A Thanksgiving Message from the Superintendent
Dear Friends and Families of Catholic Schools,
It’s hard to believe we are preparing to celebrate Thanksgiving, and, just beyond it, the start of the Advent season. It feels like we were just talking about the first day of school, and yet here we are. And while the world outside may be taking on the starkness of winter, our lives are lush with the abundance of God’s many blessings, and we count you among those blessings!
Thanksgiving is so obviously a time of gratitude that it can seem cliché to talk about it, but thanksgiving, which is the meaning of the word “Eucharist,” is at the heart of our Catholic faith. In our Catholic schools, gratitude is not something we practice or contemplate only one day or one week of the year, but something that colors all we do on a daily basis. Even during our challenging times, the gift of God’s goodness is always present, providing light in the darkness and joy amid sorrows.
As we move from Thanksgiving immediately into the beautiful Advent season, that reality is visibly present as we light the candles of the Advent wreath. Week by week the light will increase, until we celebrate the coming of the Light of the World that banishes all darkness forever. That doesn’t mean we won’t encounter struggles, but it does mean that we never struggle alone. God walks with us day by day, moment by moment.
This Thanksgiving and Advent season, I invite you to join me in practicing gratitude not just for a day filled with family and good food but for a lifetime filled with abundant blessings. When the days get difficult — and they often do because that is the nature of life — can we look for the light in the darkness and remember that God is there, waiting for us to trust in the life that is continually unfolding before us?
I pray that you will have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, filled with all those things that bring you joy and peace and, yes, gratitude. When the feast is over, let us enter into the season of watchful waiting as we journey through Advent toward Christmas with the knowledge that no matter what is happening in the world around us God lives within us, and we have nothing to fear.
