Throughout the year, we present an article in the bulletin each week on a variety of topics, written by a member of our Parish staff on a rotating basis.

Educating in Faith

by Theresa Lueke, Assistant Principal

In Jack Kerouac’s great American novel On the Road, there is a line that is really resonating with me at the moment.  “What is that feeling as we are drifting away from people… It’s the too huge world vaulting us – and it’s good-bye.  But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies.  This is a line that I’ve carried with me since first reading the book in college.  It has given me the courage and the perspective to take on new challenges and embrace the Holy Spirit at work within me calling me in new and unexpected experiences.  

My recent reflections have been very different.  I have always been the one “drifting” … but now I find myself thinking about this from the perspective of the one staying behind watching others head out on their own crazy adventure.  Foremost in my mind is my daughter who is finishing up her senior year and whose path is leading her far from home.  Here at school, our 8th graders are just a few weeks from learning where they will be attending high school and every day I feel my 5th graders growing and changing.  Rather than approaching problems as young children easily defeated by roadblocks, I watch them collaborate and negotiate with curiosity, patience and greater empathy.  Though they are not quite there, I see all of them getting ready for the day when they are called out into the world.  

In today’s Gospel, I hear in God’s voice the love and the pride of a parent who knows that the time has come. “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”  It is our work, as parents and educators, to prepare our children for the challenges that await them – with the full and painful knowledge that the road will sometimes be very rocky.   Maybe it is my own imperfect humanity speaking, but I also hear the hesitation and fear of knowing that the world is scary and filled with pitfalls. When we emulate God’s love, we give our students and children a powerful gift – the knowledge that we know that they are ready to head out into that too huge world – in fact, they are exactly what that world needs.