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.

Culture is a Strategy

You may have heard the following oft repeated quote regarding culture, misattributed to Peter Drucker, "Culture eats strategy for breakfast." I don't use it here to perpetuate this deception. I'm also not the biggest fan of it, as if a ping pong table in the faculty lounge will enhance the productivity of a school. Its aggressive and convicted tone also cause me to pause.

I definitely get its essence: the best laid plans will go awry unless they align with our mission, beliefs, values, and unscripted behaviors. For example, the manner in which we convey a message also conveys a message. If we desire our teachers to communicate professionally yet inform them of this in an email with misspelled words, or at a meeting in a demeaning tone, or by revealing a particular teacher's snafu along these lines, our culture just ate our strategy. Similarly, we might have lots of strong policies and procedures and clear expectations yet not attend to the human needs of our community members for belonging, rest, and purpose. It won't be long before burnout ensues and productivity suffers.

The positive connotation of the quote posits the power of culture, suggesting that a strong culture can compensate for a subpar strategy. Get the culture right and you'll be on your way to higher job satisfaction, greater productivity, and operational viability.

But, I think we can also understand the quote in nuanced way: many believe breakfast to be the most important meal of the day. As such, culture's beginning of the day meal choice strategically provides the energy and strength needed to sustain the culture. We might promote parents and families as the primary educators of our students yet only communicate with them when a problem has arrived at its last resort. In this scenario, lacking a more specific strategy for communicating with parents and families causes the culture to grow weaker.

Culture eats strategy for breakfast because culture needs strategies in order to thrive. In fact, to mix aphorisms, if we are what we eat, then culture is a strategy. Aligning our strategies to our culturally foundational statements (mission, beliefs, values, pillars, philosophy, and/or charisms) strengthens both. Striving for this type of coherence between and among the various aspects of our schools anchors what we do in who we are, and operationalizes the pithy language that adorns our walls, email signatures, and handbooks.

As we continue to emphasize our schools' mission statements, consider the ways in which we can create strategies as leaders to accomplish it.

Likewise, what parts of our communities need pruned because of their disconnection from or opposition to our mission? The monkey paradigms in our schools dim the parts that shine brightly.

How might we build shared understanding about our shared language so that we can ensure shared experiences? Be explicit about what the various words and phrases in our foundational statements mean: how does the school community collectively define values like "hope", "tradition", or "change"?

What behaviors need checked because they misalign with who we say we are as an organization?

Since culture is a strategy and our strategies reveal our cultures, let's be intentional about what we're eating and feeding others for breakfast or any meal. As we become what we consume, may we grow into the strong, vibrant, and life-giving schools we hope to be.

The Inspiration of the Holy Spirit

The following reading from the prophet Ezekiel has surfaced in my prayer routines in a few different contexts over the past few weeks. As a new academic year takes flight, this passage from Sacred Scripture has inspired some reflections about the work that lies ahead for teachers, leaders, and staff members of our Catholic schools. 

Ezekiel recounts one of his divinely inspired visions of both the return of the Jewish people to Israel and Christ's resurrection from the dead. He sees a valley of dry bones over which God commands him to tell bones to "hear the word of the Lord" (37:4) because Ezekiel will "make breath enter you so you may come to life" (37:5) so that "you shall know that I am the Lord" (37:6): 

...I prophesied as I had been commanded. A sound started up, as I was prophesying, rattling like thunder. The bones came together, bone joining to bone. As I watched, sinews appeared on them, flesh grew over them, skin covered them on top, but there was no breath in them.

Then he said to me: Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man! Say to the breath: Thus says the Lord GOD: From the four winds come, O breath, and breathe into these slain that they may come to life.

I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath entered them; they came to life and stood on their feet, a vast army. 

(for the full passage, go here: Ezekiel 37:1-14)

I pray that this reading from the prophet Ezekiel will inspire our efforts as Catholic school educators:

...I prophesied as I had been commanded...

Ezekiel, even though he stood over a valley of dry bones, did as the Lord commanded him. He prophesized for the breath of the Holy Spirit to come upon the dry bones and bring them back to life. Two quick scientific insights to drive home what God has commanded Ezekiel to do: bones aren't dry unless they have been out of a body for a long time, and dry bones are dead bones.

Takeaways: 

• In the moments where your ministry mirrors a minefield, call upon the Holy Spirit to fill you with His gifts: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.
• When what God has requested of you seems impossible and trying to accomplish it seems foolish, act anyways. G.K. Chesterton described a prophet as someone who stands on his/her head to see the world aright. Let Christ use you as He sees fit for His greater glory. 

...A sound started up, as I was prophesying, rattling like thunder. The bones came together, bone joining to bone. As I watched, sinews appeared on them, flesh grew over them, skin covered them on top, but there was no breath in them.

Ezekiel's first prophetic attempt to bring the bones back to life had some, but not complete, success. 

Takeaway:

• Keep grinding. Keep improving. Keep working. Stay encouraged. As you work really hard to bring students to fullness of life in Jesus Christ and experience disproportionately small success, DO NOT GIVE UP. A prophet acknowledges dire circumstances, recognizes the need for God's truth and goodness, and breathes HOPE into the situation so that it can and will improve.   

 

...Then he said to me: Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man! Say to the breath: Thus says the Lord GOD: From the four winds come, O breath, and breathe into these slain that they may come to life.

I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath entered them; they came to life and stood on their feet, a vast army. 

Ezekiel's obedience pays off in the end. The bones come back to life and a "vast army" assembles. 

Takeaways: 

• Remain faithful to the call you have received to "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" (Mt. 28:19-20).
• Trust that our efforts to educate in the Catholic faith and intellectual traditions will create a "vast army" for God's Kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven. Remember that "(t)he 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" (Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, 1982, para. 19). 
• The word "inspired" means "God breathed" in Greek. As such, those of us inspired by the Holy Spirit must breathe new life into others. Allow the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to resurrect the dry bones inside of you so that you can, in turn, breathe His life into others. 

Come, Holy Spirit, come!  

Worthy of the Call

Ephesians 4:1-6

Brothers and sisters: I, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace:

one body and one Spirit, as you were also called to the one hope of your call;

one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

I have been reflecting on this passage from St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians for the past week or so. I used it for a retreat with new principals in the Diocese of Cleveland last week and in a letter to my nephew on his senior retreat. Then, during this past Sunday's celebration of the Eucharist, this excerpt from St. Paul was the second reading. 

I've acknowledged before how much I benefit from repetition in my learning and coming across these words in yet another context in a relatively short amount of time leads me to believe that God wants me to hear these words and take them to heart.  

Moved and inspired by the Holy Spirit, these three messages emerged through my many recent touchpoints with these words from St. Paul:

First, when Paul encourages the Church at Ephesus to “live in a manner worthy of the call you have received” I am reminded of that Christ’s call has echoed throughout the ages and has come to me and you: “Follow me.” Like the first disciples - Andrew and Peter, James and John - Christ has called us to lay down our nets and follow Him. There are many ways in which we forget this call and cling to the nets of our lives - claiming our identities in our talents, abilities, status, possessions, interests instead of His love for us; growing discouraged that we’re not qualified instead of trusting that He will qualify those He has called; or just being too busy, distracted, and self-centered instead of intentional, prayerful, and focused on others. 

In many ways, we have to fight to remember that Christ has called us to discipleship and that this call demands us to act like it! 

Let us remember that God has called us and that He has an important part for each of us to play in His story.

Second, St. Paul reminds the Ephesians that we can live in a manner worthy of the call we have received through our humility, gentleness, patience, and love. At first glance, this could sound a bit like being passive or quiet. But, our Lord was anything but passive. 

He drove out demons, He overturned tables in the temple, He healed the wounded, cured the sick, loved the outcast, challenged the religious and political leaders of His time, and selflessly allowed Himself to be sacrificed for us. 

Living in a manner worthy of His call means that we must live like Him! 

So, instead of gentleness in a way that might be considered weak, I interpret this part of Paul’s message to mean meek. Meek means that you have immense power and strength and that you can control both in productive, beautiful, and life-giving ways. 

May each of us continue to harness our strength so that we can put it to use for God’s glory and building up His Kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven. 

Third and finally, the passage ends with a great urge for unity with God and with others. I often like to think about the difference between unity (connected together) and uniformity (all the same) prioritizing the first instead of the second. This call for unity means that we strive to stay connected to God through prayer - reading scripture, conversing with God, silently listening to Him, and offering Him our worship and praise. This will look different for you and me and every other person. The way that we unite ourselves to Him will be personal and unique to each person (again, unity not uniformity). 

May we keep developing our relationships with Him and know that healthy relationships will evolve over time. In this way, let us stay anchored in our habits of prayer and remain open to new ways of uniting with Christ. 

Similarly, Paul reminds Ephesus that staying united to Christ requires that we also unite with each other. Acts of service, especially to those closest to us, honor our divine heritage. Just like God - three persons in one God - we were made for each other and we thrive when we unite together. As such, be a person who connects. Do the hard work of uniting with others in your relationships as Christ did. Whether it was turning water into wine, multiplying the loaves and fish, or raising Lazarus from the dead, Christ constantly united with others in His ministry. 

Do the same: invite, unite, and ignite a flame in the hearts of all who come to know you.

Let us live in a manner worthy of the call that we have received for God's glory and honor and praise.