Thank you all for coming. I thank the Lord that I’m in an elementary school, because I don’t have to deal with the heavy issues that high school does (joking). But the stakes of what we do are just as high. For my talk, I will espouse the virtues of our three r program, which deals with the ideals for our school community.

First of all, I know that all of us are here because we want more than anything for our children to love God and dedicate their life to Him. I want more than anything for your children to be able to continue to learn in these hallowed halls how to live in communion with God and others (now and for always) in the Body of Christ..

We parents are the primary educators of our children and it is in homes all across our parish that a large part of the teaching about the faith takes place. This is called the Domestic Church.

As Monsignor mentioned, trying to spiritually form each child is one of the major tasks given to us in the marriage covenant. God ordered it so that the parents would have the authority, responsibility and grace to instruct their children in the faith.. Our family’s participation in the sacraments and in learning to know God through the traditions and His word make us reflect the love, glory, and sacrificial mission of Jesus.

A major part of our efforts in child-rearing is to teach children to hold the commandments of God in their hearts (it is especially important for young children to learn the 4th commandment early on). It is by constant teaching and loving that the parent can teach children the self-control and love of God and parent that allows them to trust enough and feel secure enough to want to do His and our will. (quip about the obedience test: Ray Guarandi from EWTN radio: if your child doesn’t comply with a simple command, you’ve failed the test).

While it is true that a lot of us would do poorly with this test, we shouldn’t overlook the importance of teaching our children obedience even in areas that seem trivial. You would expect a child of 2 ½ to walk into the street (that is why you never take your eye off of them). But when you tell a child of 2 ½ “DO NOT GO ACROSS THE STREET”, and they do, you have to teach obedience. You can explain to them in the many times you’re teaching this (and this is the essence of building a Catholic culture—you’re teaching-- not this one area) that God needs for them to learn how to obey you. Their obeying Him hinges on their learning to obey you. A lot of your teaching moments should be spent explaining this through the
Ways of God from the stories of the Saints, Scripture, and the Magesterium/Traditions of the Church (the experiences of His people throughout the course of salvation history).

It is our privilege and responsibility to also participate in the intellectual formation of the child. There is a glorious truth and beauty that prevails in God’s gifts in nature: uplifting and worthy literature, music, sports, creative arts, friends. And in God’s super nature: Mass, the other Sacraments, all forms of prayer. We go to Catholic school because we want these truths and beauties to be our children’s dominant influence, to shine out above all else: to be our culture, if you will. In William Bennett’s “Book of Virtues”, there is a quote from Plato which essentially says that exposing impressionable minds to the negative ways of the world (no matter how you equip and prepare them to resist and discern according to God’s ways), will inevitably result in that child assimilating those ways. I know a lot of us think it is good to expose our children to secular literature and ideas because we think we can’t raise them in a plastic bubble. But I’m here to tell you that I don’t believe that we should let students be free to indulge in the teen culture for just the reason Plato states: we’ll lose them for sure.

We must remember that it is a constant battle to keep from adopting the errors of our time and for all time. We all will worship something in our lives. God made us to worship: think of how much in awe we are of every brilliant or amazing thing in nature, arts, or sports (quip about my falling away and then coming back: starting with the quote I made to my mother upon leaving Catholic school after 8th grade: “I’ll never go back to a prison like that”: now I’m the warden”). Essentially, I didn’t have a chance. There was no Catholic high school that we could go to and even the adults had failed to make Catholic culture our dominant culture (for about 70% of the families). Thankfully, I went low enough (not until I was 29) to find myself in an impulsive move to Mississippi living in a community of Christian Brothers and finding immediate acceptance and then redemption.

Again, we must be agents for ministering Christ’s love and truth to those around us. Was there anything about the culture of my youth that I was exposed to that made it for the grace of God that I would not be here today? Yes: it had enough of the mission and Truth of God to make me come back to it (pagan babies and the sisters were certainly offering something different than the world was, and I came to realize that).

But, how can the love of Jesus and the teaching of the Church permeate our school in this time and age? How can it make it so our kids’ spiritual lives go up on a straight trajectory? We can if we make the prevailing “spirit” of the school Christ centered. Expectations for students all day long (in academic classes, religion and religious services, lunch, recesses, extracurricular activities should all reflect the highest moral standard (concern for the weak, honesty, respect for others, a cooperative attitude when corrected: sincere about contrition and taking seriously the consequences that come with violation of the school rules.

The study of right and wrong and the daily application of our faith will then reinforce what is being taught at home. In the book, “Why Johnny Can’t Tell Right from Wrong”, William Fitzpatrick, points out that the secular influences on our culture are so pervasive that rarely will you see a moral value characterized as an absolute. Characters in our books, movies and tv shows are always so morally wishy washy, most of the time deciding in favor of what they “feel” like doing and then being put on a pedestal for unchaining themselves from some sort of oppression. We parents are portrayed some of time as plain idiots.

Our school should be an oasis from this kind of culture. Our school should be the part of the outside world that is an extension of the domestic church and the parish. We should all be unafraid to relentlessly pursue, proclaim, insist upon, redirect, pray about, and boldy stand up for the Truth to prevail at our school.

In conclusion, our Catholic school forms the virtues of selflessness, humility, and a spirit of poverty. The opposite of all these virtues is pride, disobedience and selfishness.

At our best, we already see students doing the first three all day (as well as ourselves). At our worst, unfortunately we do see students (or ourselves) insisting that they are the center of the world and that they have a self-proclaimed right for immediate gratification and a 24/7 platform to make their views known, have fun, or to lord it over others during every class, lunch, or other event.

That being said I better be very quiet again for a long time, lest I be accuse of wanting my own 24/7 platform.

I’ve left handouts at the exits of the Church with a list that the teachers and I have made detailing ways to take advantage of teaching moments for spiritual formation in and out of the school.