A Message from Our Principal

Dear Families,

Here we are....four days deep into 2026! Hope it's been a great year so far, and that everyone's resolutions are still intact. With great courage, I have stayed true to my pledge to consume cookies every day. 

As a note of pride and gratitude, I want to share with you a little tidbit that I also shared with the students right before Christmas Break. On December 17th, a funeral Mass was held in church. The funeral party had a luncheon in the cafeteria following the graveside ceremony. This luncheon overlapped with our own school lunch period, so we were sharing the cafeteria space. 

One of the attendees reached out to me afterwards and made a point of saying how respectful and aware the students were of the guests. When I shared this compliment with everyone the next morning, I said that it is small sacrifices such as this--small devotions of love in the name of our nameless neighbors--that make up the everyday way of Christian discipleship. Not every moment calls for a grand gesture. Sometimes, it's just a matter of keeping our eyes open to face of Christ in other people, and our own heart alive with the eternal flame of Christ. 

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Some items for your mental calendar....

*On January 16th, we will share 2026-2027 reenrollment information with current families. To ensure a roster spot for next school year, you will need to respond by January 25th. This timeline allows us to move right into roster-building mode after Open House wraps up on this same day. 

*The Priority Rank System for kindergarten admissions is changing for the 2027-2028 school year. We will share this information on January 16th.

*On January 21st, we will share the results of the school security survey that circulated back in October. I will offer some brief commentary on our path forward in this area.

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I was listening to a podcast recently (AMDG....it's put out by the Jesuits) that featured an author who was talking about her aversion to the phrase "I'm just so busy." She said that she routinely hears some version of this phrase as an easy excuse for not controlling the controllable things in our lives. We cast these things instead as pitiless forces of inevitability that render us weak and helpless. She called this mental maneuver a copout. My truer New Years Resolution is not to eat lots of cookies but to watch myself for signs of this subtle self-deception. I want to make sure I don't feed myself an "I'm busy" narrative as an easy exit from higher responsibility, an offramp away from the things I just don't feel like doing, or as an act of quick surrender to forces I'm pretending are beyond my control but really aren't. 

A slight variation on this same theme is captured in this 1974 quote from eminent physicist Richard Feynman: "The first principle is that you must not fool yourself---and you are the easiest person to fool."

I think this line from the Prayer of St. Dominic is a punchy antidote to whatever inbuilt tendencies we have towards spiritual blindness:

 "May God the Holy Spirit move within us and give us eyes to see with, ears to hear with, and hands that your work might be done."

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As you may have heard, Sarah Seals (PreK aide and 4th grade teacher-in-waiting, as well as operator of Farmhouse Blooms in Oxford) lost her greenhouse and some chickens in a major barn fire a few days ago. I know people are looking for ways to help. 

I will report back with more info soon. 

Christ in Self. Christ in Other. 

Sincerely,

Josh

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