3/7/25 - Friday Forget-Me-Nots by Jim Silcott

Photo Caption: Jayden Nelson and Jack Reardon who both won $2,000 Charism Essay contest scholarship to St. Charles.

Dear Our Lady of Peace Family,

I have recently gotten cataract surgery in both eyes. I have been wearing eyeglasses since my early thirties. Now, due to the recent overhaul of my eyeballs my vision has changed. They say it will be about a month before my “new vision” settles in. Will I need glasses for distance? Probably not anymore. Most certainly I will continue to use them for reading. My vision has been unalterably changed. 

One of the hats that I wear in addition to being the principal of Our Lady of Peace is to work with other Catholic schools around the Diocese and even the state on school accreditation. Every five years each Catholic school in Ohio must undergo a two-year process of examining themselves and coming up with two long-term goals: one for academic performance and the other for the Catholicity of the school (Our Lady of Peace begins this process again in the 2026-2027 school year). 

My job, along with a team of other principals and administrators, is to look at a school’s goals. Are they too ambitious, not ambitious enough, do they take the school beyond current practices, and will they improve what the school is currently doing? We do not inspect the school, its teachers, students, administrators, and faculty. By the time we get there the school has been planning for these aspirations for a long time. We look at the document that articulates those goals; the end product of all that hard work with different eyes, and we talk to the faculty and staff about what it is they want to accomplish. Is what they say they want reflected in their plan in a way that can be followed over the next four years? 

We make recommendations for them that help their “new vision” for the school become a reality and truly advance their mission. Selfishly, it is great for me to see these schools, hear new ideas and perspectives so that I can bring new vision back to OLP. 

We are now in the season of Lent. Ash Wednesday happens every year. What are we going to do to prepare for the Risen Christ? Will we give something up, will we pray more often? Read more Scripture? Although I always have the best of intentions at the start, life sometimes gets in the way and when Easter comes, I find myself woefully prepared. 

Last Sunday the Gospel reading admonished me to take the “plank out of my eye before I try to remove the splinter in another’s.” I can’t say that I had the profound “sock it to me” aha moment that Paul did but it did perform an instant cataract procedure for my soul. Suddenly, I saw Lent differently. I can’t serve others meaningfully unless I take advantage of the annual Lenten journey that our Church provides for us. 

I have been a Catholic for 68 years. This is my 69th Lenten season. It should be obvious what I should be doing as not only a Catholic individual but as the principal of a Catholic school. Lent is chance to have a “new vision.” It doesn’t have to be radically different but just like my old eyes are going to adjust to what I see, Lent is a time for me to adjust how I can serve God. 

When our final recommendations are given to a school at the end of the accreditation visit, the most common reaction we get is, “Oh my, why didn’t I see that. That makes so much more sense.” Each of us is limited by our own single vision. Some see clearly all the time, some, like me, need help. This Lent I hope to listen more intently to Scripture, to see people differently as children of God, and to have a “new vision” for what I can do better. Most of what I should be doing is obvious. But a fresh set of eyes, whether they come through a doctor’s skill or from others simply making simple suggestions, is always helpful. God wants me to succeed. I want to succeed as well. 

Jim Silcott