The theme of the retreat (which came from the University of Notre Dame's Alliance for Catholic Education) was "Satisfying the Hungry Heart" and was broken down into three sessions:
1. What are you hungry for?
2. How does Christ nourish us?
3. How do we nourish others?
At the end of the day, we all moved to the chapel and had a final prayer service where we presented candles to our new teachers and to those teachers celebrating a milestone anniversary (5, 10, 15, 20 years, etc). I also offered the following reflection:
This summer for the first time I was able to visit Saint Francis Inn, a meal center in the poorest section of Philadelphia, with Mr. Sheehan, Mrs. Peg Bourque, and a group of 7 Trinity students. While I was certainly struck by the level of poverty and the work being done there, what impacted me the most was the community that existed there. Saint Francis Inn is run and supported by 7 Franciscan Friars, 3 nuns, 3 lay women, and a group of post-college graduates called Franciscan Volunteers. These groups live in separate houses on the same street as Saint Francis Inn but they very much live in community. They gather together each morning for Mass and they then go to work at the inn or at other ministries that are off-shoots of the inn. At 6:30pm they come back together for Evening Prayer - bookending their day with prayer in common. On Mondays they all get together for dinner and fellowship.
I must confess that I am jealous of what they have. These folks, who live in a less than desirable neighborhood, and who earn no salary and have little creature comforts, are to me the most lucky people in the world. They not only have amazing jobs but they also get to live, work, and pray in community. They live love and are never alone. They are the truest examples of what Dorothy Day, the great Catholic social activist, said was the antidote to the “long loneliness” that we all experience. Day said: “We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.”
Yesterday many of you commented on how you teach because of “love” - love for the students, love for learning, love for teaching, love of God, etc. How awesome is it that we all have a job (if you want to call it that) that has so much love and that, in a sense, we do as a community of believers.
Today we gathered to reflect upon our hunger for Jesus Christ and how we can share Christ with our students. We are more than just teachers of Math, Science, English, Art, Music, Social Studies, Languages, and Theology. We are also called to be Christ for our students and to inspire them to be Christ for themselves and for others.
As you know, the patron saint of teachers is Saint John Baptist de la Salle, the founder of the Lasallian Christian Brothers, the pioneers of Catholic secondary education in the city of Manchester. De la salle was a prolific writer on teaching and there is so much we can draw from him for inspiration as teachers today. Two quotes in particular are:
“Lord, the work is yours” and “Miracles happen by touching hearts.”
Here in front of the altar are candles with these quotes that Denis will soon present to our new teachers and to those teachers who are celebrating milestone anniversaries this year. The quotes are reminders of why we do what we do. We teach at a Catholic school to do the work of the Lord and to bring our students closer to God and we know that by doing so, we are touching their hearts and thus leading to miracles for these young men and women. Hopefully these candles will be constant reminders of your vocation and your commitment to our students.
May God the Father bless our work this year, as we look to imitate God the Son, all with the help and guidance of God the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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