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Kenosis: A Journey of Humility, Forgiveness, and Authentic Love

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    Well, it took a while, but I had some downtime during my break from education, and I decided to write a book. A novel. Sure, it’s not a book about the nuances of Catholic Anthropology or the nitty-gritty of Hans Urs Von Balthasar or the theological and mystical parallels between Meister Eckhart, Teresa of Avila, D.T. Suzuki, and Thomas Merton. My educational path deviated from that of your run-of-the-mill academic scholar, and I never had a mentor or an advisor who could vouch for me and support me in the way most scholars get their start as writers, but I’ve been thinking over the last few years, and, if the purpose of academic theology is to articulate theological Truths in a way that makes it easier to encounter said Truths, then why not cut to the chase? Why not use the methodology I have been using for the last twenty years to evangelize, disciple, and educate regarding these Truths?      I call it Narrative Theology. Think Flannery O’Conner, a fellow Georgian. Maybe Graham Gr
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Teaching and Mercy

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 Last night I had a conversation with my neighbor. She has three kids; one in elementary school, one in middle school, and the last in high school. My neighbor, herself, works as a social worker in schools and in many conversations, while our dogs play with each other, she and I have come back to the topic of mental health in kids today. Her kids vary in their skills as students. The youngest is not interested in school at all, preferring to go outside and play on his own. The middle schooler is an avid reader, but she struggles in the classroom just to keep up. The high schooler is a self-started and typically succeeds in the classroom. Right now, none of them are doing well in school; all of them are suffering from anxiety. Adare, County Limerick, Ireland. I just like this picture because it reminds me of a Beautiful place! Obviously, I worry about the two younger kids. They may have already given up on the classroom component of school even before COVID, but at least they had th
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It's Been A Minute

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  It’s been a while. Let’s just say, for the last year, I have been discerning my relationship with Catholic education. I won’t go into the details, but, essentially, I have decided to step away, for the time being. I’m going to start up this blog again, though, and focus on what I know to be the real heart of Catholic education… encounter with Jesus. I have written before, but all education needs to be directed to something greater than just mastery of content knowledge or practical skills. Education must be directed to an encounter with Truth… the Truth of who we are created to be. Ultimately, that is the only knowledge that will fulfill us. Any school that orients students to a material or temporal Truth is setting limits on who the student can be and how much fulfillment or happiness they can experience. Summit Lake, Colorado. I just like this picture. If you can make a connection between this blog and this picture, go for it. (photo. P. Smith) From a Catholic Anthropological p
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We are not a Private School; We are a Catholic School.

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We are Not a Private School; we are a Catholic School! What does it mean to be “Catholic”? Ultimately, our vocation as Catholic school teachers is to play a role in the salvation of souls (Can. 1752). If we are not working to that end, then we are not providing for our students what we are called to do. Immaculate Heart of Marcy Catholic Church and School in Atlanta, GA...where I grew up. (Photo: P. Smith) The Church is the “family of the Lord”, so we say. The immediate family, the domestic Church, then, is the womb in which the children of God are cared for and protected in the safest environment possible. So what of the Catholic School? If the domestic Church is the womb of the Church, then the Catholic School is the nursery. And what are we nursing? To what end? God certainly wants everyone to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4-6). But Salvation is not simply “getting into Heaven”. The contrary to salvation is damnation…slavery to sin and fixation on ego and material Truth.
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Relationship or Content?

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I have been out of the loop. It has been several months since I last blogged. I suppose I have been disillusioned. Long story short, I do not feel my philosophy of teaching fits with much of what my current school is doing. At the heart of my philosophy of education (not just theological education, but all of education) is relationship. It is in my methodology and my assessment. It is the anthropology of my students. All humans are made to be in relationship, so it seems logical that the way we learn is heavily connected to relationships. This is especially important in the study of theology, particularly Trinitarian theology. A colleague of mine told me the other day that he asked his students, directly, if they thought education was more about relationships or content. One student answered bluntly that she was not in school to make friends; her goal was to get into Stanford. For her, and for many other students and colleagues, sadly, the focus of education is blind dogmatism and co
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I Wish I Knew What Catholic School Identity Was

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                What is Catholic School Identity? What does it mean when a school puts that little word “Catholic” on their sign or in their mission statement? I have been working on this question for some time now, and, to be honest, I want to keep researching. I want to really dive into the depths of what it means when we say that our schools are Catholic. St. Pius X Catholic High School in Atlanta, Georgia. My alma mater, St. Pius definitely deepened my understanding of Catholicism on an academic level, but I am sure that my relationships with teachers, students, and priests at St. Pius, at least, equally gave me an encounter with Jesus Christ which really sparked my Faith now. But are Catholic schools even more than this? (photo P. Smith)                 I have asked colleagues and contacts around the world what they think and the answers vary. I do not want to exhaust the space on this blog (I rarely want my blogs to be longer than just a few paragraphs), but suffice it
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The Story of "Jesus and Me"

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“When did you first encounter Jesus?” I didn’t ask it; one of my ninth graders asked it. And she didn’t ask me this question; she asked it to the whole class. Every fifth day or so we play a game; I ask my students to stop taking notes and to stop worrying about tests and grades; they need to just be still with themselves and with each other. Practice sharing and listening. Practice Loving and being Loved by each other. On a basic level, we are making affective that which we have been studying in the vacuum of the classroom. We are practicing the Authentic Self…not just studying it.                 “When did you first encounter Jesus?” she asked the class. It is the question I always wanted to hear in this “game”, but would never ask it myself. It is the one question that has to come from a student for the ensuing conversation to be genuine. All I can do is create the space where they feel free to ask the question and to respond with their own genuine, unique story. Not all st
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