Viking Voice

A Message from Our Principal

Dear Families,

1) We talked to our students this past week about the three pillars of Lent: praying, fasting, and almsgiving.

While these actions should not be confined to the Lenten season, they do assume an elevated significance during these 40 days leading up to Easter Sunday.

Why?

Because Lent is about loving sacrifice. It is about acknowledging that Jesus' suffering and death was motivated by a supreme sort of Love that surpasses human understanding. It is about recognizing and holding firmly in the forefront of our distracted minds the fundamental truth that God is Love and Love is God, and that we are called to live within this Love all of our days. It is also about living the humble truth that this higher Love is often found on the flip side of softness and ease. 

Sacrifice implies a certain amount of discomfort. It might involve some pain. Maybe even suffering. During Lent, we seek to join ourselves to a way of Love that requires sacrifice. There is a Good Friday ritual in a part of the Philippines in which people voluntarily submit to being nailed to a cross as a form of devotion to Jesus' own suffering. While the Catholic Church rejects this practice for excellent reasons, it's still possible to understand what these folks might be trying to do---to reenact the conquest of sin and death, and triumph of Love, that we experience in the Eucharist. 

On Wednesday of this week, Mr. Jeff Gambrell from Serve City will be making his annual visit to Queen of Peace to speak with our students about an opportunity for sacrifice. More details on this soon.

2) On Tuesday of this week, second trimester report cards will be coming home in the blue folders, along with winter MAP score reports, a flyer about the Book Fair (which is being held in March this year), and a document that explains the more deliberate way we have begun assessing our students in the 5 Catholic Learner Behaviors you see on the report card.

3) Following staff conversations, a survey of the staff, a survey of parents, and analyses of the survey data, we have arrived at some action steps for improving school security. In no particular order:

a. forming a security committee,

b. purchasing more radios for staff,

c. adding bollards to the east end of the school building, and

d. applying tint to windows in the cafeteria and Pre3 room.

If you are reading this list and find it underwhelming in its scope or disappointing in its focus, please understand that the list does not represent the sum total of the security measures we will take in the months and years to come. Future measures will become the domain of the security committee. I will share more information about this committee in the near future.

Christ in Self. Christ in Other. 

Sincerely,

Josh

Mother/Son Event

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