On Catholic Schools Week

When I was in the 5th grade at St. Mary on the Hill School, I had a religion teacher named Mrs. Wallis. Our school had a Perpetual Adoration Chapel right around the corner, and I will forever remember Mrs. Wallis teaching our class a few things about Adoration. She taught us to kneel on both knees before entering the pew. She taught us that Jesus was truly present in the monstrance and that we were expected to be reverent. Until this day I still remember her voice saying, "Adoration is reserved for Jesus. You don't adore the cute guy or girl sitting next to you. You only adore Jesus." Of course her statement forbidding us to adore our crushes drew out snickers here and there, but in hindsight, I realize she was so right. The word "adoration" is from the Latin word, which means "to pray" or "to worship," and while I may have thought that there were some cute boys in that 5th grade class, they certainly weren't worthy of worship!

Adoration has become an essential part of my prayer life, and I am not afraid to admit that I make my biggest life decisions in the presence of Jesus in Blessed Sacrament. You can imagine how excited I was when our Dean of Students at Christ the King Catholic School asked me to speak to our school students about Adoration...or at least I can say I was excited until I got into my first classroom...kindergarteners! As someone who is used to working with middle and high schoolers, kindergartners make me nervous! They're small. They're curious. They're unpredictable. You have to smile at them. Most of all, I worry about whether or not I'm speaking on their level.

I walked into that kindergarten classroom and saw 40 well-mannered pairs of eyes staring at me. I sat in a little chair so I could be at their level and began. I asked them if they like to spend time with their moms and dads. I relaxed a little as they told me things that they love to do with their parents:

Cuddling with them

Watching movies with them Going outside and playing with them

I told them that Jesus likes to spend time with them just like how they like to spend time with their parents. And when we're far away from our parents (like when we're at school), we know that they still love us even though we don't see them. Jesus loves us all the time, too, and Adoration is like when we get to spend that time cuddling with our parents - except it's with Jesus!

Then I taught them a little prayer:

Jesus, I love you.

Jesus, I adore you.

Jesus, I trust you.

I asked them, when they go to Adoration, to tell Jesus all the things they love about him, all the things they adore about him, and all the things they can trust him with. When I saw them in Adoration, I felt like I could see how Jesus was touching their little hearts and working in their young lives.

And isn't it the case that he wants to do the same with every single one of us? We just need to make ourselves present to him. This week was Catholic Schools Week, marked with festivities and highlights of what makes Catholic education so special. In the middle of turmoil and bad press that Catholic schools have been facing, I found relief and peace in placing Christ the King Catholic School and the souls that enter our doors into the capable and loving hands of Christ who loves us. Catholic schools face challenges - no one will deny that. We can do a million fundraisers and quadruple our enrollment, but that doesn't change the fact that we are still swimming upstream in a culture that wants nothing to do with Jesus. And in times like that, there's nothing better to do than to be like a child and say "Jesus, I love you. Jesus, I adore you. Jesus, I trust you."