Trivia Champs

January 26, 2015

For the second straight year, ASH dad Richard Saville’s team lay claim to the title of Trivia Night champions. This year, they battled 52 opponent teams and chalked up 95 correct answers (of a possible 100). Congratulations! Accolades are also due to the Chairs and Co-Chairs of this fun event, Jason and April Jensen and Shawn and Jenny Briner, along with the volunteers who worked behind the scenes. Great job, great night!

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Happy Catholic Schools

January 26, 2015

As we celebrate Catholic education around the country this week, we at this Academy certainly have a great deal to celebrate relative to this year’s theme: Communities of Faith, Knowledge and Service!

As a community of FAITH – we strive to invite each child, in the depths of each of their hearts, through prayer, the sacraments and interior quiet, to come to experience, know and enter into a personally loving relationship with the God who is Love.

As a community of KNOWLEDGE – we strive to engage each child’s intellect with joy, energy, enthusiasm at a level of depth and substance. We try to engage in thinking that is analytical, synthetic, creative and reflective.

As a community of SERVICE – we strive to provide our students with a critical awareness for the need to be of service, we hope to engender the theological imperative that to live a life of faith requires us to be of service, and we desire to offer real opportunities, thus allowing our students to experience the joy and gift one receives which comes from having experienced being of service.

Let’s pause and reflect on the gift of a Sacred Heart Catholic education! It is a gift that students might want to thank their parents for this week.

Maureen Glavin, rscj
Head of School

Educating to God’s Love

January 22, 2015
Seventh Class retreat ended with Benediction in the Shrine.
Seventh Class retreat ended with Benediction in the Shrine.

With Catholic Schools Week approaching next week, let us all remind ourselves of the deepest reason for our Academy’s existence— to root each person in a deep knowing of God’s GREAT LOVE, a love so profoundly personal that it is the source of inner strength and deep joy.

To come to know and then educate others to God’s Love is the particular gift of the Society of the Sacred Heart to the Church. We call this our charism: to discover and reveal the Love of the Heart of Jesus. We come to know God’s Love, revealed to us through the Heart of Christ, and manifest that Love through life’s loves and choices.

How do we educate to God’s Love?

1.  RELIGION CLASS provides an intellectual foundation to learning about God. It supports an understanding of faith and provides an opportunity to discuss the experience of God.

2.  PRAYER OPPORTUNITIES provide ways to personally experience and come to know the God who is Love. Among them are:

  • Eighth Class students at the Archdiocesan Regional Mass for eighth graders held at Assumption Parish in O’Fallon, with Archbishop Carlson presiding
    Eighth Class students at the Archdiocesan Regional Mass for eighth graders held at Assumption Parish in O’Fallon, Archbishop Carlson presiding

    Prayer at the beginning of each day in homerooms and/or assemblies

  • Prayer to open class
  • The celebration of the Eucharist
  • First Friday Eucharistic Adoration in the Shrine
  • Daily quiet time (Espacio)
  • Retreat experiences for Seventh and Eighth Class students

3.  BEHAVIORAL EXPECTATIONS at the Academy are predicated on the assumption that each person is created in the image and likeness of God, and thus each person deserves the same reverence that we would give the person of Jesus if He were in front of us. This is what our faith teaches and this is what we aspire to do!

This is how we, the Academy of the Sacred Heart,
hope / want / desire to be ALIVE IN CHRIST!

Our work here, and your support of our work here, helps us to BUILD God’s Kingdom (which is comprised of goodness, kindness and love). We try to do so one heart at a time, one child at a time, one person at a time, and one day at a time!

Let us continue to do so, humbly and fervently!

United to each of you in God’s Loving Heart,

Maureen Glavin, rscj

Trivia Night at ASH

January 20, 2015

Q:  What’s your best chance to enjoy a night of tropical fun on Saturday, January 24?  A: TRIVIA NIGHT at ASH!  Plan now to attend our 13th annual Trivia Night in Rauch Memorial.  Gather your family and friends and put together a team of eight. Click here to reserve a table, volunteer to help, or learn about sponsorship opportunities.

Archdiocesan Regional Mass

January 14, 2015

Our Eighth Class students attended the Archdiocesan regional mass for 8th graders held at Assumption Catholic Church in O’Fallon today. Archbishop Carlson presided.

Admissions Open House January 22

January 8, 2015

Do you have a friend, co-worker, family member or neighbor who’s interested in learning more about the Academy? We’d love to meet them! Be sure to let them know about the second of our Admissions Open Houses on January 22. A 9 a.m. presentation by Sister Glavin and Mrs. Renken will be followed by student-led tours. For further information or to reserve a spot, please contact Admissions Director Lisa Tebbe, 636-946-6127, ext. 1620.

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Epiphany

January 8, 2015

ShrineInteriorChristmasWelcome back, and Happy New Year!

As we enter a new calendar year, we also CONTINUE to celebrate the Incarnation of Jesus the Christ! As a point of information, in the official Catholic calendar, the Christmas SEASON begins with the celebration of the birth of Jesus and lasts until the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord. The FEAST of Christmas lasts 12 days – from Christmas day itself until the Feast of the Epiphany. Traditionally, the Epiphany had been fixed to January 6, and the Baptism of the Lord is celebrated on the octave (eighth day) of the Epiphany.

If you visit the Shrine, we, true to the liturgical season of Christmas, still have our Christmas decorations up and still have our Nativity scene displayed as we continue to celebrate the JOY of the Incarnation AND as we (this week especially) celebrate the AWAKENING of the Epiphany!

EphiphanyHow does one understand the Epiphany? As with every one of our beautiful feasts, there are layers upon layers of understandings. Among them, the one I offer for reflection is the Epiphany as celebration of the manifestation of Christ. Another way of putting this is to say that it is a celebration of the discovery/awakening of the fact that this baby is a manifestation of God.

That this human child is REVELATORY of the Creator of the universe,
that this little baby is a manifestation of the one we call God,
is a powerful statement!

I love the phraseology here because the mission of any Religious of the Sacred Heart is to:

Discover and Reveal the Love of the Heart of Christ.

So my task is the task of the Magi: To humbly come before the Christ child and to humbly be open enough to lay down my gifts at the service of the Christ child and to humbly discover my God through and in that Christ child is the first half of what I commit myself to do in life.

The other half is to try to, through my own life and loves and actions, reveal the Heart of Christ to others!

This is also the task of any and every educator of the Sacred Heart. It is also meant to be the life goal of any and every child of the Sacred Heart.

During this week of the Feast of the Epiphany, I pray for each of us, that we:

  • continue to grow in our ability to do the necessary work to seek/discover the Christ Child (as did the Magi), and
  • allow ourselves to be humble enough to worship/be open to the Christ Child before us (as were the Magi).

If we do these things, the second half of the formula flows naturally and we WILL reveal the Heart of Christ to those around us.

May it be so!

Maureen Glavin, rscj

Electronics Recycling Event at ASH

January 6, 2015

The ASH Sustainability Club, SOTEC (Stewards of the Earth) is partnering with Spectrum ECycle to keep unwanted electronics out of our landfills (and basements!). So gather up those old computers and anything attached to them, telephone equipment, media storage, etc., and bring them to the school parking lot on Saturday morning, January 24.

[Electronics Recycling Event Flyer]

For a compete list of recyclable electronics, see http://spectrumecycle.com/what-we-take-3/.  There is no charge for recycling anything listed except “tube” TVs.  (The first TV per car is free, but $15 will be charged for each additional TV.) Please do not bring batteries, light bulbs, or smoke detectors. If you have questions, please contact Pam Walsh.