Although it may still feel a ways off, the 2019-2020 school year begins tomorrow for Atonement faculty and staff. Like many schools around San Antonio and beyond, we will commence a period of reaffirming of our Mission known as “in-service.” One of the things I truly love about the life of an educator is that each fall offers a fresh start. Please pray for us that we may start well.
Perhaps the best way to start is with the end in mind. Luckily, our school’s Mission Statement commits us to a worthy end: At The Atonement Academy, we strive for excellence in the physical, the intellectual, and the spiritual virtues through a challenging course of classical and Catholic education. The best gift that a school can hope to impart to a young person before he or she graduates is not popularity, affirmation, or prestigious college acceptances; it is virtue, a habitual love of “whatever is excellent” (Philippians 4:8).
Our historic success in this regard was on display this past Friday at dawn and dusk events. At dawn (before actually), our seniors, the Class of 2020, gathered to pray a rosary. We processed around the campus, listening to the seniors offer up their intentions for the coming year as each mystery was announced. Later, in the early daylight, we enjoyed breakfast in the courtyard, with administrators remarking among themselves at the 12th graders’ striking air of spiritual maturity, the fruit of long years and the labor of many hands.
Later, toward dusk, the Atonement community contemplated the beginnings of such fruit in the sowing of seeds. Pre-K and kindergarten families gathered to ring in a new school year with the traditional picnic celebrating our youngest Crusaders. At that event, Mr. Creech, in his first official event as an Atonement dean, connected the morning’s and evening’s activities, reminding parents of the uniqueness of our school’s Mission, and the time and care it requires to come to fruition.
Good thoughts to bear in mind as we near the threshold of a new school year.