Virtues in Guidance Classes

Monthly Virtues in SJS Guidance Classes

Year of Faith

This year our school counseling team will be introducing a new virtue each month in our class lessons and exploring the ways in which these faith-filled actions can be practiced every day. We will also look at the lives of different saints who have modeled these virtues. We hope that this will help our St. Joseph Catholic School students to see that through these good actions they can express their faith and promote a school climate that is caring and welcoming.

We began the school year by introducing the theological virtue of faith. In learning about this virtue, we reflected on our belief in God and all that He has revealed to us. We talked about the opportunities we have to live our faith each day through the way we treat each other. We challenged our students look for opportunities to put their faith into action as students who show respect to fellow students, teachers, staff and family members. We asked them to be aware of the times when they can live their faith through kindness, patience and responsibility, and to support their classmates in living our faith.

Our saints this month,  St. Martha, St. Jerome and St. Augustine, inspire us to look for ways to grow in our faith and to share it with others through our unique gifts and talents. St. Martha showed us that sometimes our desire to be heard and recognized for our work gets in the way of really listening to Jesus and living in the present moment. St. Jerome used his talents to translate the Bible from ancient Hebrew to Latin, so that many people could read about God's love and learn more about their faith. This task took many years of dedicated work. The life of St. Augustine reminds us of the power of prayer to lead us back to our faith when we turn from God. He gave us a wonderful example of how deep dedication to our Faith can touch thos earound us and even those in years to come.

Take care,
Mrs. Henry

 “Be a Catholic: When you kneel before an altar, do it in such a way that others may be able to recognize that you know before whom you kneel.” ~~Saint Maximilian Kolbe

Reverence

This month we learn about the virtue of reverence, showing our deepest respect for God and all that God has created. We are called to think about the ways in which we can show this deep love for God at Mass, in prayer and in the ways that we respect all that God has made.This virtue reverence calls us to see the face of God in all those around us and we practice it by remembering that God made us all to be special and to be loved.

St. Hyacinth, St. Tarcisius and St. Margaret Clitherow all lived in very different times in history, and yet they all share a deep devotion to our faith. St. Hyacinth, a Domican priest who was born in a castle, fled 12th century marauders with the Eucharist and a heavy statue of the Blessed Mother to keep them from being desecrated. St. Tarcisius was a young boy who was martyred in the early days of the Roman Empire when he was caught on his way to take the Eucharist to Christian prisoners who were awaiting martyrdom. St. Margaret Clitherow was a noble woman in Elizabethan England who converted to Catholicism and raised her three children as Catholics. She refused to renounce her faith and was arrested and martyred for having Mass celebrated in her home.