Our annual observance of Catholic Schools Week takes place this week, January 31-February 6. Catholic Schools Week, first celebrated in 1974, is an annual national celebration of the important role of Catholic schools in providing a values-added education for America's young people. This year's Catholic Schools Week theme is "Catholic Schools - Dividends for Life: Faith, Knowledge, Discipline, Morals."

Here at Our Lady of Grace, Catholic Schools Week will be observed with a variety of activities in the school and parish, beginning with the involvement of OLGS students in our parish Masses this weekend. We have a special reason to celebrate this year at OLG because our school is now in its tenth year of existence. Deep thanks are owed to the families, school personnel, parishioners and supporters who worked to made Our Lady of Grace a reality.

Since 2000, OLGS has grown to over 385 students in Grades Kindergarten through 8, and also includes Our Lady of Grace Pre-School, with an enrollment of 120.

Although OLGS has an excellent curriculum and staff and provides a great academic experience, the reason for its existence goes beyond excellence in education. The school's mission is to provide spiritual guidance for God's children through religious and academic education where excellence is expected, discipline is understood, family is valued, and social awareness is strengthened.

We celebrate Mass with the students twice a week. Tuesday at 9 am we celebrate with one class or a section of the school. Thursday Masses, also at 9 am, are with the entire student body. I invite you to come and experience one of these liturgies if you have not already done so.

Fr. John and I visit the classrooms on a regular basis, primarily to prepare with the students for upcoming school liturgies. We also stop in for informal visits, Q/A sessions, and, occasionally, for classes on specific topics. (For example, in February I will be working with our eighth graders on the topic of Catholic Social Teaching.)

OLGS provides many opportunities for students to serve. The big annual food drive is one example. The current fund raising for Haitian earthquake relief is another. There's not enough space to detail other examples.

For more information on Our Lady of Grace School, come to the K-8 Open House this Tuesday, February 2nd, from 6:30-8pm. Or contact Kelli Wilson at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 770-5660.

Congratulations, OLGS! Happy Catholic Schools Week!

ABOUT HAITI: Haiti is located on the island of Hispaniola, ninety minutes by air southeast of Miami. Haiti is about the size of Maryland, with a population of about 9 million. The name "Haiti" comes from the language of its original Taino-Arawak inhabitants, and means "land of mountains."
In 1492, Christopher Columbus claimed the island for Spain. Columbus immediately initiated a systematic regime of brutality against the native Tainos, and their population plunged from an estimated 8 million in 1491 to 12,000 in 1516. Other factors included a lack of resistance to the diseases carried by the Spaniards and, ultimately, many suicides among the despairing Tainos. By 1555, the Tainos had been exterminated.

The western third of the island, depopulated and largely neglected by the Spanish, was colonized by the French in the 17th century. In the 18th century, the French colony on Hispaniola, named St. Domingue, became very prosperous through exportation of sugar, coffee, cotton, indigo, and cocoa. But the prosperity was won on the backs of about half a million slaves brought from Africa to work on the plantations.

On Tuesday, January 19, eight parishioners will travel to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where we will stay the night before driving to the town of St. Louis du Sud, where our sister parish is located. The distance, about 60 miles as the crow flies, can take up to six hours to travel.

What will we do there? As can-do Americans we always want to accomplish something. That's not always a possibility; part of any visit to Haiti includes putting our assumptions and expectations on hold. "Ministry of presence" is important even if we don't accomplish many tasks. And for those who are visiting Haiti for the first time, just taking in the atmosphere is itself an accomplishment.

Today, January 10, is the last day of the Christmas season, the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. Tomorrow begins the first week of Ordinary Time.

We call it "Ordinary Time," not because it's "boring time" or "not very special time," but because we use ordinal numbers (second, third, fourth...) to count the Sundays, the weeks, and, as I like to think, our blessings. (Oddly enough, there is no First Sunday of Ordinary Time, because "O.T." begins on a Monday.)

The Season of Lent begins with Ash Wednesday, February 17. During Lent we will have an additional Mass on the Fridays mornings of Lent at 6:30. Our parish celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation will be on Wednesday evening, March 24, beginning at 7:00, and there will be additional priests available.