Letter from the Principal - February 2024
February 14, 2024
Dear Parents and Guardians,
Happy Valentine’s Day! During this week of February, we are celebrating Chill Out Week at CDH, and we are preparing for the end of the second trimester. As you will read in this edition of the Communicator, many academic, athletic, and co-curricular activities are winding down with their culminating events.
Today we joined other Catholics and Christians around the world to begin our observation of the holy season of Lent. We embarked on this spiritual journey together as we gathered for our Ash Wednesday Prayer Service and introduced our Lenten themes of peace and mercy.
Thank you to our campus ministers, students, and staff who designed a prayerful and reflective prayer service filled with scripture, music, prayer, and personal reflections. One of the gifts of working in a Catholic school is the privilege of sharing our faith lives with our students. Mr. Jesse Cusick, CDH English Teacher, and Ms. Ruth Johnson, CDH Administrative Assistant, generously shared their own faith stories by speaking about the significance of Lent, peace, and mercy at our prayer service today.
The service began with a reflection from Mr. Cusick, who spoke about our responsibility as Christians to create peace in our world. He shared, “Where Christ is, there peace is also. In the Bible, Christ calls us to be peacemakers within a culture, society, and world that finds itself longing for Christ’s peace. We are not called to be peaceful speakers, not peace seekers looking for peace in the world, not quiet peaceful readers, but peacemakers.”
Our prayer service ended with a reflection from Ms. Johnson, who told students and staff, "Lent is an opportunity for us to deepen our understanding of ourselves and our relationships with others.” She further shared, “Mercy is about showing kindness and forgiveness, even when it’s hard. It’s about understanding that we all make mistakes and deserve second chances. When we practice mercy, we create a community where people feel valued and accepted despite their flaws.”
We all experience pain and brokenness, and we hunger for God’s mercy and the peace of Christ in our lives. I invite everyone in the CDH community to join our students, faculty, and staff on this journey in our personal and communal lives.
I pray that everyone within our community experiences God’s mercy and the peace of Christ during this Lenten season.
God be with you,
Mona Passman