Family, May 2023

By Terry Lee

During the last school year, the schools in the Moreau Province have been celebrating the Holy Cross theme of Being Family. Each year, one of the four themes—Building Respect, Educating Hearts & Minds, Being Family, and Bringing Hope—is used to ground the school community in an aspect of Holy Cross mission and give our students, faculty, staff and board members a chance to “go deep” in the theme and use it to inform our work, our goals, and our ongoing formation in mission.

These four themes were developed in 2003 after discussions among the principals of the schools of the former South-West Province and several Holy Cross Brothers about how we could further educate our school communities in mission, with a particular emphasis on student formation. Given there are four years of high school, we chose what we thought were the four most important themes in the Holy Cross educational mission. We believed that if we could create new and innovative ways to educate our school communities about these themes, then challenge our school leaders, teachers, and students to personally take up the themes and incorporate them into their activities, retreats, programs, and events—after four years our students would have a wealth of information and formative experiences that would leave a lasting and enduring legacy with them of what it means to be a student in a Holy Cross school.?

In the last 20 years, we have cycled through the themes almost five times—next year we will celebrate Bringing Hope, and after that begin a new cycle with Building Respect in 2025. So many students—now alumni—over those last 20 years remember how these themes played a role in their high school years, and, when I happen to meet up with them and quiz them in Holy Cross mission, they usually can name at least one of those themes that has made an impact on how they live their life. That is a testament to the educators in our classrooms who took up the call to find meaningful and enduring ways to incorporate the four themes into their classrooms.

In my role working with the eleven schools in the Moreau Province, and Saint Edward’s University, I saw so many examples this year of how we celebrate Family. A few weeks ago, I had the honor to attend the Holy Cross Senior Pinning Ceremony at Saint Edward’s University. This annual tradition celebrates SEU seniors who also graduated from a Holy Cross high school, and they are presented with a pin engraved with the Cross & Anchors and the words “Spes Unica,” the seal and the motto of the Congregation of Holy Cross. These seniors joined the family of Holy Cross when they entered their elementary or high schools, and have continued their Holy Cross education at SEU. Several Brothers of Holy Cross attended, celebrating this milestone with the seniors, along with SEU staff, friends, and family.?

I was able to celebrate Evan Mao SEU ’23 MCHS ’19, a graduate at my former school, Moreau Catholic High School. Being with Evan and the other Holy Cross students really brought the theme of Being Family home to me. These wonderful young women and men, from schools in the Midwest and Moreau Provinces, as well as from Holy Cross schools in Chile and Brazil, have been “in the family” for many years. They speak the language of Holy Cross and understand in a special way why this theme of Being Family is so important: Blessed Father Moreau modeled the Congregation after the Holy Family—Jesus (priests), Mary (sisters) and Joseph (brothers); their own families are the center of their lives; their Holy Cross school families have shaped their learning, strengthened their faith, informed their career paths, and most importantly, given them a “family of friends” that will last a lifetime. The presence of the Holy Cross Brothers on campus at SEU during their college years and at the pinning ceremony were reminders to them that they are known and loved, and are cherished members of the larger Holy Cross family.

Perhaps you can reflect on how you saw the theme of Being Family in action this past year?

Terry Lee is the Director of School Sponsorship for the Moreau Province of the Congregation of Holy Cross. Previously, he spent 23 years as an educator and administrator at Moreau Catholic High School in Hayward, CA.