Holy Spirit, come into our lives, Holy Spirit, make us truly wise.

Here we go! The start of a new school year.  As we begin each school year we participate in a tradition shared by most Catholic schools around the country by celebrating the Mass of the Holy Spirit. We will be celebrating this all school Liturgy on Thursday, September 25.

It is no coincidence that we open our academic year with this special theme. It is a time to be especially conscious of the power that the Spirit of God can offer when it comes to opening our minds, hearts, and souls to our academic, physical, and personal goals and pursuits. Education is far more than a mental exercise if it is to truly transform our lives and the lives of those we touch. It needs to involve the stirrings of the conscience and sub conscience, as well as the mind and spirit. Often, these stirrings are the ones that we do not control. It is often here that the spiritual powers of the universe manifest themselves and raise the questions yet questioned and offer the answers yet given. So as we begin our school year, please join us in offering prayers that each of us will be open to the stirrings of the Holy Spirit.

We also begin our school year by inviting our Seniors to consider sharing in the leadership for our Encounter retreats for the upperclassmen. Please keep them and all of us in your hearts and prayers as we enter this school year.

The English Department would like to acknowledge the five seniors who represented St. Mary’s Academy in this year’s senior summer symposium, The Nature of Happiness: Clare Gordon, Alex Jones, Jessica LaVigne, Maggie Ruble, and Meg Wilkins. These young women took part in this two-day event sponsored by the Oregon Council for the Humanities and School District 48. To prepare, they read a thick packet of readings selected by participating teachers, and joined a select group of  peers from eighteen west side high schools to spend time pondering and discussing important questions about happiness: How do we know when we are happy? Is happiness culturally determined? How much of happiness is biologically determined? What does faith teach us about happiness? They represented our school ably and gained a great deal from the intellectual exchange. In fact, other teachers commented specifically about how articulate, poised, and insightful our students were. No surprise!

In November we look forward to a very special morning with author and professor Francisco Jimenez. Professor Jimenez, the son of migrant workers in California and now Professor of Modern Languages at Santa Clara University, is the author of a number of books, including a recent memoir. A moving speaker, he will address our student body in an assembly and work with smaller classes and student groups. More on this special opportunity in next month’s issue!