DECEMBER MODULE

Enkindling Hope

Objective: LEAD Fellows will extend their awareness of Catholic virtues and consider their integral role in Catholic leadership formation. LEAD Fellows will also acknowledge the value of the “bienvenido spirit” within the Latino culture and explore its intersection with the Advent season. Finally, LEAD Fellows will establish a plan for promoting hope through individual action and leadership development in the coming year.

Prayer: "To Have Hope" prayer in Prayer without Borders

Introduction:

¡Bienvenidos, Líderes! We greet you this month with the anticipation and joy that is naturally present in our hearts during this season of Advent. In this month’s module, you’ll see a particular focus on the four practices Bordas names as essential components of leading with a “bienvenido spirit:” the transformation of mentors into allies, the cultivation of circular relationships, the promotion of meaningful participation, and the ultimate fostering of social action. We hope to draw your attention to the ways this spirit has moved throughout the ages, particularly in the Holy Family as they prepared to bring Jesus into the world. With this example in mind, we encourage you to notice how your desires and actions to grow in Catholic school leadership enkindle hope and bring God to your communities through this same spirit.

In last month's module, we unpacked the virtue of temperance through reflection upon the blessings in your life and how you share them with others. We begin this month’s module by extending the practice of temperance to your relationship with mentors. Bordas’ first tenet of leadership marked by a bienvenido spirit considers mentors in your life as true allies who deliberately journey alongside you, offering guidance and hope through their own experience.

When we look at the identities carried by Joseph and Mary, we can easily recognize how Joseph carried experience and social capital in their society at the time. And yet, Joseph was called to journey alongside this exceptional woman. Time and time again, we see the ways in which Joseph’s “mentorship” extended into true allyship through his perpetual commitment to serving Mary’s needs and working towards their shared mission. We know this is also true of the ways in which you have been mentored and we have all been called to stand in solidarity as allies with those entrusted to our care as students, colleagues, and community members.

Relatedly, the second tenet we’d like to turn to is that of cultivating circular relationships. In other words, we can understand and see the ways in which a “bienvenido spirit” in Mary and Joseph’s lives modeled reciprocity. Though they had every right, by definition of who resided in Mary's womb, to move through the world with a “savior complex,” they chose to remain meek in their presentation and to arrive in spaces with the humility to ask for help. Their actions remind us that our encounters with those in our communities serve as opportunities to recognize and share each others’ gifts.

The Nativity story illustrates and promotes the meaning of what it means for everyone to participate in meaningful ways. Think about the manner in which everyone in the story, from the lowliest shepherd boy to the wisest scholars, played a key role in welcoming Christ into the world. Though they came from vastly different places, they were able to gather around a shared mission. And so it is with us in how we work as leaders to create spaces for those who often go unseen or unrecognized in our communities.

So, where do we go from here? We know that the Gospel does not end with Christ’s arrival into the world. The Holy Family, in who they are and what they do, fosters social action throughout the rest of the Gospel. It becomes clear that the bienvenido spirit was always present with them and through them.

Being a “disciple with hope to bring” means journeying through adversities together knowing that, in God, there is a hope that even the greatest forms of exhaustion and suffering cannot touch (Constitutions of the Holy Cross). The authors of True Leadership crystalize what this hope means perfectly in their description of expectant mothers in the final stages of pregnancy (p. 47). If we look at Mary, we consider how she may have felt exhausted, displaced, and perhaps even brought to the limits of her being. We may be feeling this way after the difficulties of the past few years, or even as we reckon with the education crisis facing our students of color in our final reading for this month.

Mary, our ultimate mentor, chose to live with the hope that, through Christ, she would experience new life as a mother, and that her labors would bring that hope to others.

We live in the hope that you see the ways in which you are also called to enkindle hope through your labor and anticipate the joy of walking with you in the journey that awaits us all in the New Year.

Reflection Questions:

Consider your relationship with your LEAD mentor.

1. In what ways have you benefited from their accompaniment? In what ways would you like to deepen your relationship with them in the remainder of your fellowship?

2. In what ways have you given space for circular relationships in your community? How can you, as a leader, grow in your ability to offer this space?

3. Who is often left at the margins in your school community? What specific activities, events, or initiatives can you take the lead on in an effort to promote the meaningful participation of everyone?

4. What specific next steps are you hoping to build towards in your own leadership development in the coming year? How will this personal growth enkindle hope in your school community?

Readings

Graphic Organizer:

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