It's Back To School!

This week we welcome the children back to school. It will be good to have them back in the building again. As of me writing this article we will be having around 380 kids here this year, a growth of 30 new students. In the time that I have been here, we have seen the school over double in the number of students that we have. Just to put it into perspective, the school year before I arrived, which is the same year that Mrs. Hade arrived, we were at 153 students. We have also gone from a total parish and school salary of $573,000 a year to $1,200,000 a year! Wow have we grown, and it is not just the school side, we are expecting over 375 kids to be in our religious education programs this year as well, and we are adding level one of Catechesis of the Good Shepherd this year as well.

The beginning of the school year has a lot of nervousness and excitement that goes along with it. There are the new kindergartners who are coming in and some are really excited and some are terrified. I remember a couple of years ago when one particular kindergartner was super excited to come in, but when they found out that they had to come the next day, there were upset, they thought that it would only be one day! The older kids, while they are not necessarily excited to come to school, they are happy that they will be seeing their friends again on a regular basis. One of the wonderful things that I get to do as a pastor here is to celebrate the Holy Eucharist with the kids for the Wednesday school Mass. It usually is at 8:30 and parents are welcome to come, however, this Friday for the first day of school, we will have Mass at 9:00 instead, so that the teachers can get the kids settled a bit, and the kindergarteners will not be there until the next Wednesday. However, the school Mass on Wednesday does NOT take the place of the Sunday Mass, we still have the Sunday obligation of attending.

Sometimes I also hear that parents do not bring their children to Mass because they don’t want to go, they would rather stay at home and sleep or play games, so they let them. What is the difference between Mass and school?  While school gives them an education to get through this life, the Mass gives them an education to get to eternal life. We bring our kids to school even if they do not want to go because we know that it is good for them, we should also do the same with Mass and their faith. We ourselves should be a joyous example for our children in the practice of the faith, even in challenging times. When our children ask us questions about the faith or why we go to Mass, we should help them to find the answer even if we do not know it. This is something that will help us with our own faith life. We want our children to be the best that they can be and with the help of God, they can be, but we need to help them to see that gift that God is for them by showing them our own love for God.

 God bless,
Fr. Ken