Jesus

It is Jesus in fact that you seek when you dream of happiness; he is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; he is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is he who provokes you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is he who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is he who reads in your hearts your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle. It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be grounded down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal.

Dear young people, in these noble undertakings you are not alone. With you there are your families, there are your communities, there are your priests and teachers, there are so many of you who in the depths of your hearts never weary of loving Christ and believing in him. In the struggle against sin you are not alone: so many like you are struggling and through the Lord’s grace are winning!

- St. John Paul II, 15th World Youth Day, 2000

https://pms.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figura:Pope_John_Paul_II_smile.jpg

St. John Paul II wrote to Catholic educators at the 1979 National Catholic Educators Association (NCEA) Conference the following encouragement and direction: 

Catholic education is above all a question of communicating Christ, of helping to form Christ in the lives of others.

We must communicate Jesus Christ to our students in everything that we do. That doesn't mean we coerce Jesus into every lesson, program, or event. Rather this goal directs Catholic educators to help students pursue truth, goodness, and beauty in ways that lead them to the Source of Truth - Jesus, Love Incarnate - Jesus, and the Creator of all things visible and invisible - Jesus.

This mandate should inspire Catholic educators to uproot those aspects of our schools disconnected from this Divine end and plant those that allow our students to encounter Jesus Christ. 

As taught in The Catholic School (1977), Catholic schools lose our "purpose without constant reference to the Gospel and a frequent encounter with Christ" (para. 55). Catholic schools "derive all the energy necessary for their educational work from Him and thus 'creates in the school community an atmosphere permeated with the Gospel spirit of freedom and love'" (para. 55). 

If Jesus acts as both the fuel and the final destination, we as Catholic educators must have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ ourselves. We can't bring students into relationship with God's only Son, if we don't know him personally. 

Therefore, we must constantly refer to the Gospels ourselves - through daily reading, prayer, and reflection on the Gospels (resources abound to make this really easy: Word on Fire, Hallow, FaithND, USCCB, and many more!). 

Similarly, we must encounter Christ frequently in order to more fully and intimately know, love, and serve Him. In addition to being baptized and confirmed, we must also frequent the sacraments of Holy Communion and Reconciliation. This does not reduce these supernatural moments of receiving the grace of God into mere quantitative units, rather should inspire us to discover and satisfy our deep hunger for the Bread of Life and our dire need for the healing waters of Jesus's Paschal Mystery.

Like the importance of having expertise in our content areas and grade levels, we can't show and get others to grow in something - or Someone - we don't ourselves know. 

We can't give what we don't have. 

In the inspiration of St. John Paul II, whose feast we celebrate today, let us lead our students into an encounter with Jesus Christ, by proclaiming and referring to the Gospels, seeking truth in our academic subjects, pursuing goodness in our codes of conduct and service programs, and honoring beauty through the fine and performing arts and other extra-curricular activities. 

Let us point them to Christ to satisfy the longings of their hearts through our living witness of already knowing Him ourselves. 

Are we willing to become students in His class? 

Are we ready to offer Jesus as our response to the demands of this life?

He is both the Teacher and the Answer. He is the Way and the Destination. 

It's Jesus. 

It's always been and always will be Jesus. 

St. John Paul II, pray for us!

Get Really Good at What You Do

"Get really good at what you do."

This line has haunted me ever since a colleague uttered it as advice in a recent meeting. Get really good at what we do.

We can spend much time, energy, and resources in pursuit of excellence yet remain stuck in lower forms of performance.

New programs. New technology. New equipment. New facilities. New events. New activities.

New. More. Lots more. But better? Not necessarily.

Get really good at what we do.

Bishop John Mussio, Bishop of the Diocese of Steubenville in the 1950s, had this to say about staying committed to the core purpose of Catholic education in the midst of so many distractions:

Given the new and ever-widening range of resources available to educators today, some might advance the argument that schools require-albeit teachers may demand-better materials. All well and good, but buildings, stadia, desks, chalkboards, and even books do not a school make, for the teacher is the soul of the school.

Teachers are the soul of the Catholic school.

And, teachers teach. Catholic school teachers do so in the context of our proud intellectual and faith traditions. They teach. When done really well - when we get really good at what teachers do - our students and our schools flourish.

Take our own Cleveland Guardians as an example. The lowest payroll in baseball - 30th out of 30 teams. Yet, they remain one of three teams left in the hunt for a World Series Championship.

They have found a way to get really good at what they do - the basics of baseball: pitching, fielding, hitting, baserunning. The fundamentals of the game. A system built to form and develop players through coaching.

Get really good at what we do.

As we near the end of the first quarter of the 2026-27 academic year, let us renew our collective commitment to get really good at what we do: teaching and faith formation.The other, ancillary parts of our school communities - finances, marketing and communication, fundraising, facilities - need to be at the service of our main purpose. Undoubtedly, we must get and be really good in those areas as well. They matter for sure, and everyone across our campuses should adopt this mantra - get really good at what we do - in their respective areas of responsibility and duty.

Excellence in one area can lead to excellence in others. A rising tide lifts all ships. And excellence is a direction, not a destination. No matter how good we get at what we do, we always have room to grow. 

So, let's get really, really good at the core of what we do: teaching and faith formation. Lets also get really good at the other functions, too.

For our students to flourish. For our schools to flourish. 

For God's greater glory.

Lets continue, unceasingly, to get really good at what we do.

Better

Prior to 2024, any time I cut a green, yellow, or red pepper, I would inevitably litter my cutting board, knife, counter, and floor with seeds. I would try countless techniques, but always walked away with similar results.

Then, I came across this hack:

https://youtube.com/shorts/eh8znunrYSc?si=DwOeBqMYF6-LZERT.

I have experienced pepper cutting bliss ever since.

Before discovering this hack - or way - to cut peppers, my approaches varied but my results stayed the same. I would expend time and energy thinking about how I would cut the pepper followed by time and energy cleaning up those silly and sticky seeds after my messy attempt.

This way of cutting has become habit for me. Now I no longer waste time thinking of new methods or cleaning wayward seeds. While insignificant in the grand scheme of life, every time I cut a pepper I remember what it used to be like. 

Similarly, my son's travel soccer team recently participated in "Silent Sunday" during which coaches and parents have to refrain from any sort of coaching. We can cheer and encourage effort, but not offer any advice on tactic or technique. While the educator-coach in me found this exercise excruciating, it provided a powerful look at how many systems the team had successfully implemented and those that remain unestablished - who should take a throw-in, where he should throw it, where players line up for a corner kick, where a goalie should distribute the ball, how to maintain spacing, etc.

While our Catholic schools contain so much more complexity than kitchen hacks or travel soccer strategies, our communities would benefit from the creation and implementation of more systems to help us advance our missions. For example, instead of having to put time and energy into which reports to generate for every finance committee meeting, we can lean on the system in place to produce the right reports at the right time. Similarly, we can rely on systems to identify and provide supports to students struggling academically and/or behaviorally. While the specific strategies deployed may differ, the approach to catch and assist a floundering student can remain consistent - sticking to consistent checkpoints and criteria to identify and intervene accordingly.

As we continue to develop systems for reporting information, partnering with various diocesan personnel, and doing the work of academics, finances, advancement, enrollment, and faith, may we provide our communities with hacks, ways, and approaches that will ensure our success now and for many years to come.

As stewards invited to toil in the vineyard of the Lord, let us leave our respective portions - through the creation and execution of systems - even better than we found it.