Who We Are

Written by Paul Donovan

I had a hard time deciding what to write for this edition of the Newsletter.  There have been so many things this year that would be worthy of an article - the robotics championship, academic changes, our successes in the world of sports, in the Arts and Sciences – all of these are wonderful aspects of our school life which help us to understand what makes this school great.  But what I decided to write about is more foundational than any of those things.

As I reflect on my first year as principal have had conversations with students, parents and teachers throughout the year have challenged me to look more closely at our raison d’être. On our application form we ask parents to identify their primary reasons for choosing Loyola.  Among the choices are such things as athletics, academics and discipline, each of which is an important part of the school, but on its own, or even in combination, does not adequately express why we exist as a school.

“Loyola is a Catholic Jesuit school for boys.”  So, what does this mean? Well, first and foremost it assumes a particular understanding of the human person and of the goal of human existence.  Each and every person is created in the “image and likeness” of God and has his or her existence through God’s life-giving will.  Each person is created for a reason; a purpose in God’s plan for humanity and each is dearly loved by the One who made him.  Because of this divine origin, we have a dignity and a value that supercedes all other aspects of our person.  It means that intelligence, athletic or artistic ability, personality, appearance or any other personal attribute cannot be the measure of a person; value is deeper than these things and is inherent in our humanity and is expressed most clearly in the choice to love.  So what do we as a school community honour and value?

Abilities are God-given gifts for which we can claim no credit; people are born with varying degrees of ability.  Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam - For the Greater Glory of God - has been a motto of the Jesuits and Jesuit schools since the time of Ignatius. AMDG acknowledges that our gifts come from God and when we use them well the honour and recognition belong to the author of the gift; we honour God by using the gifts He gave us.

Effort, on the other hand, is what we do with the ability we have been given.  Is a student whose ability allows him to achieve high marks without much effort more deserving of honour than the student who needs to work very hard in order to achieve a passing grade?  Who has done more with the gifts he was given? Where are our values? Our ideal is, as John Paul II said, to “become what we are,” and what we hope for our students is that they endeavour to discover the purpose and meaning of their lives and strive with all their heart, soul, mind and strength to live that purpose.  This would certainly be a more accurate reflection of the values and ideals we stand for as a school.
As parents and as a school we need to reflect on how well we promote these ideals.  Certainly we should celebrate ability and talent but we can’t attach a person’s value to them.  We need to ask ourselves, “do we honour the choices and efforts that the students make or only the results?”  Certainly results are the easiest thing to measure, but whoever said that the formation of children should be easy?