Christian Brothers High School • Enter to Learn, Leave to Serve
A MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL Dear Parents, Most of us welcome the change of seasons in November; the crisp mornings, cool nights, and clear fall days signal the coming of the holidays replete with family feasts and celebrations. Autumn brings that special holiday, Thanksgiving. Giving thanks. What a concept! For the past few months my mind has been focused on giving thanks in a new way - a deeper, more intentional approach to life with ‘thanks giving’ the central notion. In her book, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are, Ann Voskamp uses the Greek word eucharisteo—it comes right out of the Gospel of Luke: “And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them…” (Luke 22:19). In the original language, “he gave thanks” reads “eucharisteo.” Eucharisteo, thanksgiving, envelopes the Greek word for grace, charis. But it also holds its derivative, the Greek word chara, meaning “joy.” Charis. Grace. Chara. Joy. Eucharisteo. Thanksgiving. The Eucharist is the central symbol of Christianity. One of Christ’s very last directives He offers to His disciples is to take the bread, the wine, and to remember. Do this in remembrance of Me. Remember and give thanks. This is the crux of Christianity: to remember and give thanks, eucharisteo. Sometimes in our hurried schedules, full days, tired nights, we slip into automatic pilot and let the days rush by without stopping to give thanks or experience joy. We see it in ourselves as we struggle to meet deadlines at work, keep up with the daily demands of family, and try to squeeze out time for friends. We see it in our kids as they dash from school to practice to homework to activities. As Voskamp describes it, “Being in a hurry. Getting to the next thing without fully entering the thing in front of me. I cannot think of a single advantage I’ve ever gained from being in a hurry. But a thousand broken and missed things, tens of thousands, lie in the wake of all the rushing... Through all that haste I thought I was making up time. It turns out I was throwing it away. On every level of life, from housework to heights of prayer, in all judgment and effort to get things done, hurry and impatience are sure marks of the amateur.”
NOVEMBER 2014 FALL SEMESTER
Christian Brothers High School Monthly Newsletter
www.cbhs-sacramento.org
My hope and prayer for you this Thanksgiving is that you and your family take the time, make the decision, and develop the discipline to see in ways that allow you to experience God’s presence and His tremendous gifts that He showers on all of us each moment. For “at the last, this is what will determine a fulfilling, meaningful life, a life that, behind all the facades, every one of us longs to live: gratitude for the blessings that expresses itself by becoming the blessing” (Voskamp). Because when we give thanks every day, not just Thanksgiving Day, we experience joy – gratitude is the gateway to joy. And joy leads to service and passing the blessing to those in need. Speaking of spreading that newfound joy, I invite you to join us on Thanksgiving morning in the Run to Feed the Hungry event – Christian Brother’s team is one of the largest in the community, and wouldn’t it be exciting to be even larger this year? Just go to our CB homepage and register by November 4 – and proudly wear your RTFTH CB race shirt not only to spread thanks and joy, but to demonstrate once again why CB is the place to be! With a truly grateful heart for each of you – eucharisteo,
Mary Hesser Principal Domine Opus Tuum “Enter to Learn . . . Leave to Serve”
INSIDE
At Christian Brothers we see the effects of hurry and overscheduling on students. And we know you do, too. Working
together, we can promote balance and authentic success for our children, modeling eucharisteo by developing an attitude of gratitude and being mindful of the thousands of gifts daily given, first and foremost the Lasallian core principle of faith in the presence of God. Voskamp continues,“The practice of giving thanks...eucharisteo...this is the way we practice the presence of God, stay present to His presence, and it is always a practice of the eyes. We don’t have to change what we see. Only the way we see.”
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