Excelling in Education
Heart, Mind and Spirit.
This theme for this Catholic Education Week (Excelling in Education Heart, Mind and Spirit) goes to the heart of what Catholic Education is about if it is looked at the right way. The word that might let us astray is the word ‘excelling’. In the pursuit of excellence, we can too easily treat life like an Olympic race where virtually all praise goes to the gold medal winner – as for place-getters, who cares! Even if we prize ‘Personal Bests’, God isn’t really interested in them because we are then competing against ourselves and when we don’t beat our previous goal, we often beat ourselves up.
The excellence we are promoting in this week is the excellence that God desires for our lives. We invite God to come and love within our hearts that we may show the extraordinary courteous love which Jesus showed. We invite God to guide our thoughts and imagination so that our minds grow in awe and wonder of the world in which we live. We invite God’s Spirit to guide our lives, so that buoyed up, we can face the life’s challenges and difficulties with hope.
When our hearts, minds and spirits are shaped by this excellent God, all the other things that we would like from Catholic Education fall naturally into place: pursuit of academic excellence, enjoyment in sport, love of art and culture, personal discipline.
Loving God, enter our hearts, minds and spirits. May your Spirit lift us up in love that we may show the life of Jesus to our family, friends and community. We ask this in Jesus’ name, confident that you will hear us.
Sr Kym Harris osb