This past week we celebrated the class of 2023 at their graduation. As the year comes to an end, this is just one of many things we celebrate. Mrs. Hess always helps us see the community that we are part of and shared the following words at the end of the graduation ceremony:
"As many of you know, we are in the midst of a joyful, yet poignant goodbye to Mrs. Laurie Macan as she retires from 36 years of teaching Kindergarten at Sacred Heart. It is like we do not know how to say goodbye because who she is so deeply ingrained in who we are. She has shown this community great love and dedication. It is not a goodbye we only speak with our lips, it is goodbye our heart tries to make.
We kind of feel the same way about the 22 families that we say an official goodbye to tonight. These are families who have their last or only Sacred Heart Student Graduating tonight. These are families who, like Mrs. Macan, are deeply rooted in this community. They define who we are. For example…
In 1985, when Gene and Helen McGraw celebrated their youngest McGraw child, Melissa McGraw, as a Sacred Heart graduate, who would have dreamed that 38 years later Melissa McGraw Hornback would be in the audience watching her own youngest child graduate from the same Sacred Heart family.
In 1958, when Michael Mitchell entered Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic School as a 5th grader during its inaugural year, no one could have predicted one day, 65 years later, he would be celebrating with his daughter, Michelle Mitchell Rogers as his granddaughter Bryn Rogers would be graduating from her grandfather’s alma mater.
Deep roots of community. Deeper roots of faith.
Among the goodbyes that classmates say to one another and to their teachers, there is a special goodbye that remains.
As a parent, choosing Sacred Heart is not a choice for education- it is a choice to raise your students in a community. There is an implied trust that a parent gives when they exchange the hand that holds their child closely for the hand of a kindergarten teacher. But as I know well, we, as parents, also join hands and make an unspoken promise to stand beside one another through triumphs and tragedies.
Our graduation ceremony ends in the church , at the foot of the Cross in the deep recognition that we are all called by Christ- only He has the power to make strangers act as a family. In addition to honoring the graduates, we honor each of our graduating families tonight. When your name is called, please, parents, make your way to the front to receive a gift and the greatest gift of all, the acknowledgment of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass being offered for our intentions in August as your child starts a new journey."
It is this that makes Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic School such a special place. As we celebrate the end of the school year, let us pray for those who touched our lives through this community.
Rooted in Christ,
Kathy Rhodes