A good number of the Duc In Alum collaborators from coast to coast are currently gathered at the 11th Annual DIA Schools Summit to share our stories, dreams, and epiphanies about forming our staff, students, parents and communities. We all yearn to create school and classroom environments where conversion is likely, where first-generation encounters with Jesus prick our hearts through lessons, prayer, Adoration, contemplation, Mass and sharing stories that draw us close to, as our patron St. John Paul ll says, to the one teacher, Jesus Christ (Catechesi Trendendae). We come to learn from each other, the true experts. We come to listen to God. We come to understand how to more frequently host first generation encounters with God in our schools and classrooms. Here I offer an immersion idea for parents and a reminder of God’s unquenchable for us all.
Most of us want to form parents and get them involved, but it can be very challenging. I recently experienced a Jubilee Pilgrimage with parents from St. James Academy, a Duc In Altum collaborator. The vice president, myself and two teachers took 50 parents to pray deeply in Assisi and Rome. Students have taken these trips for years, and the pilgrimages have been a source of deep conversion. This last parent trip was St. James’ second parent trip, and the impact of each has been profound. Sharing sacred immersive experiences is at the heart of Catholic education, not just with students. These parent pilgrimages create lifelong memories and relationship to each other and the school. Consider if planning a parent pilgrimage would be a good fit for your school. If you do, Duc In Altum schools love sharing ideas that build up school communities and the kingdom of God.
These pilgrimages, like any grand endeavor, are steeped in details and choices that have deep consequences. Itineraries and the rigor of the day can leave people everywhere from bored to clinically exhausted. Collaborators and colleagues are really beneficial when you are undertaking a grand endeavor like adding an honors track, implementing a new discipline plan, eliminating students having phones, implementing a community household system and other heavy lifts. Learning from each other and bouncing ideas off of each other can shorten the learning curve of launching a big initiative and make the debut a thing to be proud of. As Duc In Altum’s executive director, I want to learn from you. I want to hear about your big projects, and I want to be in prayer for you and the project. I would love to brainstorm, problem solve and network with you. The Duc in Altum thought reserve is so vast, and our schools love to hear about obstacles, offer solutions and share stories. Please reach out and share your big projects. We would love to hear about your kingdom dreams, and we need your expertise to guide others walking a similar path.
I want to share a profound catechesis that I experienced on this parent pilgrimage. We learned in the Vatican museum and on several basilica tours that porphyry, a very beautiful and hard purple stone, was the stone of emperors and kings. In the ancient world, it was mined from one Egyptian mountain. Two enormous royal porphyry sarcophagi and Nero’s tub are features of the Vatican museum, and the pillars of the baldacchino of St. Paul’s tomb are made of porphyry. In fact, many altars and sanctuaries of Rome feature porphyry to acknowledge the presence of our Lord. I say all of that to point out that in St. Peter’s Basilica there is a large circle of porphyry in the floor, not in the corded off sanctuary, but at the general entrance. The church acknowledges that her members have been anointed priest, prophet and king, and she invites them to walk on porphyry as they enter the sacred doorways of St. Peter’s Basilica. It is Jesus Christ’s desire that all would find eternal peace in him. Schools are full of young people seeking their identity and place in the world. We have the opportunity to instill a Catholic worldview in them; we have the obligation to form them to live in the understanding of their proper baptismal dignity, as priests, prophets and kings.
As a deacon, I have the humbling experience at Mass to prepare the priests chalice while saying these words, “By the mystery of this water in wine, may we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity.” Additionally, in Mass, we pray that God will gather his children scattered throughout the world. We know from scripture that from the beginning, we were made in his image and likeness. With anxiety, depression, dysphoria and despair at critical levels, especially among young people, we must repeat and layer the message that each student has an inherent dignity that calls each of them as adopted sons and daughters of God to participate in God’s freedom and divine life. Again and again, we as Catholic educators and Duc In Altum collaborators are called to remind our students of God’s unquenchable love for them in our policies, procedures, curriculum, activities, pedagogies, methodologies, and in our daily attitudes and interactions.
Thank you for allowing me to offer an immersion idea for parents and a reminder of God’s unquenchable for us all. As Duc In Altum collaborators, let us share our stories, dreams, and epiphanies about forming our staff, students, parents and communities. Please learn from each other (DIA members can use the listserv), you are the true experts. May we strive to create school and classroom environments where conversion is likely, as we draw us close to the one teacher, Jesus Christ.
Deacon Dana Nearmyer
DIA Executive Director