(Dear
Parents,
I
am addressing this letter to your children but I am entrusting it to you so that
they will read it in its entirety. Please
encourage them to really take this message to heart.
Please keep in mind that the figures in this letter are not exact due to
the variety of individual and parish situations.
They are not intended to be exact but are intended to support the point
being made.)
Dear
Students,
Grace
and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you!
At the beginning of this Advent season my thoughts
turn to you and the great blessing that each of you are.
I have often said that it is my greatest privilege to serve as the
Chaplain of BCCHS. The reason why
is because of how awesome each of you are.
I tried to show each of you this earlier this year when I gave you a
religious medal blessed by the Pope. I
know that it was a very small gift but I wanted each of you to have something
tangible to show my appreciation for you. I
care for you deeply and I pray for you daily that we may all experience the joy
of faith and life.
My purpose in writing you this letter is to convince you that many people
consider each of you precious and wonderful.
So many people care about you! Yet,
more often then not we go through the day without realizing the truth of this
statement.
Do you remember at our last all school Thanksgiving Mass that I stressed having an attitude of gratitude for the great gift of being educated? One of the things that I said (and, yes, I know I said a lot! I’m a blabbermouth like thatJ!) was, “You invest in what is important to you.” I encouraged you to realize how important your Catholic education is to you. Then in realizing this importance I asked you to invest yourselves more intensely in your studies and activities at school.
You invest in what is important to you. This is pretty much a universal fact. For example, if this Christmas you received a new Wii, I
would have no doubt that you would invest a lot of time and energy in learning
to master the game. Or if you
received a new i-Pod with expanded memory, I would bet that you would invest a
lot of time and effort into filling up with your favorite music and the latest
hits. It really is a no brainer –
you invest in what is important to you. You
do it really without counting the hours or being concerned with the amount of
effort it takes. Why?
Because you realize that it is important to you.
You see, the time and effort you invest in a gift, is actually an act of
gratitude for that gift. If you
didn’t like the Wii you wouldn’t play.
If you didn’t like the i-Pod, it would just set in your drawer.
But since you invest in what is important to you, the time and effort you
invest are acts of gratitude and thanksgiving.
The reason why I am bringing this up to you is this:
you are precious. You
are valuable. How do you know this?
Because literally hundreds of men and women are investing huge amounts of
time and effort on your behalf. I
want to explain how much time and effort and how many people are investing into
you. Among these people are the
faculty and staff at BCCHS, your pastor, and your parishioners.
Now, please, don’t shut me out right now.
I’m not trying to bore you but if you really take a minute and consider
what I am about to say, you will see that people really consider you important:
important enough to make serious sacrifices on your behalf.
Have you ever stopped to consider why the faculty and
staff at Bishop Carroll work at a Catholic School?
That may sound like a weird question but here are the facts.
Teachers who work at Bishop Carroll make considerably less a year than a
teacher in the public school system and they also get fewer benefits. Not only do they sacrifice their salary but they also give
generously of their time. Each
teacher teachers six class hours a day, has somewhere between sixty and one
hundred and thirty students and only one planning period a day. That planning period rarely uninterrupted and isn’t even
close to being enough time for grading papers, developing lesson plans or
fulfilling their professional development.
So when does all of this get done? You
got it…at night, at their homes. This
means that they have to sacrifice a considerable amount of time they could spend
with family or friends.
Yet their sacrifice goes even further!
Did you know that there are more extracurricular activities at BCCHS than
there are teachers to sponsor them? That
means that every teacher is not only asked to make less money and work more
hours at home, but they are each asked to volunteer their time for multiple
extracurricular activities. I said
volunteer because many of the positions are unpaid and those that are paid may
receive something like dollar an hour when it is all said and done. Think about it. How
much time outside of school do coaches put into the sporting season?
Or how many hours does it take to produce a play or to host a tournament?
And why do they do it? For
money? Obviously not, because they
could have chosen a career outside of Catholic education.
Consider also the countless volunteers that make this
school function. Every
extracurricular activity has volunteers who receive no payment and who
generously sacrifice hundreds of hours of their time. These volunteers sit on committees such as the School
Council, the BC Parents Organization, or they work on painting the football
field, selling tickets for plays, working in the concession stands, or arranging
the trash-bag sale.
Consider still the fact that you are going to school
FOR FREE. Consider this…one year
in a Catholic school costs nearly five thousand dollars. If you have been in a Catholic school your whole life, that
means that your total education will cost about sixty thousand dollars by the
time you graduate! Could you
imagine if I gave you a sixty thousand dollar corvette for Christmas?
You would go nuts. Or if I gave you a sixty thousand dollar scholarship to go to
college? You would be
flabbergasted! But the fact is you have
been given a sixty thousand dollar scholarship to school!
So where did the money come from? Who
coughed up the sixty thousand G’s for your education? -- your fellow
parishioners and your pastor. Who
pays for your education? -- the people in your parish and your family’s
stewardship. Every Sunday you pass
a basket of money in front of you. Every
Sunday one hundred and forty of those dollars go to pay your education each
week. Where does that money come
from? Well, it comes from parish
high school subsidies and from your Pastor who runs a parish that has huge costs
and expenses. It also comes from
your fellow parishioners who often times make serious sacrifices to contribute
their time, talent, and treasure on behalf of the parish.
Think about it. If your
parish sends fifty students to BCCHS that means your Pastor writes a check for
two hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year, which comes from stewardship and
parish subsidies! Some parishes
have over two hundred and fifty students going to Bishop Carroll.
Figure the costs out on that one! Do
not pretend that this doesn’t cause your pastor and parish stress or anxiety.
Each week they have bills to pay and it all depends on the generosity of
the parishioners. Neither can we
ignore the far more important daily effort and anxiety that your Pastors
experience for the salvation of your soul.
So why do they do this? What
possible reason is there that a teacher would take smaller pay and sacrifice
countless hours of free time to grade papers, plan classes and sponsor
activities? Why on earth would
hundreds of volunteers spend countless hours to ensure that school activities go
smoothly? Why do pastors suffer so
much anxiety and parishioners, including your parents, sacrifice so much time,
talent and treasure to support this school?
The only reason is you. You
are the only reason because they know that a Catholic education is the best
education that you can have…and you deserve the best.
I do not believe that it is a lie to say that Bishop Carroll is one of
the best high schools in the city of Wichita and even in the state of Kansas.
And you receive this education for free!
Why? Because people you may
not even know believe in you. Parishioners
you only see in passing believe that a Catholic Education makes a difference.
Why do teachers stay here, knowing full well that they are getting less
compensation? Teaching you
is a greater reward to them than free time or money. Spending time with you and sharing their life of faith
with you is more important then a bigger paycheck and better benefits.
Teachers stay at Bishop Carroll precisely because it is Catholic OUTLOUD
and because it helps them enrich their own life of faith each day.
Teachers stay here because the faith of this school makes you a more
disciplined person and increases their ability to teach you more effectively.
You see, you invest in what is important to you.
Literally millions of dollars and thousands of hours are invested in you
by thousands of people. Why do they
do this? People invest in what is
important to them. Because of this,
your teachers, your parishioners, your pastors, your volunteers invest in you --
because YOU are important. YOU
are valuable. YOU are loved.
I am saying all of this so that you know that you are important and
valuable. Many people love you
and they have proven it to you because they have invested in you.
This is what it means to be part of the Catholic Stewardship community.
All the time, talent, and treasure happens because people invest in what
is important. Their parish is
important, their faith is important, their families are important and their
fellow parishioners are important… and you are their fellow parishioner.
So now what? Why is this
important for me to tell you? Because
you need to know that you are important and loved, but also to ask you to say,
“Thank you.” How could you ever
repay all of this? Do you have
sixty thousand dollars to give back to your parish?
Do you have thousands of hours of your own time to volunteer for them?
The only way you can repay this is by sincerely and knowingly saying,
“Thank you.” I am not asking
you to be fake. A forced or
insincere thank you is an insult. I am asking you to seriously consider what I have written in
this letter. Really ask yourself,
“Why do the faculty, staff, pastors and parishioners do this for me?”
You will see that the only true answer is that you are valuable.
You are precious. They
desire to give you the gift of a fruitful Catholic education and to inspire you
with the art of true living.
I am concretely asking each of you to write a sincere (not forced) thank
you letter to each of your teachers. Make
it personal, arising out of the knowledge of the many sacrifices they make on
your behalf. Also remember that you
invest in what is important to you. Invest
in their class realizing the amount of time they have invested into you.
Return kindness for kindness and show appreciation through your renewed
effort. Their sacrifice of time and money prove that you are
important to them. Show them how
much you appreciate their sacrifices and dedication.
But how can you say thank you to your Pastor for his financial and
spiritual effort and anxiety on your behalf?
Or how would you say thank you to all the parishioners? You could write
your Pastor a thank you note, which he would appreciate.
But there is no way you could write a thank you note to all of the
parishioners who contributed to your education.
Rather than a thank you note, I believe that the greatest thanks that you
can give your Pastor and parishioners is your active and visible presence in the
life of your parish. I am not
trying to be clever in saying this either!
You invest in what is important to you.
If you are really grateful for the great gift that you have received from
your parish, then you would invest right back into your parish.
Do not be ungrateful, but be grateful.
Show your gratefulness by being visible and active in your parish.
You spend time with people you appreciate, so spend time with your parish
to show them that you appreciate their sacrifice on your behalf.
This is why we call the Mass a Eucharist – it is an act of
Thanksgiving to God and to your parish as well.
You have received an amazing gift!
You have received the gift of perhaps the best education in the state of
Kansas. You have received it because people have invested their time, talent and
treasure in you. You have been
given a gift. Therefore, be
grateful for that gift and say, “Thank you.”
YOU ARE LOVED.
So when you counting your blessings this Christmas don’t forget the
gift of your Catholic education. How
could a Wii or an i-Pod ever be better than that? You might have those for a few years, but your Catholic
education can give you your faith and livelihood for the rest of your life into
eternity…that is, if you are aware of it and are grateful for it.
Merry Christmas!
In Christ,
Rev. C. Jarrod Lies
BCCHS Chaplain
