Anything is Possible With God

One of the many poignant aspects of yesterday's Gospel included the reminder that: "All things are possible for God" (Mark 10:27).

At the risk of making two strong of a connection between our faith and sports, our Cleveland Guardians reinforced this message this past Saturday and have been doing so all season long. In fact, the Cleveland baseball organization has defied the odds for quite some time. Despite having the 28th largest payroll out of 30 teams in Major League Baseball, the Guardians fought their way into baseball's final four. It's worth noting that the other three teams remaining in the MLB playoffs boast the top three payrolls, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd out of 30 teams.

Riches, as we witnessed yesterday when the wealthy young man walked away sad from Christ because he had many possessions, do not lead to success. Money can't buy eternal life and it doesn't guarantee victories on the baseball diamond.

Instead, the Guardians stand as one of baseball's elite because of a solid work ethic, a disciplined commitment to strong fundamentals, and outstanding selection and formation programs for coaches and players.

Known as Guards Ball, the Guardians' approach to winning stresses sound pitching and fielding, aggressive baserunning, and hitting for contact. Fold in an investment in developing players in these key areas and you have a recipe for success that goes beyond the sum of the ingredients.

Put more simply and disconnected from the world of sports: the Guardians selflessly commit to the fundamentals of the game of baseball.

As we proudly cheer on the Guardians through the American League Championship Series, may we embrace our own Catholic School Leadership version of Guards Ball.

Focus on the fundamentals of formation, of teaching and learning, and of leadership:

• Faith Formation: Disciples create disciples. In this way, do small things that demonstrate discipleship and invite others into these practices: pray, celebrate the Eucharist, read scripture, learn about your faith, perform acts of stewardship for the Church and others, keep the Sabbath.
• Teaching and Learning: We are made in the image and likeness of an omniscient (rational), omnipotent (creative), and all-loving (collaborative) God. Endowed with the gift of curiosity, we all seek to better understand and interact with the world around us. Our wonder-full minds take us outside of ourselves and into relationship with our surroundings and other people. Foundationally, classrooms should have clear purpose and relevance, methods for learners to collaboratively interact with content and test skills, and frequent checks for understanding with feedback to gauge progress in knowledge and abilities.
• Leadership: Invest time and energy into the recruitment, selection, onboarding, development, and performance management of our employees. Follow strong HR practices, ensure our employees and volunteers meet our standards of conduct, set goals, monitor performance, and provide feedback.

Work hard. Stay committed to the fundamentals of our ministries. Develop others.

Apostolically, we only need five loaves and two fish to feed thousands. Regardless of our resources, we - like our beloved Guardians - are capable of amazing things.

Remember, with God anything is possible.

It's a Process, Not an Event

Today we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. Pope Francis has invited the faithful to pray and fast today, the one-year anniversary of the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, for peace.

Until today, I did not know the original name of today's feast: Our Lady of Victory. In 1571 Pope Pius V called upon all Christians to pray the Rosary to invoke Mother Mary's aid for the European navy in the Battle of Lepanto. Against all odds, the European navy emerged victorious and Pope Pius V instituted a feast day to commemorate Our Lady's intercession. After three years, the name of the feast changed to Our Lady of the Rosary to shift the focus of the celebration from victory to the power of this prayer.

Since 2015, I have had a devotion to Our Lady and asking for her intercession through the Rosary. She has helped me untangle many knots. She has assisted me in various victories. She has brought me closer to her Son. I carry a Rosary with me wherever I go. I pray the Rosary every day...or at least I try to - some days I fall asleep in the middle of decade in the arms of the Blessed Mother.

This prayer centers on Christ. The Hail Mary's fulcrum is Christ: ...blessed is the fruity of thy womb, Jesus...

All of the mysteries - Annunciation, Visitation, Incarnation, Presentation, Finding, Agony, Scourging, Crowning, Carrying, Crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension, Descent, Assumption, Coronation, Baptism, Water into Wine, Proclamation of the Kingdom, Transfiguration, Eucharist - anchor in Christ's life and ministry.

The Rosary's rootedness in repetition acts as a tug, pulling us ever closer and closer to the heart of Christ.

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In this way, the power of the Rosary stands in the process of praying. More than a singular mountaintop event, praying the Rosary provides multiple opportunities for us to grow in faith. Working out daily provides better health benefits than just being a weekend warrior. A daily dental detail of brushing and flossing determines oral hygiene more than a deep clean. Relationships require regular relations - communication and shared experiences. Getting better at anything - running, throwing, reading, cooking, driving, writing, singing, dancing, drawing, speaking in public, sewing, playing an instrument - requires repeated practice.

As it is with prayer and our lives, so it is with our leadership efforts. Communicating our mission, vision, values and beliefs is a process, not an event. Reinforcing our policies and procedures and their connections to who we are as organizations entails more than just a fresh kick-off. Leading demands consistency and constant clear communication.

More than just a moment, our leadership, like the Rosary, must act like a movement. With each decision, with every communication, with all of our actions may we pull our communities ever closer to Christ's heart and to the victory of fullness of life on earth as it is in heaven.

Faith and Works; Believe and Act

This past weekend, I completed a home improvement project that I had dreaded for about a month: hanging our television on our wall.

I know that successfully mounting our TV does not qualify me as accomplished. Similarly, I realize that most people tackle this type of work in short order. Give the typical person an hour and it would be finished.

But, my hesitation stemmed from a belief of mine about my abilities to do just about anything with tools: I am not handy.

This hesitating belief, along with a series of other events from last week, got me thinking about something that I do think I'm good at: organizational culture and what it takes to build a successful one. 

First, at a recent meeting, an educational leader talked about a disciplinary situation involving a kid that "wasn't a bad kid". This comment made me bristle. Behaviors are good or bad; people are gifts from God.

Second, I read through and approved a posting for a faculty position that listed out the school's beliefs: "The ideal candidate for this position believes: Students are granted individual gifts and talents by God to do his work."

Third, my family and I watched Inside Out 2 (on our freshly attached TV) in which the main character, Riley, behaves in a manner consistent with her evolving beliefs: I am a good friend, I am brave, I am talented.

Fourth, the Gospels from both this past Sunday and Monday present Mark's and Luke's accounts, respectively, of these beliefs of Jesus:

• Whoever isn't against us is for us. 
• Be okay with shared leadership and others doing good work in the name of God. Their successes do not equate to your failures. 
• Children are gifts. 
• They should occupy a prime position in our lives. There have been a number of Gospel passages of late that remind us of the sanctity of childhood. 
  

Strong organizational cultures stand firmly upon a core set of principles/ideas/beliefs that provide both stability for the group and a compass for adaptation. Similarly, strong organizational cultures experience tight alignment between what they say (mission, beliefs, values, etc.) and what actually takes place across the organization (policies, programs, procedures, actions, words). 

As written in the Letter of James, "So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead" (James 2:17). 

Even the most beautifully written mission, belief, and/or value statements carry little significance or meaning if not coupled with action.

Conversely, our actions reveal what we truly believe. Sr. Helen Prejean famously quipped, "I watch what I do to see what I believe." 

Given the importance of aligning our works to our faith, consider the underlying beliefs that inspire your words and actions. Think about the number of times that you hesitate because of an underlying belief of inadequacy or act from a belief that limits yours, others, and/or God's potential.

As you recognize these principles that cause you to speak and act, think about the beliefs worthy of our God and therefore worthy of aspiring to: every person is a gift from God; excellence happens on purpose; collaboration is a force multiplier; leadership matters; I can try again.

Then, commit to believing your beliefs and act. Whereas you might end up with a TV on the floor, you might also end up with it ascending and adhering to new heights on your wall. 

Aligning your actions to your beliefs might also cause a group of students, teachers, and your entire school community to ascend to new heights as well and maybe even beyond anything that we could hope for or imagine (Ephesians 3:20).

Perform works that demonstrate your faith. 

Believe and act. 

It's Yours, God

I had the blessing of being formed by Fr. Ron Nuzzi during my time as a student in the University of Notre Dame's Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program.

Fr. Nuzzi filled our hearts with conviction for the mission of our Church and her Catholic schools, our minds with the knowledge and skill to be competent Catholic school leaders, and our notebooks with one-liners, zingers, and compelling messages.

One such line, "It's not about you!" still echoes in my heart more than 15 years after this line boomed in my ears. Speaking about his frustration with faculty members who wanted to grade papers during Mass, Fr. Nuzzi recalled exclaiming these words in an attempt to get us to recognize that our efforts as school leaders must account for the following:

• Everything the adults in our buildings do makes a statement about what we deem important.
• When our ministries become more about us than our students' formation, we have - or eventually will - become ineffective.

Our Gospel from this past weekend reminded me of these words, "It's not about you!" In response to the disciples' arguments about who was the greatest among them, Jesus explains how to receive honor in His kingdom: "If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all." Jesus then goes deeper by putting a child (imagine our students) in the middle of the group, embracing this young person, and declaring, "Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me."

It's not about you.

Go to the lowest among us, lower yourself to meet them at their level, and embrace them in the name of Christ and His commission to us, "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" (Mt. 28:19-20).

Put another way: be humble enough to serve. It's not about you. It's about our students and families who have entrusted themselves to our care and education. It's about the missions of our schools that we have been commissioned to carry out. It's about the Holy Spirit-inspired dreams that God aches for us to make a reality. It's about the details needed to carry out our missions and bring to life our visions. It's about collaborating with others across our boards, our faculties and staffs, our network and our diocesan offices to achieve God's plans for His schools. It's about vulnerably looking at the data and analyzing our effectiveness in doing what we've been called to do. It's about pursuing excellence in all things for God's glory, not ours.

It's not about me. It's not about you.

It's about Him and His children and His schools.

God, it's about You: it's Yours. 

All Yours. 

Alignment

The following line from this past weekend's Gospel spoke to my heart and convicted me, "You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do" (Mark 8:33).

Jesus's message to Peter and the disciples encourages all of us to ensure our thoughts align with the mind and will of God.

As I heard that line from Christ proclaimed last weekend, my heart stirred. 

How often do I think that my efforts depend entirely on me? How many times do I get discouraged unnecessarily? How often do I harbor a grudge instead of offering forgiveness? How frequently do I default to hatred as opposed to love? Despair instead of hope? A dead-end instead of endless possibilities? Death instead of life?

As branches aligned to the true Vine, we must become ever more aware of the presence, promptings, and power of the Holy Spirit within and around us. We must fight to believe our beliefs and doubt our doubts. Too often we doubt our beliefs - does that make them doubts? - instead of holding fast to them in moments of stress and despair.  

We must think as God does. 

We must remember, "God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control" (2 Timothy 1:7).

In addition to aligning our minds and hearts and wills to those of God, we must also consider the coherence between and among our schools' missions, values, words and actions. What parts of our schools align to these sources of life and which ones are disconnected? What components of our schools fail the celery test?

Which ones, unfortunately, have survived as Monkey Paradigms, vestiges of days gone by, antiquated and stale traditions, practices performed by those with perceived power? 

As we check our own thoughts and behaviors so that they align with God, we must also check the philosophies and practices of our organizations so that they align with our missions, beliefs, and values. 

Alignment signals that all of the parts of ourselves and our organizations experience proper positioning in relation to each other so that everything moves in the same direction. A misaligned vehicle veers off from its intended direction. Misaligned people and organizations will likewise miss their marks as well. 

Instead of straying off course, tighten your alignment to God, to the mission of His schools, and to the beliefs, values, and behaviors of organizations who think and act and love as God does. 

Get Small

Last week, our Church celebrated the feast day of a modern day saint: Mother Teresa of Kolkata (September 5). Known for her radical charity and courageous service to those afflicted by poverty and disease, she consistently offered messages of love and service. The following stand as two of my favorites:

• Spread love everywhere you go: first of all in your own house. Give love to your children, to your wife or husband, to a next door neighbor… Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God’s kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm greeting.

• Not all of us can do great things, but we can do small things with great love.

In light of my own messages the past two weeks about culture, strategy, and mission, I want to scale back using St. Teresa's words and encourage all of us to get small. We must embrace the fact that the most beautiful mission statements, the most comprehensive cultural frameworks, and the most detailed strategies are only as strong as the individual and intimate relationships between and among members of our communities.

If we want to accomplish amazing things - Holy Spirit-inspired accomplishments - we will do so, paradoxically, by getting small.

Efforts to help teachers grow will fall flat if we do not prioritize the smallest of interactions with each other: returning emails, smiling, greeting them by name, following up regarding questions or concerns or problems, checking in with them, asking for feedback (and listening!).

We can't ensure dental health with a marathon brushing session the night before our teeth cleaning. We can't achieve physical health with a workout and salad the day before our annual physical examination. Both of these require ongoing - and small - maintenance efforts. Similarly, our spiritual lives, while they can be ignited by mountaintop experiences, are sustained and enhanced by daily habits of prayer. Over time, the cumulative effect of brushing our teeth every day, staying active, eating healthy, committing to habits of prayer - anything in which we want to improve - can yield huge payoffs.

Daniel Coyle, in his 2018 text The Culture Code, lifts up starlings and their murmurations as a microcosm of strong cultures built upon a series of small, intimate, and relationship-building interactions. 

The birds move as one unit because they exist in close and safe proximity to each other, vulnerably respond to each others signals, and purposefully unite to appear much larger and more powerful than any one bird by itself. 

Simply put, Coyle (2018) posits strong cultures across sectors rely on three key strategies, all of which intertwine and impact each other: 

1. Build safety
2. Share vulnerably
3. Establish purpose

Additionally, strong cultures, fool-proof strategies, and momentum generating mission statements can be enhanced by our love. Start with our families. Extend that to our friends. Amplify this love out to our coworkers and students and families and those within our communities. Love the person that God has put in front of you right now.

Keep getting small.

Keep loving big.

Missionary

Last week I wrote about the interconnectedness of strategies and culture. As I've reflected on that message and contemplated one for this week, it dawned on me that I, uncharacteristically, did not draw any lines between culture/strategy and our faith.

Foundationally, our work within Catholic schools - culture and strategy - must stand tall upon the pillars of our faith: Sacred Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium.

Operationally, our work must advance the mission of Christ: making disciples of all nations, baptizing in the name of the Trinity, and teaching others to observe all that Jesus commanded us (Matthew 26:19-20).

So, when we consider how culture informs our strategies and how our strategies reveal our culture, Christ compels us as Catholic educators to root all that we say and do in Him. If the pursuits in our schools don't lead to Christ, they need pruned, uprooted, and dismantled. Similarly, we need to nurture the fruits of our labors that stem from the Vine and graft new ones onto Him that will allow us to bear an even more abundant harvest.

The Gospel from this past weekend reminded me that we need to vulnerably look at our schools and analyze how we might "cling to human tradition" while disregarding "God's commandments."

What are those practices within our schools that distract us from our true purpose? What policies, procedures, and practices undermine our beliefs, values, and mission? How often are we "keeping the tradition of our elders" instead of focusing on the true, the good, and the beautiful?

If we could reengineer our schools and build them back up, how closely would they resemble our current landscapes? If we started to passionately operate on behalf of the missions of our schools, how might we better prioritize our work, anchor decisions regarding complex situations in our beliefs and values, and point our communities to what's truly important and worthy of our time, talent, treasure, and prayers? If we courageously committed to our convictions and clearly communicated the connections between our behaviors and our beliefs, how much more energy, momentum, and enthusiasm might we generate about our schools?

Cling to God's commandments.

Hold fast to the messages of our schools' missions, beliefs, values, pillars, charisms, and philosophies.

As a missionary for Christ and His schools, "go and make disciples" through irresistibly Catholic, academically excellent, operationally vibrant, and zealously lead Catholic schools.