Dear Parishioners:
This weekend we kick off Catholic Schools Week at OLM! Students from our parish school are speaking at all Masses about their experience at OLM School. The 9:00AM Mass will include many of our school families and alumni in attendance. Following the Mass, there is an Open House at OLM School from 10:00am until Noon. I encourage every parishioner to stop by and see all the great things going on in our school. We have an outstanding faculty and our young saints and scholars are a source of great pride for our parish. Whether you went to Catholic School or OLM School or not, stop by and take a tour, meet a few students and enjoy some coffee and donuts! It’s well worth the time and effort to view firsthand the great education and the living faith at OLM School!
Annually sponsored by the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA), Catholic Schools Week is a national celebration of Catholic education and an opportunity to recognize the importance, the value, and the contributions of Catholic education to the Church and also to the nation. There are some impressive statistics available in the bulletin about the contribution Catholic Schools make to our nation, take a look and take some pride in our Catholic Schools.
There is no doubt Catholic Schools require a tremendous amount of sacrifice to continue making their great contributions to our Church and nation. They require a financial sacrifice by parishes, parents and faculty. They require a sacrifice of time by the faculty, parents, and students too. They also require a sacrifice of talent by faculty, parents and students. All done in order to develop the future saints and scholars of our Church and world. Even though I am a product of twelve years of public education, I firmly believe such a sacrifice is well worth it.
The world today has great need of the educational excellence and living faith offered at Catholic Schools. God continues to be pushed out of our society by rapidly growing secularism, new fangled ideologies permeate our educational system and political correctness runs amok as truth and tradition are rejected. Catholic Schools are the faith-filled alternative to these societal trends. Catholic Schools seek to develop virtues, discipline, duty, commitment, character, excellence and scholarship in a faithful, nurturing, safe and loving environment.
At Catholic Schools the truth of the Faith is not ridiculed or dismissed by rather cherished and proudly taught in our classrooms. God is not banned but rather invited every day by our students and faculty with prayer, devotions and the Sacraments. Jesus Christ is not just a mere historical figure but rather the living heart and true center of the school as students learn from the greatest teacher of all, the Savior of the World!
A recent study conducted for the Fordham Institute compared children in Catholic schools with those in public schools and other private schools, religious and secular. The authors found statistically meaningful evidence that students in Catholic schools exhibited less disruptive behavior than their counterparts in other schools. The authors write that students in Catholic schools “were more likely to control their temper, respect others’ property, accept their fellow students’ ideas, and handle peer pressure.” In other words, they exhibited greater self-discipline.
The study’s authors also concluded, that “the power of religion positively influences a child’s behavior.” Religion isn’t the only way to foster such self-discipline but they suggest it’s more effective compared to most of the alternatives in channeling youthful energy into productive self-control. At OLM School, each day our budding saints and scholars are taught to be self-disciplined. In other words, charitable, honest, generous, kind, considerate, polite, judicious, temperate, chaste, modest, obedient, prudent, as well as faithful, hopeful and loving! These are the virtues and discipline that produced some of the greatest saints and scholars of our Church and world!
Come see what OLM School offers. Speak with our students and faculty and I think you'll agree that Catholic Education is worth the sacrifice especially at OLM!
Be well. Do Good! God Bless.