by Vince Cascone
Spread the word to all you know: Our Catholic schools exist to proclaim the perfect order of God’s creation!
The words of the Book of Genesis tell us God “created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”
Each one of our students truly is a masterpiece.
As parents of six children, my wife and I often find ourselves in intergenerational conversations, debates and disagreements with the offspring we love so much but who are so different from us in the way they speak, the music they listen to and the worldview they have.
It is akin to beginning your family, for example, in Chicago and raising your children to cheer for the “wait-until-next-year” Chicago Cubs only to find out later that they have somehow slipped through the cracks in the ivy of the “friendly confines” of Wrigley Field only to become St. Louis Cardinals fans (my apologies to the archbishop).
As a parent, you wonder where you went wrong! You think of the things you should have done differently.
In time, you realize that, although they grew up in your home, the world around them is unbelievably different and will be immensely influential on them and the people they will become.
Imagine for a moment the world in which our children have been raised. They see constant images of rioting in the streets. They hear stories about the latest school shooting. They must practice in school for the possibility of such a horrific event happening to them.
I doubt any of us can fully comprehend the fear and anxiety our children must feel. It breaks my heart to even imagine it.
The current world in which we live and by which our children are seemingly inescapably barraged can certainly be defined as chaotic. This chaos is a creation and function of the devil. It is evil itself.
The goal of this chaos, this evil, is to distract us from God’s order that permeates everything he has created. This chaos has infiltrated areas of our children’s lives in a more profound way than any of us could have imagined. This chaos is perpetuated by a society that has confused the dignity of every human life with the euphemism of being “pro-choice.” It is perpetuated by those who would spread hate to anyone they see as different than themselves instead of living with the intense understanding that the Creator of this glorious universe created each person with meticulous perfection.
Our Catholic schools exist to assist parents as the primary educators of their children to know and to love God and to have a relationship with him.
For our teachers, their work is a ministry in which they bring hope and clarity, creating an environment of peace where each child is known and celebrated and where God’s love and awe for each one of them is revealed.
Spread the word!
