OH COME LET US ADORE HIM

Dear Saint John’s School Families,

Saint John’s students had a new and special experience this week!  While going to Adoration has been on 2^nd-8^th graders Thursday afternoon schedules for many years, this week was extraordinary.  Our children were “wowed” when their class entered Saint John the Evangelist’s new Adoration Chapel for the first time. 

Classroom instruction and discussions before and after the students’ visits to the Adoration Chapel perhaps took on new meaning.  Students responded, “Eucharistic adoration is a practice in the Roman Catholic Church in which the Blessed Sacrament is exposed and adored.  Adoration differs from other acts of worship. Adoration (Latin) is respect, reverence, devotion. The term comes from the Latin adoratio, meaning “to give homage or worship”.  Adoration is the first attitude of man acknowledging that he is a creature before his Creator.  Students learned  that Perpetual adoration is a Eucharistic devotion whereby members of a given parish, (now Saint John the Evangelist Parish) unite in taking hours of adoration before the Most Blessed Sacrament 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Other remarks were so powerful coming from the mouths of our youth, “Today adoration made me feel so much closer to God.”  “I felt peaceful”.  “It was awesome”. “I prayed for my Grandpa”.  Several indicated that it wasn’t their first visit to the Chapel.  They had come with their parents before.  Students remembered that they had helped raise $’s to build this very special place on our campus. Father Frank continues to encourage parents and all of us to take time from our daily lives to go to the Chapel, and bring our children with us.

Have a safe, fun and relaxing spring break.  Maybe a visit to the Adoration chapel? 

Shalom,

Mrs. Schmitt

 

UNIVERSAL CALL TO PRAYER

                 UNIVERSAL CALL TO PRAYER                      

Dear Saint John’s School Families, 

On the forty days and forty nights of Lent beginning on Ash Wednesday, we are all called to Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving.  Father Frank and Father Sam are leading us in this     challenge.  Our students at Saint Johns were each given a form asking them to promise Jesus to do three things during Lent in these areas of Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving. 

Father Sam’s homily during our Thursday School Mass specifically focused on Prayer .  He taught us about the different kinds of prayer:  I. Prayer of Praise II. Prayer of Adoration  III. Prayer of Contrition (Penitence, sorrow for sins or faults)  IV.  Prayer of Thanksgiving  V.  Prayer of Supplication (asking earnestly and humbly).  To help us remember, we were asked to use the letters of PACTS ( our agreements or contracts) to pray during lent. 

Today, Friday, our staff development day, Saint John’s faculty attended a catechetical class on the Pillar IV.  i.e. Prayer.  I would like to share some of the nuggets received during this class.

The central question:  What is prayer? 

Some definitions:  “Prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God”   St. John Damascene, CCC25591.

“For me, prayer is the surge of heart, it is a simple look toward heaven, it is a cry of    recognition of love, embracing both trial and joy.”  (St. Therese of the Child Jesus)

Pray without ceasing-1 Thes 5:17

Yet, we fail to do it-Why?

“Let’s now at any rate come clean. Prayer is irksome. An excuse to omit it is never unwelcome. When it is over, this casts a feeling of relief and holiday over the rest of the day.  We are reluctant to begin.  We are delighted to finish.  While we are at prayer, but not while we are reading a novel or solving a crossword puzzle, any trifle is enough to distract us. And, we know that we are not alone in this,”  C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer

“Man, on the whole, does not enjoy prayer.”  --Romano Guardini

Saints seem to do it effortlessly, right?  Always for joy and consolation, visions and voices-that’s for them and not for me.

Where does prayer starts?    With God, calling us into a relationship with him.

Prayer is a “Hallmark” of Saint John’s Catholic School.

Shalom,

Lois Schmitt