Dear Brothers,
Update on St. Laurence College, Loughlinstown Ireland
I want to update you on an important step in the journey of assuring a vibrant future for St. Laurence College. You may recall that we have been pursuing the initiative of entering Le Chéile, a Catholic Schools Trust, who would assume the sponsorship of the College. The Síol Board [the governing board of Le Chéile] confirmed at its December 5 meeting that they are happy to proceed with St. Laurence joining Le Chéile at this time.
Our application documents have been accepted and the next step is the drawing up of the formal “Commission and Licence Agreement” that our solicitor is working on now. The Province continues to own the land and the school, but we transfer the type of sponsorship activities that our Sponsorship Office had been doing to Le Chéile. Our brothers will remain there and be active in the school. Our tentative timeline is to have a formal signing about February 1 with a school celebration of the event later on in that month. We are excited for this new chapter at St. Laurence College and ask you for your continued prayers during this transition.
Special thanks to
Bro. Tom Giardino for all of his work this past year in helping to make this happen.
A celebration of LIFE
During this season of Advent, as we anticipate the new life of Jesus into our world, I want to take this time to celebrate a beacon of hope and joy that has existed in our province for almost fifty years. Marianist LIFE (Living In Faith Experience) is our national faith-formation program which is rooted in Catholic and Marianist tradition and targets the needs of our high school students.
LIFE is based on Blessed William Joseph Chaminade’s vision for building a community of communities to change the world. Marianist LIFE provides students at Marianist and non-Marianist institutions opportunities to share faith, to learn from each other, and to become instruments of peace. Since 1970, Marianist LIFE communities have developed in many parishes and high schools. There are approximately 40 institutions actively involved with Marianist LIFE in 10 states, Puerto Rico and Ireland.
Our deepest gratitude to
Toni Mesina, director of LIFE, who for many years has continued the effective leadership needed for such a program to flourish. Read her reflection below.
A story of hope and joy
Marianist LIFE continues to thrive in our schools, to the point where Chaminade St. Louis & Chaminade West Hills have been sending LIFE Teams to two regional summer programs for the last three years. Programs grow where Marianist LIFE Communities thrive in the student body. Not only are student LIFErs excited about LIFE, but their adult moderators find community for themselves in other moderators and staff members with whom they work each summer. Many times after a summer program, a moderator will comment to me, "Now I understand what this whole Marianist thing is."
In 2018, Holy Rosary (San Antonio) and Queen of Apostles (Dayton) returned to the summer program. QAC's absence was brief at the Central program, but after a few years, the South team was excited to work with Holy Rosary once again.
In 2020, LIFE celebrates its 50th anniversary with one national summer program where all three regional programs will gather for one experience. This will take place at St. Mary's University in July of 2020. This is an amazing opportunity for students and moderators to meet others from across the Province whom they would never meet otherwise. We are working very closely with various offices at the university, including University Ministry on some LIFE Alumni programming, which we have not hosted for some time. Imagining 300 people at one summer program is daunting, but exciting all the same.
