Catholic Schools-Raise the Standards

It is Catholic Schools Week again and we kicked it off on Sunday with our school families attending the 9:30am parish Mass at Our Lady of the Mountains Church.
The school choir sang and led the congregation in singing. They have come a long ways since the choir was formed in the Fall of 2011.

The addition of a blazer and tie to the school uniform this Fall has added  a distinguished look to our students and you can tell the difference too in them when they have it on.

One of our 6th grade students sang the psalm response and also read the long 2nd reading. She did an outstanding job with both tasks she volunteered for. You couldn't even tell she was a little nervous.

And it was her first time singing the response and the church was packed today.

Fr. Ariel gave an excellent homily and the beauty that lies outside the window behind the altar always adds to our prayerful reflection.

Now, I am just waiting for the deer and horses to walk by.......................

I have to admit that Lent is just around the corner for us and I am not eagerly waiting for it as  Fr. A will be pulling the "iron curtain" to put us in the Lenten mood and to add to our Lenten sacrifices.  The heavy brown curtain will be pulled over our beautiful birds' eye view of God's talent with nature for more than 40 days as it doesn't even get open for Sundays which aren't part of the Lenten season. (When we were kids we got to eat our candy during the Sundays of Lent (after attending Stations of course) that we had saved up all week.)
  What joy it is on Easter morning to see the resurrection of the mountains and clouds outside this beautiful window once again. (and none too soon for most of us).

Because of the flu season hitting our area hard, the pastor asked that we not hold hands at the Our Father or shake hands at the sign of peace. We were to do the peace sign but my students came up with their own anti-flu peace sign. Take a look and do try it!

THE ELBOW PEACE SIGN

After Mass the students served donuts, coffee and juice to the parishioners to thank them for their strong support of our school.

Some students gave tours of our school which we opened up to all along with our

 "Storytelling Laboratory" Book Fair.

Sales were great today-it will be open all week.We hope to earn enough points to get a Smart Board or two for our school.

Come on in and get a good book for you and a friend-no danger awaits you here.

 Even the pastor of our school was treated to an elegant breakfast for Catholic Schools Week after the 7:30am Mass. Such generous and caring parishioners! Nothing was missing from this 5 STAR Breakfast!

The day ended with our heavy "snow-like" clouds rolling down the mountains by school. They looked like a giant snow avalanche ready to roll us over in God's cloud of wonder and love.

Perhaps the clouds will do the following for us this winter season..................

HAPPY CATHOLIC SCHOOLS WEEK! 

If you attended Catholic School growing up, be sure to say a prayer for your teachers, the pastor and your parents who made the sacrifice to do so. Catholic Schools - passing on the Catholic faith to tomorrow's leaders of our Catholic Church.