Happy Twenty-First Sunday! Well, after a summer’s worth of rest and recreation, I’m excited that our new school year officially gets underway on Tuesday morning.  Teachers arrived back to campus this past week in preparation for all the energy that our kiddos will bring with them. I remember growing up how fun it was to do the official school shopping trip with Mom. New folders, spiral notebooks, pencils, black and red pens, markers, erasers—it was like a mini Christmas at the end of summer.

I’m feeling very hopeful for this school year, and I know that our principal, Sarah, feels the same. One of our common conversations is about the most important decision we can make as school leaders, which is, simply, deciding what kind of community we will be. Everything else we do in life flows from a clear vision of our community identity. Sarah and I feel very strongly that long-term school health, the flourishing of our children, our families, and our staff, has to be rooted in our community identity as disciples of Jesus Christ walking the way of salvation.

The point of Catholic education is salvation. The reason for being a Catholic school teacher is salvation. The purpose for sending a child to a Catholic school is for their salvation. Nothing we do ultimately serves our good or the good of our kids if it is not rooted in and directed toward our salvation. So, Sarah and I spend a lot of time thinking about and praying about how we can support and form our teachers as a community of disciples. How we can lead our families to more faithful discipleship. How we are striving to raise up our children into saints. Knowing clearly who I am and what I’m here to do shapes my view of the child, parent, and teacher I see in front of me.

This is why, in my experience, Catholic education is so good and at the same time so hard. To be the kind of community that raises up young saints requires priests, principals, teachers, and parents to all be striving for sainthood. Our school will only be as healthy, collectively, as we are individually striving to be holy. God can do great things with St. Robert School, and I want to be a part of that mission. But I can’t be dead weight; I have to do my part to grow in holiness and walk with others who are striving for the same goal.

So, pray for our school, if you would. Pray for our teachers and our parents, pray for our kids. Pray for your pastor.  Pray for divine protection and provenance, for minds and hearts open to God’s plan for our lives. May we know who we are in Jesus Christ, and may our kids discover who they are in Jesus Christ. May our education of their minds, bodies, and spirits lead them along the way of salvation.

From Fr. Brian