30Jan

How I came to Catholic education

Dear Families,


I often tell the story of how God's grace brought me to Catholic education. I can assure you it was not my plan. I vividly recall feeling a lack of fervor when selecting Saint Thomas Aquinas to be my patron saint at Confirmation. I merely attended a high school named after the angelic doctor, and it wasn't until I encountered his writings at Providence College that I became infatuated with his powerful yet humble intellect.

Little did I know that even when I wasn't acting intentionally, God was.


Saint Thomas' captivating use of natural reason is what ultimately turned my faith o...


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26Jan

CSW 19': Celebrating Catholic Education

Beginning in 1974, Catholic Schools' Week has long been the annual celebration of Catholic education in the United States. Tracing our roots to such primary figures as St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, St. John Neumann, and more; we are grateful to the contributions of so many who have worked hard and sacrificed to make Catholic schooling a possible choice for families.

Catholic Schools' Week is a unique opportunity to appreciate what we have at Mount Royal Academy: a personalized, prayerful, and purposeful pathway to sound education: education of the mind, body, and soul.  Our students have opportuni...

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16Jan

#WhyWeMarch

“A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” Jn 10:10 

As our school prepares to journey once again to the nation’s capital for the 46th annual March for Life, it is appropriate to reflect on its nature and purpose. Is it a protest, a rally, a memorial, or a witness? In fact, it is all of these things. It is a protest against injustice, a rally around the most vulnerable among us, a memorial to the victims of a cold rationality bereft of God’s grace, and a witness to the truth about life. In the face of a culture inc...

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10Jan

Measuring Success

Test scores can indicate success but certainly do not define it. We measure success on a different plane. Nevertheless, it is good practice to utilize the assessments that are widely accepted in order to gauge relative academic achievement. As the results below bear out, our students generally achieve above average results.

CollegeBoard Assessment Data

...
12th Grade
ERW
Math
Total
MRA Mean Score
576
493

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10Jan

Never Backwards, Always Forwards

Dear Families,

I hope your family is enjoying the Christmas season. I always savor the opportunity to just sit with my children. Jubilee and I recently took up playing the board game "Life", the merits of which I question on some level: money is not the measure of success. I do see the value in learning how to count, but perhaps the greatest value is just watching my daughter smile next to me. 

We are always present and conversing with the students. Just this week, one student curiously commented on my habit of reading between the lines and analyzing the implications of certain lines of think...

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07Dec

Advent: Season of Hope

Dear Families,

The Advent season is upon us, full of hope and anticipation. Anticipation of Christ’s birth. Hope for the world. It is a time full of small, quiet joys: the sounds of carols, the smell of evergreen, the glimmer of candles. It is only fitting that our virtue of the month is hope. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (no. 1817-1818, 1820) defines hope as the virtue by which we desire, “Eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit… Buoyed by hope, man is preserved from sel...

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30Nov

Advent: Season of Preparation

Dear Families,

Our liturgical calendar reflects the rhythm of our universal human experience. In these closing weeks of Ordinary time, the lectionary (daily Mass and Sunday readings) direct our attention to what is commonly conceived to be the “end times”. These apocalyptic messages are not intended to secretly reveal the state of things before God returns; instead, they reveal (apokaluptein, Greek, “uncover”, “reveal”) the profound mystery that happens next in our calendar: the Incarnation.

My small mind likes to reduce important lessons to a simple phrase: we are only ready for the end if we...

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29Nov

1st Quarter Academic Honors 2018-2019

To receive Honor Roll recognition, eligible students must achieve straight A’s for the Headmaster’s List, no less than a B+ for the High Honors List, or no less than a B for the Honors List. In total, fifty-seven students received academic awards. Read More
16Nov

Grateful for Grandparents and Veterans

Dear Families,

Last Friday we held our annual Veterans' Day/Grandparents’ Day celebration. It was a wonderful and inspiring morning of fitting tributes to those who have done so much to form, inspire, and care for our students in so many ways.

Our Veterans left home and safety to protect our country. They risked life and limb; some making the ultimate sacrifice-- giving their lives to preserve our freedom. We were grateful to have these living examples of self-sacrifice join us at school. To demonstrate for our students that service takes many forms and talents. These Veterans embody the less...

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08Nov

Restoring Interpersonal Communication

Dear Families,

We had a solid turnout last evening at the first parent forum of the year. I also received several emails from parents indicating they regretted the inability to attend. We discussed the excerpts from Saint John Paul II shared in previous newsletters. Our context was setup by closely examining empirical data from Jean Twenge. Here are a few takeaways from our discussion:

  1. Technology - and not just the exploding use of personal mobile devices - has triggered a sustained pattern of increased levels of self-reported stress by adolescents.
  2. It may not be enough to merely remove te...
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