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Dear Families,
News this week:
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Today we had a Shelter in Place Drill. Afterward, I went to the classrooms and talked with each class who was in the building, and answered questions they had, and explained to them the reasoning and process behind drills such as this. After Easter we will do more drills, including another Shelter in Place, and a Lock Down Drill as well. As I mentioned in my message earlier, while we hope to never need these drills, it’s better to practice them and know them. Just like an emergency brake in your car, you hope to never truly need it, but it’s sure a comfort to know it exists, if you do.
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This Sunday is Palm Sunday! We hope to see you at Mass to kick off Holy Week.
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A week from today is our Annual Soup Supper. This is the staff service project. Bring a bowl, enjoy delicious soup! Free of charge, and great community time! Then head to Holy Thursday Mass at 7pm if you’d like.
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Next Friday, Good Friday, is a NOON dismissal for all. There is no aftercare (ELC OR EDC) on Good Friday. Full Dress uniform for Stations of the Cross. Wear blues.
- Speaking of Blues and other misc. Things from the office:
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Communications: Please read newsletters, class communications, the calendar, etc.
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Uniform? Students need to have blues with them. We do not have extra shirts, sweatshirts, pants, etc. in all sizes as many erroneously believe. Leggings, etc. are not pants. Skirts need to be worn over leggings.
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Makeup: A reminder that makeup in ELC-5 is against school policy. 6-8 may only wear light, natural makeup.
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Absences: We are noticing a mass amount of mid-day appointments, late arrivals, early departures, vacations, etc. Every absence means class time lost, knowledge lost, experience lost. It also creates a lot of additional and undue work for many, including your children. Please try to schedule appointments outside of the school day, and schedule vacations, as mentioned in the handbook, outside of the school calendar whenever possible. As my middle school vice principal used to say “when you miss school, you miss out”, and it is true.
Lenten Reflection
“You are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by all, shown to be a letter of Christ administered by us, written not in ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets that are hearts of flesh.” (2 Cor 3:3-4)
Today at our All School Mass, beautifully led by our 6th and 1st graders, we heard in abundance, about the importance and sacredness of covenants. Fr. Kevin welcomed the wisdom of our youngest congregants, your children, to navigate the purpose and meaning of covenants. We were reminded of the many things that they are, promises, rules, direction, relationships, and we were reminded of why they are something to value and who they are between. In the Old Testament, God entered into a sacred covenant with Abram, who was renamed Abraham; the father of all nations. In today’s second reading today, Connor reminded us of the wisdom of St. Paul, a man who worked tirelessly to help the people of Corinth become people of God, helping them to enter into our new covenant, that was set in place with Jesus, and our call to go forth, as people of God and build the kingdom.
While the second reading was so powerful, sometimes the backstory helps us dig in a little more. You see, in the Second Letter of the Corinthians, outsiders were telling the Corinthians lies and falsehoods about Paul and it strained his relationship with those he was simply trying to help. In their weakness, having a strained covenant with Paul and one another, they actually believed these lies. In today’s reading, Paul reminds the people of Corinth that what he helped them to achieve, and all their progress, was in fact a success, and was working; that the best proof of a covenant and the working of God isn’t a letter of recommendation. But rather, it’s the community itself. You want to see that we are truly in a new covenant with God, that I (says Paul) am doing my job as a minister of the new covenant? YOU are the proof that it’s working. YOU are the living covenant. God’s new covenant isn’t written on a tablet like it was for Moses. It’s not written in credentials as it was for some of the high priests, who had to prove that they were believers and teachers, but never did much action, just a lot of talking. No, Paul’s success rate was the people of Corinth turning to God. Prior to Paul coming to evangelize, they were what many might refer to as “a hot mess”; a group of very lost and wayward sheep. Paul shepherds them, as a person of action and conviction, and guides them into relationship with one another and with God. St. Paul believed fully that it was his vocation and call from God to spread the news of Jesus and tell his story yes, but to model it too. As he went, from town to town, teaching all to talk and act with kindness and compassion and love when problems would arise, and to be humble and most of all-- do what Jesus did, even as he was dying, forgive sincerely. The new covenant with God, is within us. Though records indicate that Paul was likely only in the city of Corinth for about eighteen months, the work he did there impacted generations, and forged a path for believers; the new covenant with Christ. You are the letter. You are the proof. You are the letter of recommendation. Paul went through his life, once he himself was converted as a believer, preaching the word of God, and that Jesus himself was the one God sent to save all mankind. And in the end, it cost him his life, beheaded and martyred, never once denying the covenant he had with God. What strong faith Paul had.
In today’s world, we see the face of God, and proof of God’s covenant all around. And yet, we often seek letters of recommendation, or read reviews, v. just looking around, or trying it out for ourselves. I am guilty of this. How’s ___ restaurant? Let me look at reviews before I go. What about ___ product on Amazon? How are the reviews? No reviews at all, yet looks awesome-- nah, I don’t believe it. If it was great, it’d have reviews. I go back to what I said before. We, as a human race, are often people of doubt, even when we want to believe. As descendants of Abraham, we are called to be people of faith, and cast doubt aside, to believe in the covenant etched into our hearts, as Paul says. To enter willingly into a new covenant with Christ, and to look around for the proof, to live a relationship with God and one another, not just read about it.
As we get ready to enter Holy Week with Palm Sunday on Sunday, I encourage you to look around. Where do you see God? Where is the proof that you seek, if not in a letter of recommendation, that faith is a verb, an action, and that God is all around us? How do you prepare to welcome Jesus back from the desert and into our hearts this Palm Sunday? How do you prepare to share His story, as we are called to do, and as St. Paul did?
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