A Catholic Education: St. Mary and Northwest Catholic Deserve a “Look-See”

Simsbury’s own St. Mary Catholic School recently (April 4) offered an Open House for prospective students and their parents to come take a look at what a Catholic education can mean for your future – and the meaning of that idea goes well beyond “an investment in your child’s education for today” but rather implies and “investment in their future…their eternal future”.

A Catholic education is all about academics, sports, music and art – gone are the days of my Catholic education when gym class was comprised of a walk with Sr. Joseph Marie after lunch at your desk. Today’s Catholic education experience rivals that of any public and private school experience. Catholic education is a holistic education—and one that more than prepares your child for the future high school and college courses, but also for the future challenges of the work place. A Catholic education goes beyond academics and sports, beyond the arts and music; it leaps into the “eternal fields” by forming your child with the discipline of moral choice making based on the foundation of God’s Wisdom and Truths.

As a modern society we spend so much time on the pursuit of athletics and academics to build that all-important resume for college or career as if each of us were about to become the next Tom Brady or Mary Lou Retton. For most of us—who live within the great Bell Curve of life—and will may not make the cover of Sports Illustrated or pen an article in The New England Journal of Medicine, we all will stand before the presence of God and answer for our time spent here on earth—what we did and what we did not do. Wouldn’t it be great if every child had the awareness of God’s love given to them in the home, the community, and in the midst of their educational formation? I say yes!

A Catholic education obtained at St. Mary School, and further nurtured at Northwest Catholic High School, offers our children a place where “faith does meet life” in the ordinariness of everyday learning experiences, offering an antidote to a world that otherwise calls us to be self-absorbed and challenges us not with compassion but rather with a lack of respect for the sacred-ness of life and the devaluation of human dignity—things that in-and-of-themselves will form one’s decision making process, and not for the good.

In understanding of scientific advancements, Catholic education recognizes that compassion and hope are vital elements along with atoms and molecules; Catholic thought recognizes that man does indeed possess creative skills necessary to form a new nation and government but that true, lasting freedom is found in the expression of God’s love and compassion which, by nature, forms us all—and all that we do. We need to make sure our educational process prioritizes what is truly important in this life—and for the next life—and then instills this knowledge in our children.

On April 2, 2013, I buried a woman in Avon who lived more than 90 years. Her daughter, in giving her mom’s eulogy at the Mass, said that her mother had to leave school early in order to help her family during the Great Depression and that her mom always felt “uneducated” by her lack of schooling. But then her daughter went on to explain all that her mom had accomplished in her life: how she took care of her own family, raised her children and gave them all that they needed to make it in this world; how her mother loved gardening, caring for neighbors, and passed on her love and her joy to her children and grandchildren with a gentle smile and warm laugh. The funeral Mass at St. Ann’s was packed—with lots of young adults who experienced this lady’s love, compassion and felt her participation in their lives. Just be-fore the final prayer, I mentioned that while this woman might not have held a degree she did possess great wisdom—and became quiet an educator in her own right to those in the church. This woman was faith-filled and faithful, and surely she stands with confidence before the Lord. She can teach us another good lesson: a Catholic education that prizes the humanities along with the academics, the sports and the arts teaches what is most important in life—Life itself. We all should give Saint Mary and Northwest Catholic High a second look and consider what’s really important for us all—the pursuit of temporal things or investing in our children’s Eternal future?