Sharing the Good News
Congrats to the 6-8 boys basketball team, who won their semifinal game against New Boston today by a score of 42 – 39. The Knights will now play in the championship game on Saturday, February 18th. Tip off is at 10:30am at the St. Paul’s gymnasium in Franklin. GO KNIGHTS! Our Lady of Victory, pray for us!
Please come and support the Knights tomorrow (2/14), as the 6-8 boys basketball team hosts the first ever home playoff game in the new St. Joseph’s Center. The Knights of Our Lady finished in 4th place out of 22 teams. We are asking fans to wear red in support of the boys! We look forward to seeing you tomorrow for a 6:00pm tip of.
Congratulations on the return season of the 6-8 girls basketball team. This Knights squad improved tremendously over the course of the season. We are so proud of you girls! You should be proud of your effort!
Several activities are planned to celebrate Catholic Schools Week from Jan. 30-Feb. 3. On Monday, Mass will be celebrated in the morning and students will gather to do puzzles together in the afternoon. On Tuesday afternoon, each class will send two representatives to a school-wide spelling bee where we will all cheer on our classmates. Essays for our Catholic Schools Week essay contest will be due on Wednesday; students have also been working with Mrs. Dwyer to complete posters for a poster contest. The ski program will also be held on Wednesday. On Thursday, students will get together in the afternoon to make cards for seminarians in the Diocese of Manchester. On Friday we will wrap up Catholic Schools Week. The upper and lower school will eat lunch together and Mr. Thibault will announce the winners of the essay and poster contests. That afternoon, a sledding party is scheduled. Thank you to HASA for providing hot chocolate and treats!
Today, the Upper School students begin their annual witness to the culture of life. MRA is blessed to have a full bus of students and youth traveling down to Washington D.C. in order to increase awareness for the sanctity of all human life. Please pray for the safety of our students, and also that through our collective spiritual sacrifices, political leaders will be open to God’s inspiration to ensure that all life is protected, from conception until natural death.
A reflection on why the MRA community embarks upon this spiritual pilgrimage can be found here.
Below are videos from Fr. Robert Barron that articulately and persuasively explain the motives and parameters behind the culture of life movement.
Discovering Mount Royal’s presence in unexpected and unknown locations is very exciting, especially when our school appears on another blog!
Yesterday we were privileged to host Brother Rene of the Marist order on our campus. Br. Rene spoke with Upper School students about the founder and inspiration of his order.
Marist brothers are a reminder of the power and influence of the Catholic tradition in the education and formation of youth.
We invite you to read Br. Rene’s illustrative and powerful reflection on the benefits of saying yes, no matter how much it costs. True freedom is found in following the will of Jesus!
Merry Christmas! It may sound like I am too late to be wishing you a Merry Christmas, however, it is important to remember that the Christmas Season begins on Christmas Day.
“The Christmas season begins with the celebration of the birth of Jesus, Christmas day, or as a vigil on Christmas Eve. The Feast of Christmas lasts 12 days, until Epiphany. However, the time from Epiphany until the Baptism of the Lord is also included in the Christmas season. Traditionally, Epiphany had been fixed to January 6th, and the Baptism celebrated on the octave of Epiphany, which was January 13th. In most countries, the Epiphany is now celebrated on the Sunday closest to January 6th, and the Baptism celebrated the following Sunday.” (http://www.aquinasandmore.com/catholic-articles/the-catholic-liturgical-year/article/208)
It is interesting to me that the culture is just the opposite as many end their celebrating by Christmas Day. All the Christmas parties have been had, the cards have been received, the after Christmas sales are in full swing, and the trees are on the curb. The Good News is that we have another week to celebrate. A nice idea would be to have a party or start a new tradition this weekend for the feast the Epiphany this Sunday, January 8, 2012.
With this said I also have exciting news to share. The week of January 30, 2012 will begin the process for taking down the Upper School in preparation for our new classroom building to be completed by August 2012. The new building will be two stories and will include larger classrooms for the Pre-K and Kindergarten, an adoration chapel, and classrooms for 1st – 8th grades. Jr. High and High School students will have classes in the St. Joseph’s Center and the Lower School for the remainder of the year. We are very thankful for the Broom family and their generosity to Mount Royal Academy giving this new building to us. Please join me in thanking them and praying for them and their intentions.
God Bless your families and Merry Christmas!
David A. Thibault
Headmaster
January 1st is a treasured and solemn day in the liturgical calendar, for it is the day when the universal Church honors the special role of the Holy Mother of God, which is especially fitting as we continue our celebration of Christmas day.
January 1st is also an important day in the secular calendar, as it marks the beginning of a new year. Pope John Paul II sought to engage the culture by capitalizing on the natural rhythm of the secular calendar, using January 1st as an opportunity to teach about peace and justice. Every new beginning includes an internal inclination within the human spirit for greater peace and justice in our lives.
Pope Benedict selected the following theme for the January 1st, 2012 message: “Educating Young People in Justice and Peace”.
As we gear up to return back to our academic schedules in the new year, the words of Pope Benedict can help us channel our focus and energies on the purpose of education. At Mount Royal, educators and parents collaborate to not only inform youth, but more importantly form our children to recognize the transcendent origin and purpose of human life. In a culture that elevates freedom to the supreme virtue, we continue to cling to truth that directs human freedom towards its ultimate goal.
To all, and to young people in particular, I wish to say emphatically: “It is not ideologies that save the world, but only a return to the living God, our Creator, the guarantor of our freedom, the guarantor of what is really good and true … an unconditional return to God who is the measure of what is right and who at the same time is everlasting love. And what could ever save us apart from love?” Love takes delight in truth, it is the force that enables us to make a commitment to truth, to justice, to peace, because it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (cf. 1 Cor 13:1-13).
Dear young people, you are a precious gift for society. Do not yield to discouragement in the face of difficulties and do not abandon yourselves to false solutions which often seem the easiest way to overcome problems. Do not be afraid to make a commitment, to face hard work and sacrifice, to choose the paths that demand fidelity and constancy, humility and dedication. Be confident in your youth and its profound desires for happiness, truth, beauty and genuine love! Live fully this time in your life so rich and so full of enthusiasm.
Realize that you yourselves are an example and an inspiration to adults, even more so to the extent that you seek to overcome injustice and corruption and strive to build a better future. Be aware of your potential; never become self-centred but work for a brighter future for all. You are never alone. The Church has confidence in you, follows you, encourages you and wishes to offer you the most precious gift she has: the opportunity to raise your eyes to God, to encounter Jesus Christ, who is himself justice and peace.
All you men and women throughout the world, who take to heart the cause of peace: peace is not a blessing already attained, but rather a goal to which each and all of us must aspire. Let us look with greater hope to the future; let us encourage one another on our journey; let us work together to give our world a more humane and fraternal face; and let us feel a common responsibility towards present and future generations, especially in the task of training them to be people of peace and builders of peace. With these thoughts I offer my reflections and I appeal to everyone: let us pool our spiritual, moral and material resources for the great goal of “educating young people in justice and peace”.
Merry Christmas
As I was sitting spellbound in our new building last evening at the ‘18th annual Mount Royal Christmas Pageant’, my thoughts were immediately brought to just how far we have come from the ’1st annual Mount Royal Christmas Pageant’. But have we?
On my way to the office this morning after dropping off my nine year old at MRA, my thoughts went back to the early formative days of MRA. We had very humble beginnings to say the least. MRA occupied a wing of an old hospital building. The patient’s rooms were the classrooms. The newborn nursery was the office. The hallway was the site of the first pageant. At that first pageant the kids sang, kids dressed up to emulate the holy family, parents were snapping pictures, teachers were scurrying around watching over their little cherubs, directing, guiding like dutiful teachers. Then the climactic end to the pageant the baby Jesus was placed in a make-shift manger. Christ was born! Everyone in attendance say “Yay”, in a school no less. Wow my kids could profess the faith without fear of reprisal. This school thing could work? Maybe? Hopefully?
Last night’s pageant was in a sparking new building with microphones, comfortable seats, ten times the amount of people in attendance. Wow! Guess what, the kids sang, dressed up to emulate the holy family, parents were snapping pictures, and teachers were scurrying around watching over their little cherubs, directing, guiding like dutiful teachers. Then the climactic end to the pageant the baby Jesus was placed in a make-shift manger. Christ was born! This school thing is working! It is safe to say that Jesus, Mary and Joseph were at the center of MRA at the beginning and they remain with us today. We are even blessed with the True Presence of the Lord. Is it any wonder that this school thing is working?
I was blessed to have four children participate in the pageant last evening. My seventeen year old daughter Mary, who was a recent graduate from MRA, directed the choral portion of the program, and three of her brothers performed. A proud Dad and Mom moment to be sure. Huh, this school thing works!
In Jesus, Mary and Joseph
Fred Bocko
Please check us out on facebook and “like” our page.
The facebook page offers daily announcements concerning school events, and it is also an amazing networking tool to communicate the mission of Mount Royal Academy.
The core of the social studies curriculum at MRA is the study of our own nation’s founding, and the positive values that instigated the revolution of the colonists against the British. Enduring ideas such as respect for human dignity, freedom for the good, religious tolerance, and the natural law inspired the colonists to act. In the French Revolution, rebels were inspired by a different set of core values – values associated with the philosophy of the Enlightenment – which ultimately led to immoral and poor actions on behalf of those leading the revolution.
We challenge students to discover the relationship between ideas and actions when detecting causes or reasons behind historical events, largely because ideas are so powerful.
Below is a creative writing assignment from an anonymous student in the Junior High which illustrates the use of the skill quite nicely. Students were challenged to write a first person account of a priest who experienced the dangerous and revolutionary policies instituted by the French in the 18th century. This student wonderfully integrated the historical situation into an authentic and deeply personal recounting of the events that shocked all of Europe.
August 24th, 1790
Oh-my-goodness, the country’s so-called wonderful National Assembly tricked King Louis into doing something unintelligent again! That is right, our weak king signed the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, which basically states that the Pope has absolutely no authority in the French church. Our catholic king as signed this? And now, him and the whole assembly expect all of us religious to sign an oath of loyalty to this terrible document. I think our government has gone a little crazy!
August 29th, 1790
Dear God, there are times that I am more than a little upset and confused, times when I wonder if you really love me as much as you do. For instance, today when Mr. Talleyrand called me a “chicken” in front of all my fellow priests because I refused to sign the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. Please Lord, help me!
September 3rd, 1790
My life just got a lot harder. I just got moved to the parish down the hill because their priest is in jail for refusing to sign the Civil Constitution. It is extremely hard to remain faithful to the Church and parish if we keep getting moved from one parish to another.
September 5th, 1790
The French authorities are at my door, and I don’t think they want to invite me to a dinner party. I could be wrong, but I think I am about to be arrested, and perhaps killed for high treason. You see, I was present at an Assembly meeting and I publicly announced that I would not sign the Civil Constitution. Oh gosh, the authorities just broke down my front door! Is my life coming to an end? Well, this is France! I will remain faithful to God and His Church!
We are especially thankful for all the brave martyrs of the French Revolution who refused to renounce their faith in fear.
