Benefactor Dinner Oration - 2014/01/25
Ladies and gentlemen, the last time many of us met, I shared our vision for the future. It is a vision worth repeating.
We are on a mission from God to build his Kingdom here on the plains. We have rediscovered ourselves in that we are returning to our roots. We are rediscovering the Catholic Intellectual Tradition rooted in classical education while embracing the tools of the present that will continue to move use forward in this century.
Dr. Tim Gray of the Augustine Institute contends that as a society it is sometimes difficult for us to move forward because we have forgotten our story, and thereby find it difficult to know where we are going. We must re-learn who we are. We must understand our own faith, so we CAN fulfill the Great Commission of Christ.
This is our endeavor - to teach our children how to become who they are - especially through our faith, our history, our language and our rich, deep roots seated in great literature. Our children need great role models whom they can follow like the great women and men of history, of the great saints who trusted in God and His plan for them. To learn the virtues that will make their lives extraordinary.
Our students will savor their education, to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, so they may strut upon this great stage of Creation. To contribute their great verse that God has imagined for them.
It takes great work. It takes great sacrifice. We cannot do this alone, and that is why we extend such great gratitude to you all who support our school. These bricks were placed here by the sweat and blood of our very own grandparents and great-grandparents. They understood, deeply, their quest and the tremendous effect those efforts would have not only on our parish, but on our community and all of northeast Colorado.
We thank you for your generosity, and we hope our partnership will continue to bare the fruit God has commissioned us to harvest.