Principal’s Message For May 19, 2019

This week’s Principal’s Message is about the month of May.  Well, more specifically, the “month of Mary”.  As the patroness of both our school and parish, Mary stands very prominently above the other saints at Saint Mary School, as you can imagine.  She is ever-present in our school building and on our campus, a light that shines over us as we go through our days at SMS.
 
Our reverence, as Catholics, for the flesh and blood mother of Jesus stems from exactly that fact; she was chosen by God to be the vessel through which He would enter this world as a man just like us.  Mary’s “yes” further illustrates the importance of her role in history as she could have simply rejected God’s request.  It seems to me that she understood the gravity of this request from the start and agreed regardless.  Mary, being a Jew herself, probably had a good grasp of the Old Testament and therefore had an inkling of what the prophets like Isaiah wrote about the coming Messiah.  From facing ridicule at the hands of her husband Joseph for being pregnant outside of their marriage, to raising her Son only to see Him sacrificed on the cross for us, Mary knew in her heart this would be a hard road to travel.  So, Mary’s “yes” only heightens our sense of reverence for her as she suffered as only a mother could for all of us!


At Saint Mary School we honor Mary in many ways.  There are statues, pictures and icons throughout the building and on the grounds.  We pray the rosary, Angelus, and Hail Mary all the time.  During the month of May, we have the Mother’s Day Tea in kindergarten, the preschool prays in front of our new statue of Mary at the schools entrance and lays flowers there, and the school community celebrates the May Crowning in Mary, Mother of God Church.  


This year our 8th grade students were tasked with writing two diary entries from Mary’s perspective, one from Good Friday and the other from Easter Sunday.  The depth at which the students wrote of these two events was simply astounding!  A few were chosen to be read at the May Crowning, leaving the parents and guests stunned by the students’ abilities to internalize the Crucifixion/Resurrection and express the attached emotions in a way only someone intimately involved with Jesus could.  It is obvious from their writing that our students do “get it” and truly believe that the greatest recorded event in the history of the world actually took place, regardless of the world’s attempts to erase it from our consciousness.  
 
As Jesus said from the cross to the few remaining followers, including Mary, “Behold your Mother”.  He was letting us know that this was not simply His earthly mother, but the mother of us all.  This is evidenced by the amount of references to Mary in literature, song, and art; the number of churches, universities, hospitals, etc. named for her; and, the recounting of her appearances at places such as Fatima, Lourdes, and Medjugorje.  There is no coincidence that Mary, Our Mother, is so visible through all these different mediums.  She is the mediatrix between us and Jesus.  Let us not forget that she intercedes on our behalf and continue to bring our concerns to her.  There is no better way to get to the Son than through His mother!        
Please check our website, Facebook page and the Church bulletin for updates and upcoming events that you can enjoy with us.  Please continue to pray for our school, its staff, students and families, and our clergy as we strive to provide an education that is unapologetically Catholic, family centered, caring to others and respectful to all.  “It’s a great day to be a Saint!”