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October 26, 2023
"Put your whole soul into the enterprise you have undertaken - Rejoice!"
~ St. Angela Merici
Dear Sacred Heart Schools Community,
People are always fascinated by where they come from. This is why sites like Ancestry.com are so popular. We enjoy looking back through old pictures and documents from our relatives and hearing stories about family members before us. Those stories are passed down from generation to generation and told with great love. Knowing our heritage brings us a sense of understanding that we live out in our present.
This October, Sacred Heart Schools celebrates her 146th birthday. We are just four short years from 150! On October 4th, we celebrated Sacred Heart Schools Day, our official school birthday, with a campus gathering at the Grotto. We shared reflections on our Ursuline heritage and how we live out our core values in each school. With our Ursuline sisters present, we ended our celebration with the whole campus singing Happy Birthday, led by Mrs. Schurman and Mr. Joseph.
On October 31st, we will celebrate Founders Day for the Ursuline Sisters of Louisville. Our Ursuline Sisters arrived in Louisville in 1858 upon the request of St. Martin of Tours to educate the Catholic German immigrants settling in Louisville. Three sisters arrived on October 31st and, within two weeks, were teaching students. In 1877, the Ursuline Sisters purchased “land in the country” on what is now Lexington Road and began Sacred Heart Academy.
Our sisters were committed to teaching our Catholic faith and living out the core values of reverence, service, leadership, and community. Those core values are alive and well in the present in so many ways. Here are just a few examples from this month.
We are blessed by a generous endowed gift from Lucy Lee Helm SHA ’75 that will help us grow the Jean Frazier Leadership Institute (JFLI) into the future. Lucy is a valued member of our JFLI leadership cabinet. As a cabinet member, she helps steer and guide the direction of our JFLI programs and has been able to witness the impact the program has on our students. We appreciate her generosity and leadership beyond measure.
St. Angela Merici told us, “We have more need to serve others than they have to be served.” Our students in SHMS and SHA served with Hand in Hand Ministries in Appalachia and Belize, both groups helping others by building needed housing. Living and modeling servant leadership, these students embrace our core values of service, reverence, and leadership. While working together, they have developed a community. They received so much through serving these families, underscoring the words of St. Angela. They received more than they gave.
Two of our SHA students recently received WLKY Youth Service Honor Bell Awards from WLKY and the Spirit of Louisville Foundation for their work to help others during COVID-19 - Jacqueline Teague ’23 and Amelie Beck ’24.
At Sacred Heart Schools, our Catholic faith and core values are alive and well.
Our students, alumnae, and faculty live out our values and faith each day and turn those values into actions that will embrace our past and change our future.
Happy Heritage Month!
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