This year’s theme for Catholic Education Week, Igniting Hope, was selected well before anyone could have envisioned the reality of COVID-19. This year perhaps more than ever we celebrate the week with a greater appreciation of the gift of Catholic Education, the gift of our faith and the gift of one another.
The Ontario Catholic Bishops in Renewing the Promise spoke to this gift.
“Our Catholic schools offer an extraordinary contribution to the social and environmental fabric of our society and world. In partnership with parents, who bear the primary responsibility for the education of their children, all those who work in Catholic education are called upon to reflect, in a faithful and discerning fashion, God’s presence in this world.”
“Catholic schools have a unique opportunity to show young people the way to that high ground; to accompany students in the search for truth; to foster in them a thirst for justice and an appreciation of the goodness of God, leading them patiently and lovingly in their journey of faith.”
As was addressed in Renewing the Promise, together we are a community that accompanies, builds relationships, encourages engagement, instils hope and forms joyful disciples.
“Catholic schools are places where children and young people encounter Jesus, and where they are encouraged to enter more deeply into a personal relationship with Him. They are privileged places, together with the family and the parish community, where our faith is handed on, and this can only succeed with the cooperation of all concerned.”
As students, parents, teachers, support staff, principals, vice-principals, supervisory officers, director, trustees – we are “Inspired by Christ. Learning Together. Serving Together.” (Albeit at present from at least a two metre distance.)
“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all.”
Emily Dickinson
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all.”
Emily Dickinson