If you are considering choosing a Catholic education for your child or grandchild, you are on the verge of making one of life’s great decisions. Why? Well, watch this short film as Tom Maloney. Superintendent of Catholic Schools for the Diocese of Lansing, gives you five reasons why. Tom says:
1. Saints. From the moment your child walks into a Catholic school, they are taking one step closer to God. The God who loved them into existence. The God who became man for them. The God who now calls them daily to grow in holiness and happiness in relationship with Him. To paraphrase Pope Benedict XVI: Your child isn’t made for comfort or mediocrity. Your child is made for greatness. They are made to be saints.
2. Scholars. We also want to help your child be the best student possible. Learning within our Catholic schools is rooted in the traditional understanding that faith, reason and science coexist in harmony, one with the other. Each emanates from God. Each reveals something of God. Each leads us towards God. That’s the reason why a Catholic school pursues both rigor and excellence in all academic disciplines.
3. Safe. Worried by woke-ism? Be not afraid. In choosing a Catholic education for your child, you have a guarantee that those contemporary ideologies that seek to confuse and corrupt your child won’t get beyond the classroom door. A Catholic school is a safe haven where your child can be, well, a child! It’s also a safe haven for you, the parent. We recognize and respect that you are the primary educator of your child and we will never usurp you in that unique responsibility.
4. Strong. When I was young, I had dreams of playing in the NBA. As you can see, that didn’t quite work out. The lesson? We can’t predict our child’s future, but we can prepare them for it. Whatever “it” may be. That’s why a Catholic classroom is a school of virtue. That’s the human virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance which are then elevated, through divine grace, by the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity. Grace perfecting nature. The result, we pray, is a young person who is strong and resilient. A young person who is secure in the knowledge that the Lord is, indeed, their shepherd.
5. Smile! Children in a Catholic schools smile. It’s true. Come and find out for yourself. What’s more, our staff smile too! Why? Because our schools are places where you and your child will encounter Jesus Christ, and it is in that experience that we begin to discover our greatest happiness in this life as well as our deepest peace and ultimate purpose. As Saint Augustine of Hippo says: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”
So, there you have it. Five big reasons to give thanks to God for a Catholic education and our Catholic Schools. In total, our 35 schools educate over 8,000 students across the Diocese of Lansing. Last year, those numbers went up by 6%. This year it’s up again. Praise God! And now you know some of the reasons why.
Want to find out more? Text DOLSchools to 84576. That’s DOLSchools to 84576. Here’s to the start of great things. May God bless you and May God continue to bless our schools.
