Dear St. Louis Families,
Happy Friday! Our Lenten journey began Wednesday with the distribution of ashes. All three priests joined the students for prayer and ashes in the classrooms—it was a remarkable sight to witness the change in the students as they were marked with the sign of Jesus’ love for each of us and to then hear the conversations within the classrooms on what ashes mean for us.
Lent begins a time of prayer, fasting, and alms giving for 40 days. The students and teachers are excited for these next 40 days as we have been challenged to live our spiritual theme, Spread Love, Know Jesus, throughout Lent. Students can perform small acts of love as a class, as an individual, or as a family. In each small act of love, students connect with our larger virtue of charity and in so doing truly bring the love of Christ to others. We look forward to sharing these acts---if you are doing something special this Lent as a family, please consider sharing it with us.
In addition, Fr. O’Hare has challenged the students to grow in their spirituality through an increase in prayer—spending just 15 minutes per day with God through scripture, reflection, and prayer. Just 15 minutes per day equates to 1% of a full day which is not a tremendous amount of time when you think of it, but the power of that time spent in prayer is huge in an individual’s life. Pope Francis offers a beautiful and easy way to pray with children and you don’t need any extras, just your hand! Pope Francis’ 5 finger prayer is such a simple way to connect with God. I included the visual below. I encourage you to join our community in spending time in prayer and doing some small acts of love.
Wishing you a wonderful weekend!
Peace,
Anne Dyke
Principal