Stories of the saints, knights, talking beavers, pioneers, orphan girls, runaway slaves, monster slayers, toads that drive fast cars, all work together for the greater glory of God—chiefly by showing that the truth is more than what meets the eye.
High School students Sarah Lanicek and Tim Haunsperger wrote this reflection after meeting with Alan Graham, founder of Community First! Village and Mobile Loaves and Fishes. The interview was part of the Catholic Entrepreneurship and Design Experience from The Catholic University of America, a program that helps students apply principled entrepreneurship to their callings in the Image of God.
With the turning of the calendar to a new year, my thoughts always turn to how I am to better myself. The typical list of resolutions went through my head again this year – eat healthier, exercise more, budget better … work toward my own sainthood. That’s when I put on the brakes, trying to squeeze out the origin of that thought.
I am thrilled about this gift for three reasons:
Our elementary through high school program has increased by 33% this year
Families continue to enjoy our commitment to providing Catholic family education in our community
We began renting a second facility this fall that enables our high school program to offer more academic levels
Our infant child care has become a successful part of our mission – improving our teaching staff to include parents of small children
As you know, our goal is to form saints for our time by meeting the needs of each family and student through organically structuring their education while integrating and spreading the truth of Jesus Christ and the Catholic faith.
So, what is next for us? We are taking these three actions to stay on track in 2019.
We will be sharing our methods of enlivening Catholic culture (including lessons from Catechesis of the Good Shepherd) on our website, email, Facebook and Instagram.
We will share our new outdoor Stations of the Cross on the property this Lent. Families will be invited to join us in passing on this ancient tradition to the future of our Church.
We will host a monthly speaker series on the moral life. You will receive more details on the speakers and topics in 2019.
This Advent there is still an opportunity to take part in our work, especially as we look to keep helping more and more people through our mission. I kindly ask you to consider including Regina Mater in your Advent giving or providing an item off our wish list to help us do what we do best: Forming saints for our time.
Please share with us your comments about how we can keep thriving and your prayer intentions. We hope to see you at Las Posadas this Saturday at Community First! Village!
Students in our Bethlehem (1st through 4th grades) and Nazareth (5th through 8th grades) classes observe and then have a chance to conduct their own experiments. With Mrs. McRorie guiding the way, the students watched in awe of the properties of combustion and expansion, later creating their own chemical reaction.
The children in Bethlehem applaud when Mrs. McRorie enters the room and quickly huddle around, eager to see what they are going to learn next. The highlight of the Bethlehem science class has been studying Newton’s laws of motion. Some of the experiments from their most recent unit have been the inertia hat, stacking cups, egg drop, wagon rides, moon craters, car races down the ramp, Hero’s engine and balloon rockets! Recent highlights for the Nazareth students included assembling balances and spring scales, Foucault’s pendulum, racing marbles down meter sticks, and their first science conference.
What are your children’s favorite science experiments?
Advent is a time of preparation and patience as we joyfully await the coming of the baby Jesus and prepare for Christ’s second coming. We light the first candle for Hope, the second candle for Peace and the third candle for JOY this week. I recall as a young child I learned from my pastor how to pray with JOY – Jesus first – “Thank you, Jesus, for the gift of you and help us to be like you”. Others second — “I pray for others close to me and those I do not know.” Finally Yourself – “I pray for me to grow in virtue and love.”
In anticipation of Christ’s coming, read Luke Chapter 2 and daily enter into learning more via Holy Heroes great resources.
You can also view this video of the Infancy narratives here: https://www.facebook.com/reginamateratx/videos/2236638863067750/
You can practice the O Antiphons starting on December 17.
What Are The O Antiphons? – Learning About A Catholic Advent Tradition
For little ones it can be challenging to wait (for older ones, too!) Practice patience through this Gift of Quiet for 3 minutes: https://www.ignatianspirituality.com/27938/quiet-for-three-minutes
Prayer of Blessing for Your Advent Wreath
Lord, our God, we praise you for your Son, Jesus Christ: He is Emmanuel, the hope of all people, he is the wisdom that teaches and guides us, he is the Savior of every nation.
Lord God, let your blessing come upon us as we light the candles of this Advent wreath. May the wreath and its light be a sign of Christ’s promise to bring us salvation.
We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen.
We invite you to check back for more Advent resources.
I had watched attentively as the thermometer ticked past 100 degrees and then 101, closely followed by 102. It finally stopped at 103.7 and I did everything I could to make my daughter comfortable while her fever worked to destroy the invaders.
“Well, she's definitely not going to school,” my husband told me while I heated water for her tea. “We'd better keep her home the whole week just in case. Nobody wants to catch this.”
Immediately my thoughts turned to my own experiences. He said “the whole week” so casually, but only once in my life had I been home sick for a week—during a bout of chicken pox in first grade. If I was walking and talking, I went to school. At most I was allowed to miss two days at a time. Now I see it was the fear of getting “too far behind” that motivated the decision to send me back prematurely even when I was miserable and contagious.
Days later, once my daughter was feeling better, we dug into her backpack and picked up where we left off the week before. As we tucked into poetry, I sat there with a sense of peace that I never would have experienced if we had chosen public school for our children. I am the teacher, I know all the subjects, and I know exactly what needs to be done.
While I listened to her little chirping voice (spaced by the occasional sniffle from a runny nose), I couldn't help feeling that Regina Mater was the best choice for our family.
One of the inspirational texts of our founding, St. John Paul II’s Familiaris Consortio, proclaims that “the family that is open to transcendent values…and is aware of its daily sharing in the mystery of the glorious Cross of Christ, becomes the primary and most excellent seed-bed of vocations to a life of consecration to the Kingdom of God.” We see this truth bearing fruit at Regina Mater through the Lanicek family.
Mrs. Lanicek is one of our “golden educators”, teaching at Regina Mater since 2008. She sees her job as a vocation at home to her two children and to her multi-age classroom of 40 children from ages six through ten. Mr. Lanicek faithfully goes to daily mass and is in formation to become a Deacon in March, 2019. The Laniceks joyfully serve in their parish St. Albert the Great Catholic Church while serving meals to families through Meals on Wheels.
Two of our eight male high school students plan on entering the seminary; others have attended days of discernment. A number of our young ladies also have expressed interest in vocations with the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary (our founder’s order).
We invite you to join us in sharing the joy of faith and fostering service in more children, men and women.
