The Providence of God

It is God’s work that we do, and God is present and active in our lives, our school and the world.

Let us not forget that the development of the work entrusted to us depends upon our acceptance of the inspirations of grace and our fidelity in seconding the designs of Divine Providence

[Moreau, Christian Education]

If we are to influence the future, to create a better time than ours, we must do what we do well. 

Even though we base our philosophy on faith, no one need fear that we will confine our teaching within narrow and unscientific boundaries. We will accept the discoveries of science without prejudice, and in a manner adapted to the needs of our times. We do not want our students to be ignorant of anything they should know. To this end, we shall avoid no sacrifice… We will always place education side by side with instruction; the mind will not be cultivated at the expense of the heart. While we prepare useful citizens for society, we shall likewise do our utmost to prepare citizens for heaven. 

[Moreau, Circular Letter 36 (1849)]

A Holy Cross Education combines information and formation to transform our students and empower them to make a difference. 

We will place education side by side with instruction. Instruction transmits particular knowledge and skills, while education (of the heart) fosters the values, attitudes and behaviors which will use that knowledge and those skills appropriately and productively. The quality which defines the students of a Holy Cross education heritage is the training of the hearts as well as the minds. True education is the formation of the hearts and transforming of values in people. 

[Moreau, Christian Education]

Through action within and outside the school we acknowledge our responsibility to those who are less fortunate than we. 

If at times you show preference to any young person, it should be the poor, those who have no one else to show them preference, those who have the least knowledge, those who lack skills and talent.... If you show them greater care and concern, it must be because their needs are greater and because it is only just to give more to those who have received less ... .seeing in all only the image of God imprinted within them like a sacred seal that you must preserve at all cost. 

[Moreau, Christian Education]

To be Catholic is to be universal. All of us are made in the image and likeness of God, and a Holy Cross school makes every attempt to be enriched by God’s many gifts. 

If two plants from the same family, apart from similar characteristics, have obvious differences, it is no less true that in the group of students given to you, there are no two students with the same mind and heart. It will do little good than to use the same procedures in working with every student. 

[Moreau, Christian Education]

The motto of the Congregation of Holy Cross is Spes Unica and it refers to the Cross as Our Only Hope. It is hope that empowers us. Even as we take up our Crosses, we “walk by Easter’s first light,” for we have the hope. 

…The face of every human being who suffers is for us the face of Jesus who mounted the cross to take the sting out of death. Ours must be the same cross and the same hope. ...But we do not grieve as men [and women] without hope, for Christ the Lord has risen to die no more. If we, like him, accept suffering in our discipleship, we will move without awkwardness among others who suffer. We must be men [and women] with hope to bring. There is no failure the Lord’s love cannot reverse, no humiliation he cannot exchange for blessing, no anger he cannot dissolve, no routine he cannot transfigure. ...The footsteps of those men who called us to walk in their company left deep prints, as of men carrying heavy burdens. But they did not trudge; they strode. For they had the hope.

[Holy Cross Constitutions, 8:114,118,122]

A Holy Cross school is community and family, an environment of collaboration, supported by a family spirit which touches and includes everyone associated with the school. Hospitality and compassion are extended to faculty, students, parents, competitors, guests, and friends. An enthusiastic school spirit is the norm. Family is the value most recognized and most talked about by students.

In order to influence the minds and hearts of the students, and consequently to lead in school, the teacher needs gentleness. . . You know that there is a well-known and very correct maxim: friendship is purchased by friendship and so we are made that we cannot resist a person who shows us true affection. The impressionable heart of students especially is subject to this law of the moral order; and they turn easily and joyfully towards those from whom they hope and expect reciprocity of love and confidence; these mutual outpourings of a heart towards the other are the immediate effects of charity and gentleness . . . So a teacher who is humble of heart, following the example of Jesus Christ without losing anything of authority, cuts out of it what could seem hard or severe to the students; reaches to their level; strives to persuade them that they all have in this teacher a tender and devoted friend.

[Moreau, Christian Education]

The task at hand is no smaller than to help our students become what or who God calls them to be. If one is focused on God’s will in your life, integrity is realized. 

While we prepare useful citizens for society, we shall likewise do our utmost to prepare citizens for heaven. . . .I have long believed that the world has a greater need for persons of value than for scholars. Education is the art of helping young people to completeness; for the Christian, this means education is helping a young person to be more like Christ, the model of all Christians. 

[Moreau, Christian Education]

Zeal sets our hearts on fire. If we want to do and be our best, we need to recognize society’s needs and offer our best; knowing we have gifts to share that can and will make a difference as we do God’s will. 

Zeal is the great desire to make God known, loved, and served, and thus to bring knowledge of salvation to others. ...(Those) who are animated by this virtue will fulfill their duties with eagerness, affection, courage and perseverance. …Teachers animated by such a spirit [of zeal] do not limit themselves to what the rule prescribes or their commitment as teachers demands; they have a thousand little techniques to get the weakest and least intelligent to improve, to provoke a noble spirit of emulation among all; they know how to maintain silence, application, order and cleanliness without resorting to punishment, or reprimands.

[Moreau, Christian Education]