September 30 to October 4

Peace and Blessings!

This week as you return to your schools, after a full week of your own professional learning, I can imagine that you will be inundated with tasks that only you can resolve. Your leadership, and the order you bring to your community is evident. Your shepherd leadership, likened to that of Jesus and St. Francis, provides those in your care comfort, knowing that no matter what their need is, you will accompany them and assure them.

Your ministry as a school principal is similar to that of the early Franciscans- taking place in everyday life circumstances. Author, Jon Sweeney describes, “Francis … was a person of action and movement. Spiritual practice was paramount. He made preaching mandatory for all who joined him in his way of life, but preaching was not always done from behind a pulpit. The earliest Franciscan sermons were more like open-air discussions, encouragements, inspirations—usually while the preacher or another friar were on the road walking, beside the road begging, in hospitals caring for the ill and accompanying the dying, repairing crumbling churches, acting as intermediaries between people in trouble and people in power, and touching with tenderness the creatures and creation around them.” Jon M. Sweeney, St. Francis of Assisi: His Life, Teachings, and Practice (New York: St. Martin’s Essentials, 2019), 91.

Principals, you as well, spread the Word of God - not from your office, but in your hallways, playgrounds, parking lots, praying, preaching and witnessing. You are caring for the sick, giving out cold packs, counselling hurt hearts, and minds, repairing leaky sinks, cutting down trees, changing tires, and installing shelves in offices. You are amazing!

Let us continue to live, celebrate , and proclaim our faith as we lead in words and actions.

AMEN.

Catholic Independent Schools of Nelson Diocese

Superintendent Update

November 2024

October 2024

September 2024