As the school year ends

There will be many words addressed to those graduating from grade school, high school, and college in the days ahead. We offer all graduates our congratulations and prayerful best wishes.

How exciting to ponder the doors God will open for each of you as the years pass. Always seek God’s will for your life, because we are never happier than when we live according to it. As Bishop Jenky’s motto says, “His Will is Our Peace.”

But as the 2009-2010 school year ends, in this space we want to especially congratulate those who have helped our graduates reach this milestone.

We thank the parents, the primary educators of their children, for their daily sacrifices that no one can ever measure.

We thank the dedicated teachers, whether paid (often not enough) or volunteer, for wisdom they’ve imparted from life experiences as well as textbooks.

We thank the administrators and the boards of education, who make tough choices from discipline to allocating resources. We salute the pastors who somehow find those resources for Catholic education, and the benefactors who support our schools.

We thank sports and extracurricular coaches, directors, moderators, etc., for accompanying our young people on all manner of adventures, be they triumphs or disappointments. There is learning in both.

We thank the support people without whom our schools couldn’t run — the secretaries, the bus drivers, the lunch personnel, the maintenance workers.

We thank the hundreds of people, mostly volunteer, involved in our parish religious education and RCIA programs, and all those who by their words and actions have made the greatest Teacher, Jesus, present in our classrooms.

Because Jesus is present in our classrooms, He knows all who have cared for his children this school year, including those we failed to mention here. May He richly bless all of you. — Thomas J. Dermody