

Saints. 

Supernatural people.

Heroes. 

Christ Himself in those of us regenerated by Baptism. 

As Remick Leaders, we hold fast to our beliefs and we use them to inspire, inform, and enliven our respective ministries. We believe that God is in all things. We believe that we are made for each other in the image and likeness of God. We believe that we are disciples with hope to bring. We believe that excellence happens on purpose. We believe that school leaders drive student success. 

We believe our work makes God known, loved, and served. 

Therefore, we must believe that the Remick Leadership Program has a part to play in bringing healing, justice, peace, reconciliation, and love to our world. 

We must believe that our work is bringing people closer to Christ and bringing Christ to the world. We must believe that when we do it right and well - and we must - that we can create the type of people the world so desperately needs. 

In the 1982 document, Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, the Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education writes: 

The vocation of every Catholic educator includes the work of ongoing social development: to form men and women who will be ready to take their place in society, preparing them in such a way that they will make the kind of social commitment which will enable them to work for the improvement of social structures, making these structures more conformed to the principles of the Gospel. Thus, they will form human beings who will make human society more peaceful, fraternal, and communitarian. (#19)

Our world needs these types of humans - humans supercharged with zeal, relentless curiosity, hunger, purpose, vision, courage, humility.

Our world needs people of character. 

Our world needs saints. 

Our world needs heroes.

Our world needs Christ Himself in those regenerated by Baptism. 

Our world needs love.

Our Catholic schools can form these types of super-humans. Our Remick Leaders can ensure that our Catholic schools do this. 

Our world needs Catholic schools.

And our Catholic schools need Remick Leaders. 

Up From the Ashes

The Golden Dome of the Main Building serves as an iconic representation of the University of Notre Dame. Whether reflecting golden rays of sunshine or outlined against a blue-gray sky, Mother Mary standing atop the dome tells “everyone who comes this way...to whom we owe whatever great future this place has” (Fr. Edward Sorin, CSC). 

But, even if the Dome burnt to the ground, as it did in April of 1879, the spirit of Notre Dame would remain. The spirit of Notre Dame, of the Fighting Irish, would continue to permeate throughout campus. It would continue to animate its students, faculty, alumni, and family to be forces for good in our country and across our world. Fr. Sorin embodied this spirit, and his zeal was so infectious that the University of Notre Dame at 37 years old was marked by this trait. Fr. Corby, President of the University at the time of the fire in 1879, rallied students and faculty a few moments after the fire had been tamed and boldly proclaimed that the University would rebuild and that they would resume classes in September as usual. Writers of the Scholastic, the student newspaper at the time, wrote:

Yes, Notre Dame will be herself again in a few months, with God’s help, the untiring toil of her children, and the aid of her generous friends who have never failed her in her hour of need...Notre Dame has so grown into the life of the country that it cannot but live and flourish, notwithstanding the fire. Like a vigorous tree which has been burned to the ground, the life is still strong in the great heart beneath, and it will spring from its ashes more glorious and beautiful than ever...This building will be ready before the first of September. (http://www.archives.nd.edu/Scholastic/VOL_0012/VOL_0012_ISSUE_0034.pdf)

Reports detail that students rushed into the burning buildings to save books, furniture, pianos, and scientific equipment. Fr. Sorin, upon returning to campus and surveying the damage of his life’s work, declared: 

If it were all gone, I should not give up. The fire was my fault. I came here as a young man and founded a university which I named after the Mother of God. Now she had to burn it to the ground to show me that I dreamed too small a dream. (http://faith.nd.edu/s/1210/faith/interior.aspx?sid=1210&gid=609&pgid=15963)

The spirit of Notre Dame, despite the destruction in 1879, endured. Classes did resume on schedule that next fall. The spirit of Notre Dame survived and continues to thrive because the spirit of Notre Dame is not a building, statue, athletic accomplishment, mosaic or painting. The spirit of Notre Dame lives in the charism of the Congregation of Holy Cross and their apostolic zeal to make God known, loved and served. Fr. Sorin, like Bl. Moreau, possessed a burning desire to save souls. This spirit, this Holy Spirit, this zeal, lives across campus in the hearts of all those blessed enough to call Notre Dame home. 

This is the spirit of Notre Dame: zeal, a fire to make God known, loved and served. 

Similarly, as we continue to fight through the current crisis within our Church we must remember that the spirit of the Church, the Holy Spirit, the zeal to save souls, is not tied to a human institution. The Holy Spirit is not in St. Peter’s Basilica or the Vatican museums, the Sistine Chapel or any other earthly dwelling that could be consumed and destroyed by a fire. The Holy Spirit dwells in the hearts of the faithful. The Holy Spirit calls on, stirs up, and urges forward the true disciples of Christ and will provide the gifts and fruits to build back the Church better than it was before, springing “back from these ashes more glorious and beautiful than ever.” 

As transformational Catholic school leaders, know that this Holy Spirit dwells inside of you. Unleash it. Act with apostolic zeal. Proclaim the Gospel in deed and word. Preach it to yourself if you have to. Be undignified for Christ. Lean in to the problems of your school, of our Church, and of the world, and lead. When your life’s work gets burned down, metaphorically if not literally, accept it. Trust in Providence that the Holy Spirit is leading you to something better, purifying you so that nothing but your zeal for Christ remains. Bl. Moreau assures us:

I am convinced that Providence, which has in the past done everything necessary for the development and perfection of its work, will continue to bestow on us the most abundant blessings. To insure this, we must be constantly animated by the spirit of zeal and generosity which so holy an undertaking requires. We must place all our confidence in the Lord. (Giallanza, 2014, p. xviii)

No matter the fire. No matter the damage. No matter the scandal, the wreckage, the despair. 

No matter what.  

Place all your confidence in the Lord.

And, with zeal, begin again.

Citation: Giallanza, J. (2010). Praying from the Heart of Holy Cross Spirituality. Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press.

Ring the Bell

"Often what is perhaps fundamentally lacking among Catholics who work in a school is a clear realisation of the identity of a Catholic school and the courage to follow all the consequences of its uniqueness" (#66).

-The Catholic School, 1977

We are in a fight.

If we ever needed the Lord before, we sure do need Him now. The Catholic Church is under attack. I guess it always has been. The forces of evil, having been defeated by the Resurrection of Jesus, have set their sights on turning Christ's Triumph into a Pyrrhic victory. If they're going down, they may as well go down swinging. 

Well, the forces of evil are swinging. And even though as believers we have every reason to trust in God's Providence, we must acknowledge the fight and start swinging back. Bl. Basil Moreau, founder of the Congregation of Holy Cross, states:

I am convinced that Providence, which has in the past done everything necessary for the development and perfection of its work, will continue to bestow on us the most abundant blessings. To insure this, we must be constantly animated by the spirit of zeal and generosity which so holy an undertaking requires. We must place all our confidence in the Lord (Giallanza, p. xviii).

"We must be constantly animated by the spirit of zeal..." Zeal? Great energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause or objective? 

"...and generosity which so holy an undertaking requires." Generosity? The quality of showing a readiness to give more of something, as money or time, than is strictly necessary or expected?

Most of us have tended toward selfish complacency. We justify our excess and delude ourselves into thinking that we are immune to the effects of immorality and impurity. 

I certainly do. Sadly, much like the rich young man who departs from Jesus sad because he has too many possessions from which he does not want to part, I hold on to things of this world: possessions, pleasure, prestige. I live a blessed life but do little to recognize that blessing and spread it to others. I work for the Church. This gives me some semblance of righteousness; it basically makes me a Pharisee.

As a Catholic school principal, I would try to align all aspects of our school to both our mission and our Church. Something as seemingly unimportant, though, as food served in the cafeteria betrayed my efforts to do what's best for children. Chips? Fries? Sports drinks? Ice cream?

And that's just one example.

What if we woke up? The current state of our Church should encourage us to see the need for us to do so.

What if we stood up? Our world is in need of zealous and generous holy women and men who can point us toward the True, the Good, the Beautiful. Instead of leaving, in the words of Fr. Mike Schmitz, the current crisis beckons us to lead!

What if we started - and/or continued with even greater vigor - fighting back? In leading we must lean in to the teachings of the Church, harken back to a reliance upon scripture, and participate with greater regularity in prayer, fasting and the sacraments.

The Church is broken. It always has been and will be precisely because it is human. But, Christ sanctified our humanity and He came so that we might know the way.

Now more than ever, we must follow and imitate Christ with courage and conviction. We must invoke the power of the Holy Spirit in stepping up and out in faith against the forces of evil. And as we do, let us also, as William Saroyan writes, "Seek goodness everywhere, and when it is found, bring it out of its hiding place and let it be free and unashamed."

There is good left in our world - good people, good priests - and it's worth fighting for.

In a time when our faith in the Church is shaken, may our Catholic schools shine as beacons of light and hope. In our schools we hold the promise of a future Church that can learn from the sins of its fathers and learn instead how to stand and fight. In our children we find hope. In the words of St. John Paul II:

I have seen enough evidence to be unshakably convinced that no difficulty, no fear is so great that it can completely suffocate the hope that springs eternal in the hearts of the young. You are our hope, the young are our hope! (http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/homilies/2002/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_20020728_xvii-wyd.html) 

Our Catholic schools are uniquely positioned to impart true education - an education that encompasses both the intellect and morality - at a time when the rest of the world relies on relativity and you doing "you" instead of what's right.

Teachers, we need you to be imitators of Christ. Be the prototype for your students to follow all the way to Christ Himself. Believe that you write on the very souls of your students. "Teaching has an extraordinary moral depth and is one of man's most excellent and creative activities, for the teacher does not write on inanimate material, but on the very spirits of human beings."
(The Catholic School on the Threshold of the Third Millennium, #19) Every moment matters. Every moment is incarnational, a chance to be Christ to others.

Principals, we need you to position your schools in such a way that you would have "the courage to follow all the consequences of its [your Catholic school's] uniqueness" (The Catholic School, #66). Put Christ and your students in the center of everything that you do within your school. Fight for your students. Demand the best from everyone that works for our children. Support those within your schools to be better teachers and better Christians. Make your schools more unabashedly Catholic: celebrate the Eucharist more and with greater reverence; make the Sacrament of Reconciliation available; institute Adoration; pray the Rosary; learn about any or all of the things that make us Catholic. 

Parents and families, the battle is on your doorstep, if not already in your homes, too. Put down your devices, put aside the pursuit of more money, and things, and luxuries. Stop binging on Netflix and playing Fantasy football, quit following the feeds of Facebook, and put your family first. 

Students, you have a voice. And you, more than adults in most cases, know good from bad and are willing to act on it. Help push us adults to holiness. You are worth it and worthy of our best. Inspire the holy women and men in your lives to act boldly in support of our Lord and in opposition of the enemy. Trust in Providence if not people. To reiterate the words of Bl. Moreau, trust in "Providence, which has in the past done everything necessary for the development and perfection of its work, will continue to bestow on us the most abundant blessings."

Catholics, our Church and our world is under attack. Let's pray for the victims of abuse and all those impacted by the effects of this evil. Let's pray for our priests and religious that with greater strength and fidelity they may live their vocation and lead our Church. Let's fast. Jesus tells His disciples that the toughest demons require both prayer and fasting (Mark 9:29). Let's harden our resolve and not our hearts. Let us invoke Mother Mary and the Holy Spirit that they may lead, guide and protect us so that we may lead, guide and protect our children, our weak and vulnerable, our world.

Let's wake up.

Let's stand up.

Let's fight.

Ring the bell.

Citation:
Giallanza, J. (2010). Praying from the Heart of Holy Cross Spirituality. Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press.