Mr. Caton Addresses the Parish

Mr. Caton's Remarks to the Parish
Aug. 11-12, 2018

Good morning!  It is truly a joy for me to be here and speak to you as principal of Blessed Sacrament School. I hope many of you will come to say hello at the breakfast following mass. You can also read a little bit of my background and experience in this week’s bulletin insert.

I have felt the Lord calling me to a vocation in Catholic education for many years. Looking back, that call began 13 years ago, when my wife Lizz and I returned to Ohio following her service in the Navy, and we found a home at Blessed Sacrament Church.

Since then, this parish has pretty much been the center of our lives. We’re kind of “all in” when it comes to this church. My wife helped start our Walking With Purpose women’s Bible Study. She’s led the fundraising efforts to allow more and more of our parish young people to attend Catholic Youth Summer Camp. Together, we helped organize First Friday Family Night. I’ve taught CCD, volunteered at Bible School, served as a lector at masses, trained student lectors, and directed our school’s drama club. Whenever thoughts of moving closer to my wife’s workplace in Worthington came up, they were dismissed in pretty short order. Why? We just couldn’t leave our church, our home here at Blessed Sacrament. 

For that, I wish to say thank you to you, the parishioners of Blessed Sacrament. It is you who created the warm, loving, family atmosphere that brought us in and made us feel so welcome. It is you who have so generously supported our school, which has been such a tremendous blessing for my own children as well as countless others. I’m sure many of you will also join me in thanking Mrs. Mary Packham for her leadership of our school for so many years. I can't possibly fill her shoes. 

But here I am, in this position, answering this call, because I am convinced that Catholic education has world-changing power. If you’re concerned about the state of our nation or our world, Catholic education provides an answer. When we send out into the world highly educated young people with a love for Jesus Christ, the world will be transformed. They will take the gospel into their homes, their families, and their workplaces, and the Lord will use their gifts to bring others to him.

Blessed Sacrament School is absolutely not like every other school, and not just because we begin and end our day with prayer, or because we attend mass, though those things are surely important. We’re different in part because we as Catholic educators recognize that all truth comes from God, and whether we’re teaching math or science or social studies, that learning is rooted in His truth. We're different because we as Catholic educators recognize that we are created in the image and likeness of God, and the dignity which each of has as a result of that guides the way in which our teachers interact with our students, and our students interact with each other. 

I promise you, if you visit our school, you’ll see it. If you haven’t had a chance to spend much time in our building, allow me to extend the invitation. I would love to have the chance to show you our classrooms, to share with you the good work our teachers are doing with our children. Come visit during one of our Crusader of the Month assemblies, or pray with us during our school mass on Friday mornings. Volunteer your time as a classroom aide, and share your faith with our students through your service. This is your parish school. 

My goals for our school are big. Huge. I want to fill our building, and I want all of our students to become saints. Sounds easy, right? Well, with God all things are possible.
 
You, as parishioners can help us achieve both of those goals. You can continue to help lead our children to the Lord through your faithful example and your participation in the life of the parish. You can continue to create the faith-filled, welcoming atmosphere that my family felt when we first started attending mass here. 

You can also help us fill our school by sharing who we are, and what we do. I am hereby deputizing every one of you as members of our Blessed Sacrament School Enrollment Team. Invite your friends, grandchildren and neighbors to consider Blessed Sacrament for their children. Follow our school on social media and share our successes with your own network. The bulletin insert I mentioned earlier is designed for you to be able to take it with you, and hand it on to someone else who might find a home at Blessed Sacrament. I humbly encourage you to do that, enrollment team. This is the work of evangelization. 

Finally, I would also like to ask you to keep our school daily in your prayers. When you pray, I ask you to think about a desk, one of the desks in our school that we haven’t yet filled, and ask the Lord to show you who in your life might waiting for your invitation to join us at Blessed Sacrament School. Maybe it’s a friend or a neighbor. Maybe it’s a family you know who doesn’t yet have Jesus in their lives. 

We're waiting for them, and we’ve got their desk ready. 

Thank you, and God Bless.