From the Desk of Rev. Charles Warren
I just got back from a conference with all the priests of the Diocese of Rockford. These are my brothers in arms so we spent time encouraging each other, praying with each other, and resting (code word for having a priest party).
Having time to pray and reflect, two things came to my mind for Marian Central Catholic going forward:
● That our identity would be the first thing in everything we do
● And that we would become a school of vocations
If an athlete only trains some muscles and not all the muscle groups…they actually increase their chance of injury and reduce their functional ability. There must be balance. Good luck doing anything when your core is weak and your back goes out!
If our classes lack Catholicism we lose our full strength. If our choirs, bands, teams practice without following the witnesses of excellent Catholic musicians, composers, athletes, saints…we lose our strength. If our administration makes any decision without asking for the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we lose our strength. Catholicism must come first in everything we do.
When you talk about our school, what do you call us? Marian Central? Aren’t we leaving off an important word there? Something as simple as adding Catholic to the end of the name shows what we exist for and what mission we serve. Central is our geography, Catholic is our identity.
Now part two, vocations.
We all want our kids to have a great future. The studies show how hopeless younger generations are. They feel like there isn’t much good in the world and not much chance for things to get better. Young couples are holding off on having children because they don’t want to bring kids into a world like this. Believers in Christ see all of this as not what God wants for us.
How timely then, that Pope Francis announced this Jubilee year as one of Hope. A jubilee year in the scriptural times wasn’t easy to organise, it was intended to be marked as a time to re-establish a proper relationship with God, with one another, and with all of creation, and involved the forgiveness of debts, the return of misappropriated land, and a fallow period for the fields.
I see this hope arriving at Marian through a focus on vocations to priesthood, religious life, and marriage. As a vocation director, it’s my responsibility to help our youth consider what God is calling them to do. It starts now with establishing proper relationships to God and one another. Each person reading this must encourage our youth to pray each day, to love and serve others each day, and to prepare themselves through virtuous living to be open to God’s call.
I look forward to one day being on the yearly priest retreat with an Alumnus from our current student body. Before that can happen, we have to be preparing our youth to say yes to God’s promptings. That is hope, when we live in such a way as to be preparing for our goal which has been promised to us by our Heavenly Father.
Please join me in the official jubilee prayer written by Pope Francis,
The Jubilee Prayer
Father in heaven, may the faith
you have given us in your son, Jesus Christ,
our brother, and the flame of charity enkindled in our hearts by the Holy Spirit,
reawaken in us the blessed hope for the coming of your Kingdom.
May your grace transform us
into tireless cultivators of the seeds of the Gospel.
May those seeds transform from within both humanity and the whole cosmos
in the sure expectation of a new heaven and a new earth,
when, with the powers of Evil vanquished, your glory will shine eternally.
May the grace of the Jubilee reawaken in us, Pilgrims of Hope,
a yearning for the treasures of heaven.
May that same grace spread the joy and peace of our Redeemer throughout the earth.
To you our God, eternally blessed, be glory and praise for ever.
Amen
Rev. Charles Warren
