Good Evening Parents!

After a couple of weeks off, we return with a Middle School Monday this week focused on the most important aspect of our school and middle school: our Catholic Identity!

All of the great that is happening at St. Therese Middle School stems from our roots as a Catholic School! We see each of our students as a child of God and personalize our middle school program to help them achieve their God-given potential! The way we weave our rich faith tradition into all that we do, including a stellar academic program, truly sets our middle school experience apart from a non-Catholic school.

Below, Mrs. McInerny reflects on our Catholic Identity and the gift of Catholic Education:

Dear STS Parents,

During Catholic schools week, we always thank our parents for “giving the gift of Catholic education” to their students. I cannot emphasize enough how true this statement is - Catholic education is a GIFT! The blessings found in our school are so very many, and we are able to celebrate them and recognize them because we look at the world through the lens of faith. We see each day, each person, each opportunity as a gift from God. By sending your student to a Catholic school, you participate in the work that God has given us to do. Your family’s presence here at St. Therese is a genuine gift.

Part of the reason I love working at St. Therese so much is that I never got to attend a Catholic school until college! I feel so lucky to be part of a community that prays for one another, that attends Mass together, and that shares a common set of values that guide our lives. In his rule for monks, St. Benedict writes “Your way of acting should be different from the world's way; the love of Christ must come before all else.” At St. Therese, the love of Jesus Christ is our first aim and goal. A Catholic school is not just like any other school, it is different because our primary goal is to educate toward a love of God and a love of neighbor.

You should expect something different here at St. Therese than at other schools. I do not mean to denigrate the public schools or other private schools in any way - I am, after all, the product of a strong public school system. But the fact is that we are a different kind of place. Here, we encounter Jesus in the holy eucharist at Mass, our students get to spend time in adoration, we start our days with prayer, and we see the symbols and signs of faith all around us. One of my favorite things about St. Therese is the presence of Sisters Tresa Jose and Sancta! Their witness of love for God and service to the world has an enormous impact on our community.

At a Catholic school we see service not just as a way to make the world better, but as a way to help us build up the body of Christ. Mother Teresa said, “we belong to each other.” When we do acts of service, like Sharing & Caring Hands, a meal pack for Feed My Starving Children, a food drive, or even visiting our grandfriends at Deephaven Woods, we are doing the work that Jesus commanded of us when he said “love one another.” We cannot be a Catholic school without being the hands of Christ for others. 

An invaluable gift that we can offer our students is the courage to live with hope. During the Covid pandemic, many of us were shocked to find that the daily life we had taken for granted was not a given, but was in fact very fragile. As a teacher, I saw many students and their families shaken by the reality of tragedy and the loss of normalcy. Educators tried to help students return to a routine, to be available to them online whenever possible, and to keep their spirits up and education moving along. But our Catholic schools were able to offer the hope that Jesus gave us. We know that, no matter the difficulty we face, we are loved by God and if we live in God then we are promised eternal life. That is the hope we live in, the hope we educate to, the hope we count on every day at St. Therese!

We feel truly blessed to serve at this beautiful Catholic School! Feel free to reach out to either either Mrs. McInerny or myself if you ever have questions about our Middle School Program!

Sincerely,
 
Clarey McInerny, Assistant Principal
cmcinerny@st-therese.org
Adam Groebner, Principal
agroebner@st-therese.org