An Altar Grows, Our Faith Follows

Our school altar continues to grow! Last year, almost to the day, we set up an altar in our Multi-Purpose Room, to pray for loved ones who have passed and to recognize the Catholic tradition of praying for souls of the faithful departed.  

Almost a year later, the Multi-Purpose Room has received a fresh coat of paint to match our school colors, and the altar is becoming a permanent fixture in the room.

Before school started, we received a Byzantine-style Icon Crucifix that has become the focal point of the room, coupled with our heart logo. The altar itself has a rotating icon on it, to help the students and staff celebrate different Saint feast days, and to learn the liturgical calendar. Students are encouraged at lunch and throughout the day to go up and kneel before the altar and pray to God or the Saints. To our delight, students take us up on this opportunity continuously through the week!

This week we added two permanent Icons on the wall, as Saints to pray for our School.  
Obviously, Mother Cabrini has been added, as she is our school's Patron Saint and a wonderful one at that! Mother Cabrini was very driven. She started and operated many schools, hospitals and orphanages. The amount of time and energy to pull that off must have been extraordinary, and as principal here I feel a little pressure to live up to her work ethic and I hope the students feel that as well. She is the first US citizen to become a Saint in the Catholic Church.

The second permanent icon is of Saint Francis De Sales. De Sales takes a little more of an explanation, as our school is clearly not named after him. We knew we wanted two icons, so Father Harmon and I started brainstorming saints that might be a good fit for our community and also a fit for our school and our Mission Statement. From that list we then went to prayer to let the saints "figure out" who was the best fit. I began researching each saint and looking into their background for my Holy Hour in adoration. Once I felt like I knew them, I started to pray to them, and kept listening and watching for things to pop up in my life that may point one way or the other. Initially I was leaning toward Saint John Bosco, as he had a heart for teaching the youth, but Iearned that his main influence was De Sales. This led me to some of De Sales writings and his personality. He is known for being the "gentlemans saint", a solid guy who was even-tempered, and wanted to bring the faith to the laity at a level they could understand. One of his most profound writings is Intro to a Devout Life. Having not previously read it, I bought it and started diving in! Turns out, Saint Francis De Sales is very keen on virtues, just like our school is! Added bonus is that he is also the Patron Saint of our Seminary in Milwaukee, and as we turn out future saints who may be called to be a priest of a sister, I think it is important to have De Sales watching over them as they discern God's call in their life.  

Feel free to come in and check out the Multi-Purpose Room, and see the wonderful altar we have put together. This year, students will once again be bringing in photos of deceased loved ones to put on the altar, as we pray for the souls of the faithfully departed.