PRINCIPAL’S LETTER

As I sit down to write this letter, I am thinking about the Christmas season -- a time in which we welcome God’s great gift to us all, the Gift of His Son Jesus.

At Chaminade, this is a particularly joyous time, for we are Marianists, and as Marianists we join in Mary’s mission of saying Yes to God with the hope of bringing Christ into the World.

There are times when I am asked what it means to be a Marianist, and there are many ways to answer this question, but I think, for me, to be a Marianist is to live its charism. Sometimes we like to say that a person is “charismatic,” suggesting they are attractive or persuasive or captivating, but a charism does not require us to be any of those things, or to be anything at all . . . except for the person that God made us to be. A charism is a gift, one given by God, and a means for experiencing Him.

We all have gifts and talents and dispositions and ways of expressing ourselves, and when we express our best selves, our truest and most genuine selves, we come closest to understanding our purpose, God’s plan for us.

This is why we look to Mary, our Mother, as our Model of Faith and Discipleship. She said Yes to God, and from her assent, she brought us Jesus.

The Marianist charism asks us to do the same – to say Yes to God, to join Mary in her mission of bringing Christ into the world, and to heed Mary’s fiat to “do whatever He tells you.”

At Chaminade, we live our mission through a process of education which prioritizes prayer and reflection, but also action. We discern our gifts not only in our pondering but also in the ways in which we serve –the ways we use our gifts to further God’s reign.

We are blessed at Chaminade with an extraordinary faculty and staff who both understand and live the Marianist charism, and who bring energy to the several programs which are animated by the charism.

Our Curriculum and Pathway to Access College Early Program (PACE) provide exceptional opportunities for our students to discover their gifts and to realize their abilities; our Marianist Life Community (MLC) is achieving astonishing participation; our House System continues to be a model for developing student leaders consistent with Father Chaminade’s vision for evangelization through small faith communities; our assessment week encourages students not only to answer, but also to reflect, create, present, and respond to feedback; our experiential education program and class trips encourage students to learn beyond the boundaries of the classroom; our Resident Program helps foster a culture of diversity, inclusivity, and encounter; our sustainability efforts and our diversity initiatives encourage us to place the value and dignity of the Human Person at the center of every formal and informal educational process; our service work helps us to work for the good of the whole human family; our Athletic programs allow us to grow in teams and as individuals through a spirit of healthy competition and sportsmanship.

We continue to live our Marianist charism, to identify and develop the gifts of each member of our community, and to do so in a spirit of family.

Please pray for us as we strive to live out our mission and charism at Chaminade, as we educate for college and life, and as we develop the inherent gifts and inherent goodness of all our young men.

Yours in Catholic Marianist Education, Brett

Desnoyer, Ed.D. Associate Principal -- Mission and Instruction