8/19/22 - Friday Forget-Me-Nots by Jim Silcott

Photo Caption: Many members of the Class of 2023 

Dear Our Lady of Peace Family,

School begins this week. Lots of preparation and planning comes to an end as students enter the building for another year of learning.

I have high hopes for this year academically and socially. I have high expectations that teachers, staff and parents will work together in harmony to provide an education for our students that is encouraging but challenging, patient with a mandate to excel, loving but firm, joyful but serious.

Now, the short paragraph above can be said about any school anywhere. What separates Our Lady of Peace School, as a Catholic school, is that Jesus Christ and His Gospel message is at the center of everything we should be doing. Our encouragement, our challenges, our patience, our desire to excel, our love, our firmness, our joy, and our seriousness of purpose are all part of fulfilling and building God’s plan for us and our contribution to the building of His Kingdom.

There is something concrete that you can do in addition to helping with homework and volunteering your time and talent and treasure in order for us to reach this lofty goal. It is central to what we believe as Catholics. It should be more important than anything else we can do this year to prepare our young men and women. Let’s all make an effort to attend Mass every weekend. If your family attends a Christian church, go to their Sunday service. If you are not affiliated with any church right now, come and check us out at 4:30 on Saturday, or 8:45 or 11:30 on Sunday. Father Dooley gives great homilies, and they are not too long!

I know that many of you already do, and for you, I am singing to the choir. You know what benefits that weekly church attendance provides for you and your family. For others, you may have gotten out of the habit, or you feel that your packed weekend just can’t handle another obligation. Give it a try. Make it a habit. You won’t come away disappointed.

Sending your child to a Catholic school and not joining together on the weekend to pray and participate in the beauty of the Mass is like me putting on a fancy biking outfit and not going for a ride. It’s like walking out of the movie theatre after the previews of coming attractions. Going to the Hyde Park Grill and ordering just a glass of water.

“The kids won’t sit still.” I get that. “I work hard all week and I sleep in on Sundays.” I understand. “I can’t help it if the soccer tournament schedules its first match at 9am on Sunday.” I know that there’s a commitment to that team. But if you get there and you listen to His Word and partake of His Body, you will be renewed and refreshed, and it will have been worth it.

I’m not trying to preach. I’m just trying to encourage everyone to make it a priority this year. We need to come together as a community of faith, we need to pray as a congregation, and we need to show our children that, just as being on an athletic team prepares them for life, being on the Christian team prepares them not only for life, but what comes after.

“Whenever two or more of you are gathered in My Name, there I am in the midst of you.”

Jim Silcott