January 4, 2025
Feast of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton
Dear Collaborators,
Christmas greetings to you all!
I hope that this note finds you rested and renewed as we pivot towards the second half of the academic year. Looking back on the fall term, we had such a rich experience at our 10th Annual Summit hosted by the University of St. Thomas. There we hosted more than 250 Catholic educators, administrators, campus ministers, and strategic partners for some of the best programming DIA has ever offered. Click here for a great highlight reel video of the Summit in Houston.
During this past Advent, I had an opportunity to do something I have long desired to do: go on a weeklong, silent retreat. For most of my adult life, I have done a weekend retreat annually. Always enriching, I have come to look forward to this type of annual respite from the noise and busyness that can distract us from our relationship with our Lord.
The seven-day retreat experience was truly unparalleled. It was a most welcomed early Christmas gift—an opportunity for spiritual discernment, for a serious examination of conscience, for journaling, reading and letter-writing, and for deepening my friendship with Christ.
The place itself, among the newest Catholic retreat centers in the country, held its grand opening during Divine Mercy weekend in 2024. Situated on a 200-acre property, in a very remote area between Atlanta and Augusta, Heritage Center offers 24 refined cottages, several prayers spaces, including a beautiful chapel and outside “prayer perches”, walking trails, and historic sites including the oldest Catholic cemetery (c. 1790) and the grounds of the first Catholic school and church in Georgia.
We hope to have Betsy Orr, the founder of Heritage on our podcast, Follow to Lead, in the near future. She is certainly someone who answered the call “to cast out into the deep” in the spirit of the New Evangelization.
Finally, if you are not yet in the habit of making an annual spiritual retreat—even if it’s a weekend-long—I highly encourage you doing so, especially if you are leading a Catholic school today. We cannot give what we do not have. Even consider giving a “spiritual leave day”—or two—to your faculty and staff! Such a retreat offers the spiritual recharge and recalibration we require when doing the increasingly complex and important work we have been called to.
Duc in Altum!
Kyle
P.S., Please mark your calendars for the 11th Annual DIA Summit October 20-22, 2025 in Kansas City!