To Teach as Jesus Did:

Catholic Education in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee

Lent 2013

“Lent 2013:  Catholic Schools Alive in Faith”

During this Year of Faith, Lent presents our Catholic schools with special opportunities to help students, co-workers, parents, and other constituent groups learn about, identify with, and come alive in faith. 

Some of the practices, activities, and themes for Lent 2013 in the 113 Catholic schools of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee include the following:
 

• Living and Walking Stations of the Cross performed by students in many school and parish communities, including Wauwatosa Catholic School, Divine Savior Holy Angels High School, and Shepherd of the Hills, Eden.

• A jar of “40 deeds for 40 days” at St. Anthony on the Lake, Pewaukee.  The entire school community there also enters the building each morning in silence as its collective “fasting from talking,” while reflective music is piped throughout the campus.  Students at Christ King School, Wauwatosa, and St. Mary Visitation, Elm Grove, enter silently on Wednesdays, while teachers hold lighted candles at Christ King and Lenten cross posters at St. Mary Visitation.

• Retreats at Saint Thomas More High School, iThirst (sophomores) and iHeart (seniors), focusing on Christ’s central place in our lives.

• Creation of decorated, kiln-glazed bowls by 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th grade students at St. Rita of Cascia School, Racine, to be donated and sold at the city’s “Empty Bowls Project Night” for the benefit of hunger and homelessness assistance programs in Racine.

• A “Burying the Alleluia” prayer service to begin Lent at St. Mary School, Sheboygan Falls, and “Resurrection Eggs” throughout the season, with symbols that tell the Easter story.

• Focus on the Sunday Gospels, through reflection and discussion as a school community, at St. Boniface School, Germantown.

• Teachers’ shared Lenten prayer each morning at All Saints Catholic School, Kenosha.

• 100 random acts of kindness, for the 100^th day of school at the beginning of Lent, at Holy Trinity School, Kewaskum. 

• Spiritual “spring cleaning” of grudges, poor behaviors, and bad thoughts at St. Mary School, Mayville.
   
• Viewing Lent as a “spiritual voyage” at Prince of Peace, Milwaukee, where members of the school community are challenged to check their compasses to determine whether they have “drifted out to sea” and return to course by focusing on the “lighthouse” who is Christ.

Finally, commemorations of the abdication of Pope Benedict XVI were held at schools throughout the Archdiocese.  A special prayer service was held in Burlington, with over 500 students from St. Mary School and Catholic Central High School gathered on the playground at 1:00 p.m. on February 28, as the bells of St. Mary’s tolled for almost 15 minutes, signaling a major transition in the Catholic Church.

Together, alive in faith, we pray this Lent in gratitude for the words, example, and service of Pope Benedict XVI and in petition for a new Holy Father who will lead our Church with courage, wisdom, and grace. 
 

Come Holy Spirit!

Kathleen A. Cepelka, Ph.D.
Superintendent of Catholic Schools