Our Fourth and Fifth Class students are helping to make the upcoming holidays a little brighter for area children by assisting Santa’s Helpers, an area non-profit group dedicated to seeing that all children are able to receive a few gifts at Christmastime. Our students have been traveling to the Santa’s Helpers warehouse and wrapping small gifts and toys that have been donated throughout the year. For more information, go to www.santashelpersstl.com.
All soccer practices on Monday, Nov. 5 have been cancelled.
Dear Parents,
Thank you so much for all of you who attended the General Parent Coordinating Council Meeting this past Tuesday evening. And thank you for the wonderful feedback regarding the evening’s program!
Because the feedback indicated that people seemed to appreciate the presentation, I am going to post the evening’s PowerPoint on the Parent Portal, AND I am going to take the content of the comments and periodically include portions of it in upcoming Thursday Mails.
Let me begin here, today, by outlining my assumptions and my thesis.
Included among my assumptions were three points:
Why would we do something which is not helpful to the formation process?
This is my thesis: we do not want our children to suffer. We don’t want them to suffer in the short run OR the long run. But our inability to allow them to suffer in the short run, ultimately does damage to them in the long run.
Allow me to make this point in a slightly different way: we, as adults, are too quick to alleviate what we think will be uncomfortable for our children (frustration, boredom, anxiety, angst). In doing so, we often take away the golden opportunities which help them develop the capacities and insights which will allow them to be who we ultimately hope/want them to be.
Report card time is a particularly key moment for not rescuing our children. To this point, a grade which might be disappointing can be a springboard into a wonderful, self-reflective conversation.
As you engage in these conversations you might consider the following type of questions:
Conversation starters which I would not recommend include, “I am so disappointed in you” or “I am so proud of you.” Why? Because when we make statements such as these, the focus is on the adult, not the child. We don’t want our children doing or not doing something BECAUSE it makes US happy or proud or sad or disappointed. A child who does things to please an adult becomes the adolescent who does things to please his or her friends (not something any of us want).
When looking at the character traits (a VERY important aspect of the report card), invite your child into a conversation with questions such as:
May these days of conversation, reflection and introspection be helpful in the ongoing process of growth!
Maureen Glavin, rscj
Kick off your holiday shopping in style! For a second year, the Academy Mothers Club is bringing its long-running and popular Taste of Christmas event home to ASH, with more than three dozen vendors setting up shop in Rauch Memorial and the White Center. Join us on Saturday, Nov. 10 from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. to shop for unique clothing, jewelry, home decor, candles, stationery and much more. All proceeds benefit the school scholarship fund.
Click here for a listing of Chic Boutique vendors.
Enter ASH to win in Box Tops For Education’s Halloween Spectacular. Ten schools will each win a bonus of 1,000 eBox Tops.
Religious of the Sacred Heart Marie-Thérèse Claude Demoustier died Sunday, September 2, at Oakwood, the Society of the Sacred Heart’s elder care center in Atherton, California. She was 72. Her life will be celebrated in a Mass of Resurrection Saturday, October 13 at 10 a.m. at Oakwood, 140 Valparaiso Avenue, Atherton, CA 94027. Burial will be in the Sacred Heart cemetery in Grand Coteau, Louisiana, where Sister Demoustier attended high school and later served as director of students as well as headmistress. It is also where she was introduced to the Society of the Sacred Heart.
Claude Demoustier was born July 31, 1940 in Pointe à Pierre, Trinidad, West Indies, the oldest of five daughters of Marc and Germaine de Verteuil Demoustier, both deceased. Her father worked for an oil company, so the family relocated many times and lived in France, Trinidad, Martinique, the United States, Venezuela and Switzerland. As a result, Sister Demoustier became proficient in several languages, which served her well in the international Society of the Sacred Heart.
She is survived by her sisters France (Mrs. Vincent) Balay, Christiane (Mrs. Guy) Delahaie, Nicole Demoustier and Geneviève (Mrs. Olivier) de Reynal, all of whom now reside in France. She entered the Society of the Sacred Heart October 20, 1963 at Kenwood in Albany. She professed first vows in April, 1966 and final vows in Joigny, France, September 10, 1972. She became an American citizen in July of 1983.
Since 2010, Sister Demoustier served the international Society of the Sacred Heart’s general council as secretary general in Rome, until illness prompted her to return to the United States this summer. She had earlier served in the motherhouse Secretariat, 2000-04.
Sister Demoustier’s earliest ministries were at Sacred Heart schools around the country where she taught French, Spanish, English and religion. Her first teaching position, in 1968, was at the Academy of the Sacred Heart in St. Charles, the oldest school in the Network of Sacred Heart Schools, founded by St. Rose Philippine Duchesne. The following year, she served as director of students and religion teacher at the Academy of the Sacred Heart, New Orleans, before returning to the Academy in St. Charles for two years. In 1971, she returned to her alma mater, the Academy of the Sacred Heart, Grand Coteau, Louisiana, where she stayed until 1977. She then served as director of students at Villa Duchesne, St. Louis, Missouri, 1977-91. In 1991, Sister Demoustier became headmistress at Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart in Lake Forest, Illinois, where she remained until she was called to serve the international Society in Rome in 2000. When she returned to the United States, she served as campus minister and teacher at Duchesne Academy of the Sacred Heart, Houston, 2004-07 and as headmistress of the Schools of the Sacred Heart, Grand Coteau.
Her friend and former colleague Debby Watson said, “I had the great privilege of teaching and working with Claude for many years. Her friendship was a great gift. Claude had a way of connecting with so many people. Her gift of relationships was like Madeleine Sophie’s and her gift of “simple duty daily done” was like Philippine Duchesne. I am honored to have called her friend. Her life’s work was the mission of the Society of the Sacred Heart – she lived it well and taught all of us along the way.”
Sister Demoustier earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Maryville University in St. Louis, also a school founded by the Society of the Sacred Heart. She later earned a master’s degree from St. Louis University. Besides being credentialed to teach French, Spanish and English; Sister Demoustier had special skills in drawing, calligraphy, design and sewing. She also loved reading and sports. She was a member of the Community Development Team in St. Louis from 1973-1976, the Network School Committee from 1983-1985, and the Board of Trustees at Duchesne in Omaha, Nebraska, from 1988 to 1991.
All soccer practices are cancelled today due to the weather.
The Academy’s 2012 ornament has arrived. Cast in pewter, it’s a depiction of the Maypole dance performed each spring by Eighth and Second Class girls, as envisioned by ASH art teacher Karen Kozlen.
Dear Parents,
First and foremost, I want to express my deepest gratitude to each of you who supported this past weekend’s Country Fair! From our Chairs, Tim and Marguerite Stewart, and Co-Chairs, Gregg and Jodie Schneider, to the many and hard-working Committee Chairs to our Advancement Office staff, especially Jan McCosker, to every single parent who volunteered at a booth or helped to set up or stayed to clean up, I, want to earnestly, enthusiastically and wholeheartedly THANK YOU!
As I stated last week, the Academy absolutely needs the funds raised from Country Fair in order to meet our budgeted operating expenses. It is also true that all of us have come to value and appreciate the quality of communal connections which are created through our collaborative efforts working toward this common financial goal. From my humble perspective, the weekend was a HUGE success all around! Thank you, thank you, thank you for helping to make it so!
Now, a word about our special Feast Day which we will be celebrating tomorrow – the Feast of Mater Admirabilis. As most of you know, this image of Mary was painted in 1844 by a young novice in the Society of the Sacred Heart, Pauline Perdrau, who took it upon herself to produce a fresco of the Virgin Mary on a wall in the Trinita dei Monti, a Sacred Heart school in Rome. Sister Perdrau chose to paint Mary as a young woman, sitting in the temple, clothed in a rose-colored dress. Representations of Mater Admirabilis (Latin for Mother Most Admirable) can be found in Sacred Heart schools throughout the world.
But, how does this relate to our students (or to us) today? I have come to believe that Mater may provide one of the most important lessons we can teach our children. How so?
Given the circumstances in which we live, we can allow ourselves to easily be distracted with the exterior noise, chatter and potential exterior influences. Examples might include what people think, what people say, what is written or talked about in the media, and in our own social networks (virtual or personal). If we are not moving through our world with a grounded center, we can be affected by these exterior “factors” in ways that overly determine our interior attitudes, thought patterns, dispositions or emotional states.
This image of Jesus’ Mother calls us to something totally other. Mater, through her contemplative example, calls us to the depth of our own being. She calls us to our own interior space, where, when we are attentive (as she is), where, when we are silent (as she is), where, when we are focused inwardly (as she is), we discover the place in our deepest self where Christ resides WITH us, IN us and AS us. From this place, our attitudes, our thought patterns, our dispositions and our emotional states are NOT affected BY the world, as much as AFFECT the world. Living from this place within, we become Christ in the world without.
This is my deepest hope for our students: that they learn how to live life from the inside-out and affect their world AS the Face of Christ!
Happy Feast,
Maureen Glavin, rscj
Ms. McCosker’s Second Class students, who were to appear in “5-1” Salutes following KSDK Channel 5 newscasts yesterday and today, have been rescheduled. The new broadcast date has not been announced.
All soccer practices on Wednesday, Oct. 17 have been canceled due to the rain in the forecast.
