Spotlight by: Olivia Dvorjak, Associate Director of Faith Formation at SJCC
As for everyone, the spring of 2020 was a semester that will never be forgotten. What started as a simple “two-week absence” morphed quickly into an unknown timeline.
Saint James Catholic School has a unique care for the 8th graders at the end of their last year. Many students have been together since pre-school or kindergarten, so the festivities are rightly impactful and memorable. From the Passion Play to the 8th grade lunch, from the class trip to field day, from the memory book to graduation, the traditions are unlike any other- of faith, excellence, and community. At the end of the 2019-2020 school year, we attempted to still incorporate some of these traditions through a “honk-out” for the 32 8th graders, but we know that it wasn’t the same. They were never able to wear their graduation gowns, weren’t able to perform the Passion of Jesus Christ, weren’t able to attend their trip to Nashville, yet, they handled this with patience, humility, and courage.
We speak often of the faith that is taught at Saint James, including the virtues that help young men and women become who they were created to be. We spoke a lot during that semester about fixing our eyes on the known: the Truth that God will never leave us or forsake us versus the unknown during that time: whether COVID would ever be in the past. Having a faith-rooted education and growing in virtues set these students apart, especially during this time. They created a video of encouragement to send to the student body + friends of Saint James during Holy Week that year. They turned to prayer, scripture, and their community and continued to trust in God. The timeline continued to change rapidly, and after each activity was taken away from them, they continued to persevere. These 8th graders had no choice but to excel in the virtue of magnanimity, or of being great of mind and heart. They grew in their nobility, which has continued to help them today as they prepare to graduate high school.
God has a unique plan for each one of us and the 8th grade Class of 2020 had a unique path their last semester at Saint James. Although they would never want to repeat that time, the unknown brought them closer to the core roots of Saint James Catholic School – faith, excellence, and community – and has prepared them for their lifetime as disciples of Jesus Christ, no matter where God’s plan takes them.
