Bridging the gaps in our lives with Catholic education

Catholic education offers a way of bridging religious and secular ways of looking at the world, Killaloe’s Bishop Fintan Monahan has said.

Speaking in St Flannan’s College, Ennis, this week, Bishop Monahan launched Catholic Schools Week by calling to mind the motto of Cistercian College, Roscrea, which can be loosely translated, he said, as “while our minds soar to the heavens, we keep our feet firmly planted on the ground”.

“The tension between religion and matters secular is sometimes described as a choice between Pie in the Sky or Jam where I am,” he said, continuing: “Catholic Education allow us bridge this gap … and get the broader picture that educates the total person.”

The theme of Catholic Schools Week, the bishop said, is “the lighting of that fire of God’s love and life within us”, with it being especially pertinent in this year when Ireland hosts the World Meeting of Families that the nature of Catholic education be considered in a way that explores the links between Catholic schools, homes, parishes, and the wider world.

Describing Catholic Church as a family in its own right, Dr Monahan looked forward to Ash Wednesday when Catholics will visibly wear a sign of sign of their Faith.

“The Ashes mark us out as a Tribe, a family of faith, a family of hope, a family of believers in a God who loves us and wishes that we would be saved,” he said, asking students to consider what is the holistic ‘ethos’ of Catholic education.

“There is a great image in the Prophet Ezekiel where he talks of giving flesh and spirit to dry bones,” he said. “Catholic Education gives us that distinctive spirit, that selfless motivation and drive to go the ‘extra mile’ to educate the total person, to be part of a selfless tribe or family that would do anything for each other.”

Catholic Education, he said, gives us that rounded broader approach of being attentive to the whole person: “spiritual, moral, intellectual, physical, practical”.