WOW! What a great success our first annual spirit week became. We give thanks to the Lord for the rich blessings he shared with us throughout the week, as students were uplifted by quirky but joy-filled days of costumes, skits, and games.
Crazy hats, red hair, cowboy outfits, and even the popular movie character brave-heart all made an appearance this week. The response by all grade levels was fantastic. It truly demonstrated that these young men and women appreciate their school, and welcome the opportunity to visibly express their school spirit.
Other highlights included a brief but hilarious skit attended by the lower school students in the upper school. Not even the weather could dampen our spirits, as we concluded our week with the upper school students leading the lower school students in various simple, but entertaining games.
We are reminded once again of a special grace that God continually offers to our school community: the ability to have our older students serve the younger ones. There is certainly an exchange of love that takes place, a recognition of Christ in another. The older students are prompted to bring joy to the younger ones, while the younger students are overcome with excitement throughout the activity. When the upper school students return to their normal school day, the happiness on their faces cannot be denied. They have found the joy that Jesus wills for all of us in the hearts of the little children. When the younger ones return to their classrooms, they too have felt the power of Jesus' love, because they appreciate the charitable service performed by their older schoolmates.
In God's good Providence, the final day of Spirit Week was the memorial of St. Therese of Lisieux; a great saint, a doctor of the church, who responded well to the call to holiness that is present within every child. The following commentary on the life of this giant but little saint fully captures the charism of spirit week at Mount Royal.
"At the heart of Therese’s understanding of the spiritual life is the principle that holiness can be appreciated and accomplished not only in the performance of mighty deeds but in a willing surrender to the purposes of God as we engage the seemingly ordinary experiences of life. This means that the possibility of communion with the holiness of Christ will be found for most not in accomplishments worthy of the world’s or even the Church’s attention, but in a hidden, unnoticed practice of receptivity to how Christ presents himself to us in the day to day circumstances of our lives." - Father Steve Grunow is the Assistant Director of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries.
None of this would have been possible without the leadership of Student Government. Marysa Bocko, Natalie Wallace, and Miriam Nelson all expended a considerable amount of effort pulling it all together. We are especially grateful for their hard work! We also thank the students for their willingness to participate, the teachers for their patience, and also the sacrifices that families and parents made for their children to take part in the festivities.
St. Joseph, Pray for us!