Message to the Campus Community: Spring 2021

2021年1月29日 BK LI

I want to welcome all our students, 教师 and staff back for the spring semester. Although this semester will resemble our fall semester in some ways, there is an important difference — this spring marks the beginning of a new and more hopeful period for St. 约瑟的 College, and for our nation.

去年12月, Pope Francis proclaimed that this year will be dedicated to Saint 约瑟夫, Patron of the Universal Church. His reasons for doing this were quite profound and grew out of the Holy Father’s desire to speak out amid the pandemic in recognition of how “our lives are woven together and sustained by ordinary people, 经常被忽视的人. People who do not appear in newspaper and magazine headlines, or on the latest television shows, yet in these very days are surely shaping the decisive events of our history. 医生, 护士, storekeepers and supermarket workers, 清洁人员, 护理人员, 运输工人, men and women working to provide essential services and public safety.” Pope Francis could have just as easily included all of you in this list of important people — students, 教师, staff — those who have made the heroic decision to learn, 即使是在危机时刻, and those who provide the essential services necessary for this process to move forward.

But why honor Saint 约瑟夫 in particular? Pope Francis offers many compelling reasons, but the one which struck me the most was that Saint 约瑟夫 was not just a tender mentor and loving father, but also someone who worked in the background, 安静而有效, to provide the necessary support and loving environment for his family. 这样做的时候, he provided a model of creative courage of how to endure hardship, and of how to rise above any crisis. 从某种意义上说，圣. 约瑟的 College is like a parent to all of us — providing the environment we all need to deal with the current crisis, and preparing us all for a brighter future. 

We welcome and encourage all faiths at St. 约瑟的, 而是对所有人开放, the desire for a sense of unity and reconciliation through inclusive love, is an approach which comes directly from our founders, 圣修女会. 约瑟夫. 我很自豪地说，圣. 约瑟的 College will also be a part of this year-long celebration of the spirit of Saint 约瑟夫, and we will be creating a special webpage and other materials to highlight the amazing work and success, and the impressive dedication of our students, 教师, 教职员及校友. 事实上, we have already started down this path, with several stories on mentorship and how critical mentorship can be in times like these.

I know that this has been a challenging year for all, and that our students and 教师 have had some unique challenges. Learning, sometimes in isolation, sometimes during illness, is not always easy. Teaching virtually, when one is accustomed to the physical classroom, requires immense effort. It is natural to feel overwhelmed given these circumstances, but I assure all of you that St. 约瑟夫在这里等你, 我们将与你们同在, not only throughout this unique time in your lives, 但除了.

Although we are in the dark days of winter, I know that each day brings us closer to the time when we can, 作为一个社区, once again celebrate the success of our students, the brilliance of our 教师 and the amazing dedication of our staff members. I think that Pope Francis sums up my own feelings best when he said, “If the first stage of all true interior healing is to accept our personal history and embrace even the things in life that we did not choose, we must now add another important element: creative courage. This emerges especially in the way we deal with difficulties. In the face of difficulty, we can either give up and walk away, or somehow engage with it. At times, difficulties bring out resources we did not even think we had.”

I am convinced that you have all the creative courage necessary to succeed in your goals this year, 在未来的岁月里. My heartfelt congratulations to our new students, and an equally heartfelt welcome back to all of our returning students, our 教师 members and our staff members.