Principal's Page

April 2025

For Christians, Easter is the ultimate season of hope.  But wait…I can picture numerous Christmas decorations with “Hope” all of them!  Well, yes, there is much hope to celebrate at Christmas time but without the hope that Easter brings, it would all be moot.  The hope of Easter gives Christmas its meaning.  And while hope is one of the three theological values of our faith, it is also one of those words used frequently and explained rarely.  So, what is hope?

Pope Francis has declared this year to be a Jubilee Year themed “Pilgrims of Hope”.  He calls on all Catholics to be bearers of Christ’s hope to a world so desperately in need of it.  The Biblical definition of hope is generally the confidence in God’s will, grounded in our faith in Him.  So, this does not simply mean “wishful thinking”.  Our Western view of the world can often trick us into thinking that everything must work out the way we demand.  If not, we have the right to go into a spiral of complaining, arguing, and being nasty to each other.  We can use the season of Easter to shift our definition of hope away from (to use definitions from Bishop Robert Baron) an “ego-drama” (what we want to happen) to a “theo-drama” (what God wills to happen). 

God works in mysterious ways.  Even when bad things do happen, from individual “hurts” like the loss of a job, or a sick family member, to global ills such wars and other injustices, we may pause and say, “How can God let this happen?”  Unfortunately, I do not have a good answer to that question.  The best answer I have found over the years is that bad things happen because, for the most part, the collective human population has allowed them to happen.  We are willing to spend more on a smaller cell phone than we do to combat disease.  We talk more about football during the week than we do about stopping hunger and homelessness.  However, there is still hope.  As Mr. Rogers once said, “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers.  You will always find people who are helping’.”

To have Christian hope is to act.  We live out our faith by bringing God’s hope to those who need it.  We act, not for our own selfish desires, but for the greater good.  In a world where hope is smothered by anger, fear, and arrogance, we could use a little “Easter hope”!

Happy Easter to all!

March 2025

On March 5th, the Catholic Church begins the liturgical season of Lent.  Now this season, along with the Catholic Church as a whole, has received some bad P.R. throughout history as a time to label us as a sinful people in need of suffering to be truly saved.  While it is true that Lent is a season of repentance and of “giving up” comforts to experience a deeper way of living, the reason is more complex than maybe most understand.

The God that Catholics believe in is not one who demands suffering.  Our God does not see human life as a breeding ground of evil that needs to be expelled.  It is so much more complex and beautiful than such a juvenile perspective of things beyond understanding.  God, the creator of all things, is not a dualistic (God vs. evil) balancer of scales, requiring suffering to make up for past mistakes so we can make it into the “club”.  But how often do we spend time getting to know the God in which we believe?

I teach 6th Grade Religion which covers the Old Testament.  This includes the metaphoric story of Adam and Eve and Original Sin.  This is a delicate topic for Middle Schoolers who are just beginning to grasp a young adult view of the world.  Simply put, I believe Scripture teaches us, through these symbolic stories of the early Old Testament, that sin, at its most basic understanding, is that which keeps us from being our best selves, the people God intended.  And the concept of Original Sin can be seen as the idea that we, as human beings with the gift of Free Will, are destined at some point to act in a way that keeps us from being our best selves.  And the suffering and sinfulness that we see in the world is the mass accumulation of all those moments of humanity not being their best selves throughout history.  Every selfish decision, every angry action, every jealous word has brought us to this point and has separated us from God and the people God intended us to be.

During Lent, Catholics are called to fast, pray, and give.  These three actions can redirect our egos back to finding the path to our best self.  We can give things up that maybe interfere with what should be true priorities in our lives.  We can pray to reconnect with the God who created us to be our best selves.  We can give to those in need to be unified with the suffering of the world in a more proactive way.  This is what God wants for us.  To check our egos and selfish viewpoints to be more open to our fullest potential.  Jesus gave us the blueprint in his famous Sermon on the Mount:  Turn the other cheek, love our enemies, clear our hearts of anger, pride, and jealousy.  If we can do this, maybe we can wipe away the scourge that suffering has had on our world for so very long.  And Lent is as good as any time to give it a try. 

What will you do this Lent?

January is Catholic Schools Month!  Historically, the last week of January is a time when Catholic Schools from across the country celebrate their communities.  At St. Joseph School, we have much to celebrate!  See below for a list of events coming up this year!

2025 Catholic Schools Week!

During the Advent season, I love to watch all the Christmas movies.  My traditional favorite has always been It's a Wonderful Life.  I'm sure you all know the story well.  A young man sacrifices many of his hopes and dreams to help his community by running the family business, and in the process, giving hopes and dreams to others.  At the end of the movie, he discovers that his greatest gift has been to simply exist and be himself, which has had ripple effects on almost everyone in the town of Bedford Falls.  

November is a month where we, as a country, collectively reflect on gratitude.  We recognize and celebrate the many things that we are thankful for.  We also exercise our American responsibility to vote.  It is interesting how these two things fall in the same month and yet they often become a dichotomy of each other.  Our political culture, and even our “regular” culture for that matter, have become such an issue of contention, animosity, and sometimes just ugly hatred.  My prayer is that one day soon our country and our culture may unify through gratitude.  Thankfulness and gratitude can often help us rise above differences, the things not going our way, or even the blatant problems and help us focus on what is truly good.

At St. Joseph School, I am thankful for many things.  I am thankful for our students who come to school each day with smiles on their faces and love in their hearts.  I’m thankful for our families who have trusted us with their children and often linger in our parking lots building our community.  I’m thankful for our pastor and our parish for their endless support.  I’m thankful for our dedicated teachers and staff who are here truly because they believe in the mission of our school.  But beyond the obvious, I’m thankful for when I walk the halls and see classrooms full of learning, joy, and innocence.  I’m thankful for looking out the window during recess and seeing children being kind and happy.  I’m thankful for the beautiful grounds of our campus, the student who thinks no one can hear him singing in the echo-y bathroom during a break, for the leaky sink I need to fix or the stuck gate that needs to be opened.  I’m thankful for even the difficult days at St. Joseph School.  Why?  Because without the “autumns” we can’t appreciate the “summers”.  Without the bad, we lose sight of the good.  The simplicity of each day, the quiet moments, the things we often take for granted can help us rise above the angry noise in the world and truly see the gifts from God.

One of the more obvious and more important things that I am truly thankful for at St. Joseph School is our yearly Auction run by our Home & School Association and dedicated volunteers.  This year, our Auction will be on November 16th.  Tickets are due this Friday (Nov. 1)!  Please consider attending this wonderful community event.  This event is our largest fundraiser and (I’m biased) just a great night out to celebrate our community.  Each year I am blown away by the dedication, creativity, and generosity of our community.  And while the auction and bidding can be fun, it’s not everything.  Sharing a meal, having some laughs, and being together are just some of those “quiet moments” that we can often take for granted.  Come join us and build up our wonderful community!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!  We truly have a lot to be thankful for….