By the time you read this we will have already begun our Catholic Schools Week with selected students reading their essays at Saturday and Sunday Masses, student officers serving pancakes with the Knights of Columbus, and faculty distributing thank you gifts to our parents as they dropped their children off at school this morning.

I liked the spirit of our opening of this week with a focus on reflection, gratitude and service-three themes that are critical elements in our school culture everyday.

Last week I offered some reflections on an paper written by a Boston College theologian,Thomas Groome on the 9 Things That Make Us Catholic.  I would like to complete that list as a way to reflect on our Catholicity at St. Pat's School. 

#5 Catholics Embrace Holistic Faith, a faith that demands our whole being-head, heart and hands.  As Catholics we believe we are saved by faith but that faith in Jesus requires us to express that faith.  We require our students to learn about their faith but we also guide their hearts to be of service to their brothers and sisters locally and globally.

#6  A Commitment to Justice can seem to be too mature of a concept for an elementary school but even our littlest ones know the reality of fairness and everyone having enough.  Our older students see the complexities of unjust structures when they serve the homeless on the streets of Tacoma and witness the power of caring for their neighbor when working with the Larche community.  I was pleased that our recent 8th grade retreat centered on the Beatitudes and the Corporal Works of Mercy-Jesus's call for justice.

 

#7  Universal Spirituality.  In a time when spirituality is often a reason not to be religious, Catholic thought is that everyone is a spiritual being for we are alive by God's own breath of life.  Our spirituality permeates every aspect of our daily life and is sustained by our active participation in our faith community.  It is through daily prayer in classrooms, weekly liturgy and the preparation for the sacraments that we build the "spirit of God" in the life of our children.

#8  Catholics are catholic.   The small c catholic calls for all of us to be a welcoming 

church.  To be catholic means universal, to include everyone.  Pope Francis has asked us to "open wide the doors of the church", to reach out in love and with love.  I love the sense of welcome and joy that I see and feel from our students on just about any day at any moment-it is a grace that comes from being catholic.

#9  Devotion to Mary as Mother of God.  Groome reminds us that since the beginning of the Church, Mary has held a special place in the communion of saints.  Her "yes" when the angel came, her role at the wedding feast of Cana at the start of Jesus's public ministry and her place at the foot of the cross are all images that help inspire us.  We call on Mary everyday to intercede on our behalf and it is fitting that a statue of Mary stands at the entrance of our school. 

Thomas Groome presents these 9 things in a way that makes them seem natural, easy and normal for those of us who are Catholic.  I guess in some ways this Catholic Schools Week is a normal week too, doing things we regularly do.  We will play and laugh, explore new ideas and we will pray together,  Some will be honored for their academic achievements, fourth graders on a field trip and a handful  of 7th and 8th graders will  join the homeless on the streets downtown. Parents will hug their kids as they drop them off in the morning, we'll give thanks for our many blessings, kinda normal.

Normal and special together, I like that.