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When was the last time you ate dinner as a family? It wasn’t until last night over a meal of pasta, homemade marinara sauce, broccoli, and pinot noir (adults only!), lovingly prepared by my wife, that I realized how busy this time of year has become.

This past week, an Academy parent passed along a copy of an article from the August/September 2017 issue of First Things entitled, “Dying of Despair” by Aaron Kheriaty, a professor of psychiatry and medical ethics.

February is upon us. From science and college fairs to the beginning of the Lenten season, the month will end just before the end of the third quarter and promises challenges but also celebrations—the 25th Anniversary Gala this Saturday, a four-day weekend, and our annual class ring ceremony.

The Atonement Academy had a busy week. Congratulations to Dean John Creech and our Lower School teachers on their Academic Showcase Nights this past Tuesday and Thursday evenings. 

This week I have news from Mrs. Powell, our College and Guidance Counsellor. Below is her update on our seniors’ college activities.

Last week’s “State of the School Address” culminated in the formal launch of our new Strategic Plan entitled, “Cultivating the Vineyard of the Lord.”

Happy New Year! It is good to be back. This morning, at our weekly 7:15 a.m. check-in, teachers and staff were remarking on the positive start we’ve had this week. I hope this is an indication that you and your children had just the Christmas Break you needed. 

Our wait is nearly over! I hope your family has been able to enter deeply into the Advent season and that this period of holy waiting will yield as its fruit a most joyous Christmas.

The universe is a beautiful place. Like wise men following a star, we naturally are attracted to beauty. As we follow, beauty should prove a thread to guide us into the truth and goodness of reality, and ultimately to the One who created reality and in the fullness of time entered into it.

I have never been accused of driving online traffic to Facebook, but today I must break with precedent. Take a moment to visit The Atonement Academy page and relive the welcome that the student body gave Bishop Lopes as he arrived on campus Tuesday. (The dramatic footage is courtesy of alumnus Alex Trevino ’08!)

Last week, I encouraged us to choose the way of thanksgiving. In this week’s letter I follow my own advice. Here in no particular order are my “Atonement Thanksgiving Top Ten.”

At my previous school, my dean of students and I would start every Thursday morning sharing one thing we were thankful for. We came to call this our “Thankful Thursday.” Even now, he and I text each other with our Thankful Thursdays every week.

Good afternoon! I hope you are enjoying this beautiful Texas autumn as much as I am. I would also like to salute the veterans among us ahead of Veterans Day on Monday.

As I sit down to write, I have just returned from a visit to the Kindergarten and First Grade P.E. class, ably led by Coaches Miranda and Skeens.

Yesterday afternoon at the Awards Assembly we celebrated the academic achievements of the first quarter.  It was delightful to see so many of you there and to contemplate the firmness of purpose with which your children had pursued their studies over the past months.

It is an increasingly full time of year at Atonement, and this surge in activity is mirrored by this week’s bursting Crusader Times newsletter.

Greetings from the last week of Quarter I! It seems the year has hardly begun and we are already about to pass the 25% mark.

What makes a Catholic school great? How could you find out which one is the best? If you have checked your email inbox in the last 24 hours, you probably have an idea of what is prompting me to ask these questions.

In recent days, I have been catching myself searching for signs of fall with the eagerness of a child. A cool (relatively) breeze in morning carline, then, by evening, the shadows cast by our high flown steeples and towers tracing ever steeper angles across the cobbles and copses—each an indication that the year is moving along and that we are making progress with it.

I hope this finds you well. This week I have a book recommendation for your consideration.