AMDG: For the Greater Glory of God
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hen I attended St. Paul’s there was one reality that was present in everyone’s life including my own, that being religious life. Being a devout Catholic and attending St Paul’s allowed me to go to daily mass, confession, to pray daily, and learn about my faith in religion class which has helped me enormously determine my relationship with God and has helped me on the path in discerning my vocation. I still remember how in my Grade 9 year, former President Fr. Len Altilia S.J. came to all the Grade 9 classes to give a crash course on who the Jesuits were, and basically explained Jesuit spirituality and the school’s history. It was that moment that I learned, “maybe this school takes religion a bit differently.” As the months moved on, the school’s spirituality showed when it came to school masses and the content I was learning in my classes. But a lesson that always repeated itself was that on every test, quiz, project, assignment, or quite frankly any piece of paper that came from my teachers came with the letters AMDG, which stands for Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam.
class felt like a brotherhood. They knew each other’s names and could talk with each other easily. It was this moment that I realized the same thing was happening with my classmates. We were forging bonds, like a brotherhood. Up until that moment brotherhood had been mentioned to me by my teachers, but it was in that discussion that brotherhood felt real, that it was actually happening. But as we all know the 2019-2020 school year had another event the COVID-19 pandemic. As we all know the pandemic hit hard shutting down the school, but even when I was online the school maintained its spirituality and its teachings of brotherhood and community, albeit through a screen. It was out of the COVID-19 pandemic that I saw the school’s religious spirit that had defined my early years, in action. In the darkest moments of isolation, it was St. Paul’s lesson that we are never alone when we do things for God, that really stuck with me as I struggled finding a routine in a pandemic classroom.
" But a lesson that always repeated itself was that on every test, quiz, project, assignment, or quite frankly any piece of paper that came from my teachers came with the letters AMDG. No matter what I did, no matter who I talked to, it must be done for the Great Glory of God. "
No matter what I did, no matter who I talked to, it must be done for the Great Glory of God. A glory that strengthens, that comforts and a glory that is everlasting. This does not mean that the St. Paul’s spirit of religious education ends when the school year did, on the contrary; in the summer between Grade 10 and 11 - I went on a trip with a few students to Quebec. There we met with other Jesuit schools from around Quebec and Boston, MA. In this retreat I bonded with my fellow Crusaders and learned about brotherhood. As the retreat was ending, the group sat down and discussed our experiences. In our discussion, the other students discussed how their entire
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THE CRUSADER | WINTER 2022
During my last year of high school, I was blessed by being elected as President of the Maroon and White Society; I was in charge of leading my brothers to fulfilling our mission, to serve God through serving His people. In every challenge that we faced, in every shutdown or fear thereof, I knew we would get through it because I saw the strength of not only the Maroon and White but the strength of those peoples we would help and the love of Christ in each of them.
In closing, the one teaching that encompasses all of what I learned through the religious life of St. Paul’s High School was to see God in all things, in every action, every brother, every teacher, every test, every retreat, and every mission; to open my eyes, to see with the eyes of Christ. I am eternally thankful to St. Paul’s for teaching me my faith and that the faith I hold so dear must not be dormant but lived through every day and every action, for the Greater Glory of God.
By: M y l e s c e s a r i o ' 2 1
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