First Week of School Photos
Last weekend we shared with you photos from our camping trip. Lots of radiant student faces (and one great dog in a canoe; his name is Cooper).
This week, I'd like to share with you three more photos, from the first week of classes. I'd like to show you the kind of people who teach here, and the kind of visitors we invite to mentor our students.
Up above, the first photo, you can see Ms. Tomassi and Ms. O'Donnell getting ready for cooking class. Yes, those are swordfish steaks and fresh clams on the table to the left. Why does a classical high school teach cooking and other crafts? Because we teach a sacramental approach to life, because to be fully alive and at home in the world means learning the art of hospitality, because we want to rebel against becoming couch potato iPhone zombies. Ms Tomassi appeared on a podcast recently - A True Good Beautiful Life: What Are the Common Arts? - which deserves its own newsletter sometime. But please give it a listen to hear the whole story.
Next, the photo below. Four special visitors to school today: Sisters Pia, Solanis, Grace Marie, and Francis from the Capuchin Sisters of Nazareth in upstate Pennsylvania. These glowing, joyful sisters talked about their own adolescence, of their journey in the world, of their growing awareness of God as their vocations ripened. They talked about their simple contemplative life. They invited our students to open their hearts to God and discover His plan for their lives.
A theologian once said to me "the church does not have a vocations crisis. God is calling everyone he needs. But we have a listening crisis. Not enough of us are showing up in prayer to hear God speaking." At Martin Saints, our spiritual curriculum aims to change that. We show up. We worship. We listen.
Finally, and this is the most important moment of the whole week: pictured below is our entire academic faculty, standing in front of the students, facing the tabernacle and the altar. We are reciting and signing a profession of faith and oath of loyalty to the Church. You can read a copy here. This is the bedrock, the heart of our commitment as teachers. Everything we do in the classroom is in order to be transparent to this faith. And it's essential that our students know this, that they know where we stand, so that they know they can ask any question or wrestle with any doubt - we are here to accompany them, and, in a changing and often confusing world, the adults in their lives are solid and trustworthy.
Are we the right school for you, or somebody you know? Our next admissions open house will be Tuesday, October 17, at 7pm. Please RSVP and be on the mailing list for all the details.
