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that our teachers – public, parochial, home school, catechism – need your help?

As difficult as the past two years have been on all of us, in terms of trying to maintain normalcy and stability in our lives, trying to keep folks safe AND connected, perhaps our teachers – in all school settings – have faced some of the greatest challenges.

“Distant learning” (livestream), “hybrid” (in person and distant teaching), and social distancing requirements to keep children and staff safe during the pandemic, was a new experience for all educators, and nothing in their academic training or previous classroom experience would have prepared them for the challenges that they were called upon to deal with every day.

Sadly, for many, it proved to be too much of a challenge and often with too little support from the community, the parents, and administrators, all dealing with their own challenges imposed by the new ‘norms’!

What can we do? First and foremost, recognize that teaching is a sacred vocation – a special calling from God!

The only ‘title’ which was given to our Lord in His public ministry was “Teacher” – (Rabbi) and He declared that He was sent to teach (Mark 1:38), and ‘having compassion on the crowds of people, like sheep without a shepherd’, “He began to teach them many things.” (Mark 6:34) And so, teaching is understood as a Corporal Work of Mercy,a participation in our Lord’s own mission of salvation!

The second thing that we can do, is to pray for our teachers – in all school settings!

 
St. John Baptist de La Salle, the founder of the teaching Order ‘the Christian Brothers’, wrote a beautiful prayer for teachers: “You, O Lord, are my strength, my patience, my light, and my counsel. It is You who touch the hearts of the children entrusted to my care. Abandon me not to myself for one moment. For my own guidance and that of my students, grant me the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and piety, the spirit of holy reverence for You and an ardent zeal to procure Your glory. I unite my efforts to those of JESUS Christ, and I beg the most Blessed Virgin, St. Joseph, and the Guardian angels of my students, to protect me this day in the performance of my duties. Amen.” 

Perhaps you could use this prayer to ‘shape’ your prayer for our teachers, and perhaps you could share this prayer with a favorite teacher!

The third thing that we can do for our teachers, as they fulfill their sacred vocation, is to volunteer to assist them in whatever way is appropriate for their classroom setting: tutoring, aiding, reading to students, sending notes of encouragement, and, if you are the parent of a student, to recognize that your child’s teachers are among your closest and most important collaborators in helping your child to discover and use their gifts, and to come to mature, happy, and focused adulthood!

Again,  St. Jean-Baptiste de La Salle wrote: “To touch the hearts of your students is the greatest miracle you can perform.”

Thank a teacher today, and remember in prayer the teachers who have touched your heart!

“’Eat My Flesh,’ JESUS says, ‘and drink My Blood!’ The Lord Himself supplies us with these intimate nutrients, He Himself gives us His Flesh and pours out His Blood, so that nothing is lacking for the growth of His children.”            

                                                                  - St. Clement of Alexandria (150-211)

This Week’s Question: “Who was the Saint Louis, for whom the city in Missouri was named?”

The answer to last week’s Question: “What is the ‘Holy Falling Asleep of the Virgin’?” 

It refers to the ‘falling asleep in death’ of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which preceded her assumption. The Church of the Dormition of the Virgin, on Mount Zion, and the Tomb of the Virgin near the Basilica of Gethsemane, (both in Jerusalem), are two beloved Marian shrines. The Church of the Dormition dominates the skyline of SW Jerusalem. The Scriptures record that our Lord gave the care of His widowed Mother to St. John, and tradition holds that she accompanied him to Ephesus. At the time of her death, in Jerusalem, where she had returned, the Apostles helped John to prepare her tomb – a ‘temporary’ place for all of us, but more so for her, as things happened. She was assumed body and soul into heaven. A band of Crusader script, in the ancient Tomb of the Virgin at the foot of the Mount of Olives, reads: “This is the Vale of Jehosaphat, where begins the roadway to the stars. Mary, favored by God, was buried here, and incorruptible was raised to the skies. Hope of captives, their light, their path, their Mother.”

(If you would like to be as well-informed as the “Quiz Master” – pick up a copy of the Catholic Source Book, available in the Parish Office, for only $25!)