Lovers of the Light

The days grow shorter; darkness increases. Cold grips the earth with a chilling embrace. Our world swells with violence, hunger, hatred, oppression, suffering, poverty, sickness, and death. Another year inches closer to its end. Reasons for despair abound.

But, the night is darkest right before the dawn. Even the deepest blackness is no match for even the smallest of lights. No matter how strong, no matter how pervasive, no matter how enduring the void, darkness always succumbs to light. Light a match and darkness is no match. It vanishes. Flip a switch and darkness runs away. 

This Friday we will celebrate the Feast of St. Lucy, patroness of the blind. Lucy literally means "light" and it is fitting that her feast day falls within the sacred season of Advent. We know Christ as the Light of the World. Lucy's own flame is a stirring model and example of letting your light shine for others. 

Lights abound in our homes, our neighborhoods and our Churches during this time of the year. We decorate our houses with lights. We put them on our Christmas trees. We light a series of four candles around our Advent wreaths. We light up our world during this secular season of winter to remind ourselves that Christ's light will conquer all, and that it is coming soon.

Yet, we so easily give into negative thoughts, feelings, emotions and tendencies. We hold onto anger, hurt, and jealousy. We so easily participate in gossip, lies, and deceit. We so easily give into sin. We vindicate ourselves by saying, "I deserve this. I am justified in feeling this way. Someone else deserves the blame. I have such bad luck. Someone up there must be against me. If God truly cared about me, he wouldn't have let this happen. I'm tired. I'm sick. I'm sick and tired. It's his/her fault. I'm right. They're wrong." 

What's more is that we don't keep this negativity to ourselves. Misery truly does love company. It needs it. Being the only person to be down in the dumps makes the dumps even dumpier. Having others wallow in our mud along with us validates our pessimism.

Everyone feels this way. I'm not the only person. Other people are upset, too. Lots of people are upset. A whole lot of them. The entire lot. Upset. The whole lot is very upset. 

Sound familiar? 

Why? Why do we give into negativity? Why do we complain so much (as opposed to venting like I am doing)? Why do we believe the lie that negativity can produce anything productive? 

In the words of The Christophers, "It is better to light one candle than curse the darkness." Author William Saroyan agrees, "Seek goodness everywhere, and when it is found, bring it out of its hiding place and let it be free and unashamed." St. Paul encourages the Philippians, saying, 

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

Be a lover of the light. Encourage each other. Build one another up. Be kinder than you think you should be. Be gentler. Give the benefit of the doubt even when you doubt someone deserves your benefit. Fight against the coming of the night. Rage against it. Light a candle. Share your flame with others. Lift. Elevate. Laugh. Give. Act. Love.  

Invite others up to the top of your mountain and help them ascend to your heights. Together enjoy the view and the fresh air. 

Stay positive. Stay awake. 

It may be dark for now, but soon and very soon...

And With Your Spirit

Peace, surprise, and gifts.

Advent preparation should afford us a sense of peace. Much like the calm of knowing that you have finished getting your house ready for a guest, or that a task was completed well in advance of a deadline or that you were ready to leave for an event before you had intended to depart. 

Usually, though, it doesn’t. We usually limp through to the end of Advent and exhaustedly celebrate Christmas. We do so much during these weeks. Parties. Shopping. Decorating. Wrapping. Cards. Events. Cooking. Cleaning. Worship. 

Advent should provide us with an opportunity to reconnect to our deepest needs and focus on our most fundamental relationships. It should afford us with an equal amount of reflection and activity, prayer and service, much like Lent. We should approach the Incarnation refreshed, ready and excited. We should be at peace with our level of preparation when Christmas finally arrives. Peace should be ours. Jesus tells us, “Peace I leave to you; my peace I give to you” (John 14:27). Let us accept it!

Many of our readings during Advent focus on not only the birth of Jesus but also the second coming of Christ - the end of times. Our preparation for Christ’s coming should also direct our efforts toward being prepared for the end of the world as well. Advent should be a time when we strive for peace within our relationships and within ourselves, knowing that we do not know the hour or the day when Christ will come again. We should be awake and stay vigilant, but in a way that is filled and overwhelmed by peace. 

Peace He leaves to us; His peace He gives to us. During Advent, at Christmas and always. Let us accept it. 

Let us also have the courage to be surprised. We undoubtedly think that doing more will somehow make us feel fulfilled and happy. We fear that scaling back on the gifts or cards or decorations or food or guests or events will somehow leave us empty. If anything, doing less will allow more room for Christ to come and enter our lives this Christmas. Start with worship. Think of the Magi and how they brought gifts, wise gifts, to the Christ child out of love, homage and an understanding of Christ’s future status. They didn’t come to Jesus expecting presents, but came to Him expecting to be amazed by His presence. The “Little Drummer Boy” from the famous song approaches the Lord afraid that he doesn’t have a gift to give to his Savior. It is then that he decides to offer the only thing that he has, all that he has, his gift of playing the drum. Mary nods. Jesus smiles. And it was good. 

Slow down, focus on being a wise gift giver and be surprised by Jesus’s approval of your actions. Stay awake and present to noticing His message in the midst of all of our secular ones. Frosty doesn’t have a place at the Nativity. Avoid the snowball effect of getting so wrapped up in your to-do list and spend some time offering your gift to Jesus. Spend some time really connecting with family and friends. 

Advent is a time of preparation. It is a time of excitement. It is a time of expectant hope. My you feel abundant peace as you journey through Advent. May you be surprised at the wonders of His love as you spend time in reflection. 

Accept these gifts; accept Him. 

Find Christ. 

Find Peace.  

AMAZING Training Pillar #1: Improvement

Never stop improving.

Ever.

The Japanese call it "kaizen". Visualize a never-ending staircase and this concept may take on greater meaning (or more of a sense of despair!):

From a Christian perspective, St. Augustine said, "Our hearts are restless until they rest in God." While perfection is never completely attainable, one must continue to pursue it as if it were. We can always love more, help more, listen more, do more, be more. Life constantly throws twists and turns at us that stretch our character. With all of its ups and downs, triumphs and failures, challenges and successes, we can very easily get caught up in our human desires of greed, shame, vengeance, vanity, righteousness, lust, despair, and hopelessness. Even Bl. Pope John Paul II went to confession every day!

We must never stop improving...and there is always room for improvement. No matter the level of excellence, no matter how much compassion fills our hearts, no matter how high we ascend in any single area, there is always room for improvement.

People who are AMAZING understand this idea of the necessity of improvement and embrace it. People who are AMAZING recognize that being complacent with stagnancy is a road to perpetual mediocrity. In fact, the only way to be AMAZING at something is to push beyond the plateau of good enough by focusing on continuous improvement. AMAZINGness is only achieved through constant improvement.

Therefore, it should make sense that IMPROVEMENT is the first and most important of the AMAZING Training Pillars. There can be no AMAZING without improvement. Small, incremental, purposeful steps that enable one to breakthrough good enough into the realm of AMAZING.

The expert in how to become an expert at anything, K. Anders Ericsson, argues that improvement is the key to excellence in any area. Innate ability only plays a small part in excellence. Focused practice, the use of a mentor, heightened awareness and small, incremental steps are the hallmarks of becoming AMAZING at something. Practice is the key component - 10 years worth of practice is necessary to become an expert. But, also important is having a mentor who will push you beyond the stumbling blocks of being "good enough". This mentor can help to design training programs that are incremental in their progressive steps. This person must also supply feedback at each step of the way. Finally, once must move beyond arrested development of doing something with automaticity. One must arrive at a heightened awareness of what is happening in order to be AMAZING.

Follow these four steps, according to Ericsson, and work your tail off and you can be AMAZING.

This concept is incredibly liberating for educators. Scaffold lessons so that information and skills are chunked in progressive sequences and sections. Challenge students to improve on areas in which they struggle instead of just allowing them to enhance their strengths. Provide opportunities for students to practice and then provide them with lots of formative feedback feedback. Embolden them by giving them not only the power of how but also the magic of why - get students to think about their thinking (metacognition) and become aware of the steps of a skill.

Do this and your students can be AMAZING.

This also applies to our walk as Christians. Never stop improving. Fight against the danger of thinking that our good enough is actually good enough. Find a spiritual mentor who can help to challenge you to move past who you are and toward who you need to be. Become aware of and be present to every area of your life. Stop just going through the motions and start to move with purpose. And never stop trying. No matter how hard the fall, no matter how dirty the landing get back up. Today. Tomorrow. Always.

Do this and you can be AMAZING.

Oscar Wilde claims, "The only difference between saints and sinners is that every saint has a past while every sinner has a future."

Never stop improving. Ever.

Do this and you will be AMAZING.

Be AMAZING.

At some point in May of 2013, I attended an in-service for administrators. While I typically try to make the most out of such events, I grew particularly frustrated with this training from the very beginning. Scheduled for a 9:00 a.m. start, the training didn’t begin until sometime after 9:30. I hate to waste time, so even though I plowed through emails and kept busy in my mobile office, I entered the training less than enthusiastic. 

Then, the topic centered around anti-bullying. A noble focus, but when we began to do a close-reading of the anti-bullying policy, my frustration swelled. I taught high school Language Arts. I’ve published articles and written research projects in graduate school. I can definitely read. In fact, I can read pretty well. So, to take time to do a close read of this document seemed like a further waste of my time. 

After going through each line and putting it into our own words and finding words that really strike us and asking questions of the interpretation of colleagues and only getting through 1/2 of the document, the morning ended. 

I am not calling the topic unworthy of an administrator’s time. I’m not making a statement about the importance of an administrator knowing what and how to do a close read of a piece of text. Both of these areas of focus have immense merit. The afternoon, though, did not bring with it the promise of a game changer. More of the same, or so I thought, littered the afternoon’s agenda.

Lunch was provided. It was free. It was pretty good. At least I had a full stomach going back for more line by line analysis of this policy.

God has a wicked way of getting people’s attention. The afternoon proved to be one of the most productive trainings I’ve ever attended. He had played on my emotions, almost as if to set me up for a dramatic AH HA! moment, throughout a dismal morning. I was unprepared for the thoughts and ideas that were generated, germinated and developed over the course of our afternoon. 

It was, very simply, AMAZING.

The speaker, Dr. Randall Woodard from St. Leo University, was dynamic. He was entertaining. He was polished. He was risky and even challenging in his address. The tenor of the room shifted during his portion of the training. Focusing on the work of Dr. K. Anders Ericsson, the leading expert on how to become an expert, Dr. Woodard outlined the steps for anyone to become an expert at anything. And, anyone can become an expert at just about anything. Talent, innate ability and genes are not as valuable as training. 

EXPERT TRAINING:
1. Focus on incremental improvements. The larger task of becoming an expert _________________, must be broken into the most fundamental, incremental steps.

2. Use training tasks that take the performer outside of current capacities. We tend to focus on the things we already do well instead of working on the areas of our performance in need of improvement. 

3. Our attention to our practice must be so focused that we eliminate all facets of automaticity. We have a tendency to settle for good enough in just about all that we do. We reach a plateau and most of us settle to live on that plain as opposed to ascending to even greater heights. 

4. Rely on coaches / mentors to: set goals, design domain specific training tasks, and provide meaningful feedback that allows for growth. Without outside help, we often remain in the secure confines of the plateau-topped heights of good enough. 

Then, Dr. Woodard applied this line of thinking to moral development: is it possible to design a training program, based on expert training, that focuses on moral development? Can we provide the opportunities, the mentoring, the incremental steps to have students become morally excellent?

What if we went back to our schools, Dr. Woodard challenged us, and said, "We are going to develop a training program where people are going to be amazing."

My pen couldn't keep up with the ideas. 

Non-academic character traits needed to become a focus in our school - organization, responsibility, pride, manners, improvement. 

We need to provide students with opportunities to work closely with mentors. 

In alignment with our theme (HOME) for the upcoming school year, my mind jumped after hearing this quote from Blessed Pope John Paul II, "The Christian family is the school of love." What if we included into our school households in addition to homerooms? Students would be divided into multi-aged houses headed by a faculty member. Time would be etched out throughout the year for these relationships to be forged and fostered.

And so, the inception of two initiatives occurred:

AMAZING Training Pillars and Households.

The summer would allow for the growth and maturation of each.

12 Pillars ensued:

1. IMPROVEMENT
2. PRIDE
3. MANNERS
4. MOVEMENT
5. RESPONSIBILITY
6. ORGANIZATION
7. COMMUNITY
8. KINDNESS
9. STRENGTH
10. COURAGE
11. AWARENESS
12. MOTIVATION

In meeting with ICS's Mr. Brett Woodward, our School Counselor, Households, Priories and the Irish Cup started to take on a life and momentum of their own throughout the months of June and July. A cup was purchased. Banners were made. Priories formed. A chant was concocted.

An AMAZING year began...and continues.

Be AMAZING. 

Hide It Under a Bushel?

On Tuesday September 24, I was fortunate, blessed and honored to visit our state capital, Tallahassee, to receive one of 15 Shine Awards given to educators from across our state in recognition of their efforts in education. In honor of Incarnation Catholic School's work to partner with parents and families for the better of the children of ICS, Incarnation was selected to receive this prestigious award. I not only had the distinction to receive the award on behalf of ICS, I was also afforded the chance to address Governor Rick Scott and the members of his cabinet at Tuesday's meeting. The following is a copy of the address:

One of the main tenants of Catholic Social Teaching is to provide options for the poor and the vulnerable. Furthermore, the teachings of the Catholic Church promote that parents are the primary educators of children and that parents should be afforded the ability and opportunity to make the best educational choice possible for their children. Thanks to the grace of the state of Florida, and many of you here today, Incarnation Catholic School is able to serve over 70 Step Up for Students scholarship recipients who would otherwise be unable to afford the cost of education at our school. These students, and the 60,000 other scholarship students in Florida, wouldn’t have the opportunity to experience programs like the one at Incarnation and the other outstanding schools represented and recognized here today if it wasn’t for these scholarships.

As Americans we believe that all people are created equal and that everyone is guaranteed the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Offering children and families the chance to participate in the outstanding education offered at private schools throughout our state allows students the opportunity to pursue, with greater chances of success, these rights that make our nation so amazing.

Governor Scott, members of the cabinet and other distinguished leaders gathered here today, on behalf of my fellow educators and Shine Award recipients, I thank you for affording us the opportunity to give all children, regardless of race, regardless of religion, and regardless of economic status the education they so rightly deserve and the education our state and nation so desperately need its children to receive.

We, as educators, give our students roots to stand firm in the face of adversity and the courage to fight for peace and justice in our world. As educators, we give our students wings to reach new heights and to accomplish those things that right now remain nothing more than a distant dream.

As educators, we give our nation hope.

But today, we, as educators, give you, state officials, our thanks. Thank you for your work, thank you for your support for education and for Florida's Tax Credit Scholarship. May God bless you. May God bless the State of Florida. May God bless our children. And may God always bless America.

As educators, it is incumbent upon us to teach in such a way that the divine spark inside each of our students may receive the breath of God and be a source of light and warmth to the world. As educators, we must allow our light to shine so that our students are liberated to do so as well.

Let it shine. Let it shine. Let it SHINE!

“Let us begin building!”

Then I explained to them how God had shown his gracious favor to me, and what the king had said to me. They replied, “Let us begin building!” And they undertook the work with vigor.

-Nehemiah 2: 18

This past Thursday, I was fortunate enough to attend the dedication of the Cathedral of St. Jude the Apostle, the seat of the Bishop within the Diocese of St. Petersburg. On what I considered to be a closely related note, this past Thursday was also the first time that ICS Households met for their first ever Family Suppers / Irish Cup Activity sessions. The first reading from the dedication Mass came from Nehemiah; this was also the main book of  scripture used at our beginning of the year faculty retreat this past August.

Our school's efforts with Households (a division of students within Incarnation Catholic School that separates them into groups of all ages headed by one of the faculty members at the school) started as a complement to our school's theme, "HOME". Households are intended to help further establish, build and reveal community within our school. Households should afford students and teachers the opportunity to truly become a school family. 

Whereas most, if not all, Catholic schools would use the term "family" to describe the type of community harvested within their walls, few devote the intentional time ICS will give to fostering relationships this year. We will eat together. We will play together. We will pray together. We will afford Middle School students leadership opportunities within each Household. We will give each student a greater, deeper and another sense of belonging and identity within our school. We will give each student another adult to whom they will be connected. 

We will give students another "HOME"; we began building them on September 12, 2013. 

To say that it was coincidental that this was also the date that our diocese dedicated its Cathedral would greatly disregard the immense role played by Providence in each and every moment of our lives. I stumbled upon Nehemiah over the summer. I had been invited to the dedication months ago. ICS was supposed to start its Households a week prior, on September 5. 

Bishop Lynch's homily also struck a Providential chord. He unpacked the reading from Nehemiah and connected it not only to Paul's letter to the Corinthians but also the Gospel. He stated that Nehemiah is always read at dedications and that it is a wonderful story of Nehemiah and Ezra rebuilding the people prior to rebuilding the walls and temple of the city. Their focus on the law strengthened the people and gave them enough courage to rebuild the city with "vigor." Prior to rebuilding the structures, Ezra and Nehemiah rebuilt the people.

Paul furthers this paradigm shift in his letter to the Corinthians. He tells his readers that they are temples of the Holy Spirit and that the their foundation must be solid in the Lord. This metaphor emphasizes the grand importance of the Church being the Body of Christ and that the Body of Christ be made up of the people. 

Finally, Bishop Lynch talked about Zecchaeus and the story from Luke's Gospel in which Zecchaeus climbs up a tree to get a better view of Jesus only to be told to come down and take Jesus to his house. Because of Zecchaeus's faithfulness, Jesus tells him that, "Today salvation has come to this house." Zecchaeus brought the Lord not only into his home but more importantly into his heart. "Behold," Zecchaeus says, "half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor."

The most beautiful of buildings is nothing more than mortar and brick without people who have welcomed the Lord into the home of their hearts. 

The newly renovated Cathedral is breathtaking. The spectacle of the Dedication Mass was equally as captivating. Images of darkness and light, smells of both chrism oil and incense,  and music accompanied with trumpets and a full choir were only moving because of the faithful gathered within the walls of the Church, including 165 priests, 82 deacons, 32 seminarians and over 60 religious all from within our Diocese of St. Petersburg.

The Bishop's final words in his homily were, "We've only just begun." He intended it for the diocese and its pursuit of building the Kingdom of God within our five counties. He could have very easily, though, also intended to say the good work started earlier in the day at the School of the Incarnation. 

As for us and our HOUSEHOLDS, we will serve the Lord (Joshua 24:15) and we've only just begun.

 
 

Amazing Training: Pillar #7, Community (Sense of Others)

Thought for the day from morning assembly on Tuesday September 3, 2013.

Be amazing.