2023
It's almost that time!
First mass with Father Gabriele White was a Joy!
There was plenty of curiosity and excitement around Father Gabriele White, our incoming pastor. On Wednesday he said mass with our student body for the first time, in what was a beautiful liturgy.
Similar to Father Jeff, Father Gabriele did a beautiful job of engaging the whole church, including our youngest students. We learned about his experiences around the world, in Europe, and around the Mediterranean. Father Gabriele spent years working in Italy, not far from the French island of Corsica.
Father Gabriele told us about the Bishop of Corsica, who only prevented bloodshed between warring factions, after his first attempt at peacekeeping failed. Alas, the Bishop knelt down and said "kill me, spill my blood," and this ended the battle.
Father Gabriele captivated the students' attention by the story, and brought it back to what forgiveness really means. What are we really saying when we offer the Lord's Prayer? Do we think about what it means to "forgive those who trespass against us"?
Asking for forgiveness from others is usually easier than offering forgiveness to those who have upset us. But that is what Jesus is calling us to do.
I encourage you to talk with your student(s) about their thoughts on Father Gabriele's homily, forgiveness, and how we can all consider a little more deeply how it is just as important to offer forgiveness, as it is to ask for is. Indeed, how it can be better to give than receive.
I am looking forward to working with Father Gabriele, hearing more about his work around the world as a missionary, and his inspiring homilies.
All the best,
Principal Schoning
Counselor's Corner with Mr. Sonny
“The people who don’t like us probably feel that way because our light illuminates the shadow work they refuse to do.”
-Unknown
…or maybe our behavior towards others has been poor. That’s for each of us to figure out for ourselves. The good news is it’s a bit of a win-win. If the quote is true, that’s a “them problem” and is not really up to us to solve or change anything, and in all reality, probably couldn’t if we tried. This has been a subject of great magnification, as of late. Sometimes people aren’t going to like us and that does not at all mean that there is necessarily something wrong with us. I’d say maybe even more often than not this is an issue of the person who has the problem with us rather than an issue we need to try to do anything about.
If it’s the second possibility (that maybe our behavior towards others has been poor), this is great news because we can actually change this. It’s a rare opportunity to be able to change something we have control over, especially facing the cold reality that most things that happen outside of our own head, we cannot change at all. Of course, there are a myriad of other reasons people don’t like us, but I do think that 99.9% of the time, the reasoning behind this can be boiled down to these two avenues of thought. Someone not liking us can be an opportunity to either practice not giving our power to other people, or to highlight an area to ourselves that we would like to work on, practice, and (time permitting…good things take time to grow) eventually change for a healthier, more whole self.
Every year the Catholic high schools in our area host an Open House for prospective families. These events are wonderful opportunities for families to tour our campus, speak with teachers and administrators, talk with our students, and learn about the opportunities that we provide for our students. In our shared mission of Catholic education, we each hope to showcase Catholic high school during Open House.
The dates for the 2023-24 Open Houses are as follows. For time and location information, visit the high schools’ websites.
• Sunday, October 1—Central Catholic
• Sunday, October 8—De La Salle North Catholic
• Sunday, October 8—Valley Catholic
• Sunday, October 15—St. Mary’s Academy
• Sunday, October 22—La Salle Catholic College Prep
• Sunday, October 29—Jesuit
