Where there are religious there is joy

As you may know, Pope Francis declared a Year of Consecrated Life from November 2014-February 2016.  This year was set apart to celebrate the work of women and men religious and to thank them for their vocations.  Last spring, as part of this Year, we sent notes to every woman religious in the Diocese of Manchester.  The students thanked them for saying yes to God's call and for serving our local Church.  This week we sent out similar notes to all of the men religious in the diocese.  Sadly, there are less than 60 of them and many of them are the monks from Saint Anselm Abbey.  But, it was a chance for us to let them all know how grateful we are to them and for their many years of service.  

We are going to conclude the Year of Consecrated Life by inviting the local religious communities, especially the ones from orders who taught in our Catholic schools, to our Catholic Schools Week Mass in February.  

We of course also formally launched our 3-year discernment period with the Christian Brothers this fall, a very fortuitous time.  Speaking of which, the order is holding its annual Huether Conference in Chicago this weekend.  The conference is an opportunity for educators from Lasallian schools from around the country to come together to discuss and learn about innovations in education.  Mr. Maurier '72 of our science department and Mr. Nunnally of our theology department are attending the conference on behalf of Trinity. Ironically, Mr. Maurier is the most senior teacher on our staff and Mr. Nunnally is the most junior.  We look forward to hearing about the conference at our next faculty meeting in December.